Re-ringing a D-200's 20hp K-532

[pacer 3,160]

I recently bought a non running D-200 because it seemed to be pretty original with decent tires and what appeared to be a good 48" deck, knowing it was a gamble (and the price wasnt that great) Got her home and immediately ripped all the rotten fuel stuff out and mounted a temporary tank.Thing started up right away and sounded great...but.... after 2-3 minutes here comes the smoke! HEAVY smoke! out of the right cylinder. So I get it out of the shop and find the Sundstrand is working great, engage the deck and cut grass for 10-15 minutes and the thing runs great with good power, but its smoking bad. I put fresh oil in hoping rings had just stuck and with clean oil maybe would clear up - nope, wasnt gonna happen.

I begin to look into rebuilding it (and yes I had heard some of the tales of scarce parts) Despite hearing Brian Miller at A-1 Miller was a bit difficult to contact I tried there first since he supposedly has the necessary parts for a build - minus connecting rods! Well, apparently the stories are true, I couldnt get a peep out of anybody there. During my, seemingly hours of, digging into research on the "Big Three" - K482, K532, &K582 I found that the piston/rings for a K321 would interchange with the 532 but that was all - no gaskets.

When I wasnt prowling the web for info I went ahead and pulled my engine, finding that I had a .020 bore and apparently? when assembled after boring, the rings on that right cylinder were stacked with the gaps facing down causing oil to get by there?? at least that was all I could see out of place. The cylinder walls were beautiful and the crank also, The right rod had a slight stripe right down the center that made me a bit nervous.

Going back to the web (ebay) I found one of the suppliers of the overhaul 'kits' offered standard K-321 3 3/8" pistons/rings and also .020 & .030 over, I order a pair of those. Still needed head gaskets, pan gasket and exhaust gaskets. Parts Tree actually had the exhaust and pan gaskets, and a reasonable price! I kept trying different search wording to locate head gaskets and finally hit on a guy that had 10 of them at $12 apiece! I jumped on them! Was also continually prowling for a connecting rod and a used one finally popped up for bid - after 5 days of anxiously waiting,  got it for $36 I now had all the parts!!

So fellas If you got a broke big twin, just maybe you too can find parts. The pistons/rings for a K-301 12hp are apparently a match for the K-482 18hp, and a connecting rod for any of the 'Big 3" will interchange. (the one I got was out of a JD 582)

I got it back running yesterday and after about an hour of run time everything seems to be OK -- no smoke!!  I had plenty of time waiting to round up the parts so I did a bit of clean and paint on the engine. I even rigged up a pretty nice set of 'stacks' for it! End result was that I feel a lot better about my purchase now, it seems to be a really nice tractor.

[Ed Kennell 35,968]

Now, that looks like a horse that's ready to work.

[Kelsey 55]

Heck Yeah! That's a nice tractor just as it is.

[pfrederi 17,175]

Great Job!!!

[WHX?? 46,966]

Nice....New seat and she would be a worker!

[bmsgaffer 2,043]

That thing looks mean just as it sits. Bada$$.

Just need some light blue flames shootin up from the stacks when running WOT...

[Niagara D 11]

Did you replace the mufflers? I am needing to look into replacement mufflers for my d's

[Terry M-(Moderator) 2,128]

I have to agree.....That thing looks Tough!!!!!

Edited July 22, 2015 by Terry M

[JackC 616]

That horse looks ready for the next Mad Maxx movie.