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slufoot733

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slufoot733

I have a 1978 Wheel Horse D200 that my father bought new in '78. It has a twin cylinder Kohler K532 20 hp engine. This tractor is a beast. It's heavy and powerful but the engine has always been problematic.

A couple weeks ago I was using it to clear the snow from my driveway (it has a 48" snow thrower up front). It was running pretty good, started right up. After a 10 minute warmup I started clearing the snow. Sometime during the session I thought I heard something unusual but couldn't put my finger on the sound. I figured it was a chunk of hard snow or ice that went through the auger. But I did notice the engine seemed to be 'shuttering' a bit.
Today I attempted to start it up just to exercise the engine a bit. No go, would not start. I pulled the plugs and turned it over. One cylinder was pumping air/fuel out the plug hole. The other cylinder was not. I placed my thumb on each plug hole and found I have NO compression in one cylinder! Absolutely none.
My suspicion is......1) broken valve spring leaving a valve wide open, or 2) broken connecting rod which means the piston is not moving. The broken valve spring, though not a simple fix, is doable. If the connecting rod is broken then I believe my D is dead. The K532 engine is a bear to work on, parts are available but expensive, and I don't think I am up to a complete engine rebuild anymore. Hey, for a 43 year old machine I guess I can't complain too much. Not going to mess with till spring. I'll pull the head from the bad cylinder and see what's going on in there. Then I will make a decision.
 
I am wondering though, if the connecting rod has failed can the engine still turn over? The starter engages and turns the engine as usual. The other cylinder even tries to fire on occasion. 
 
Stay safe everyone.
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Pullstart

Depending on where the rod broke, you might be looking at a simple fix, or a broken jug at the bottom.  Pulling it apart is the only way to know.  Good luck!

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953 nut
10 hours ago, slufoot733 said:

Sometime during the session I thought I heard something unusual but couldn't put my finger on the sound. I figured it was a chunk of hard snow or ice that went through the auger. But I did notice the engine seemed to be 'shuttering' a bit

You may be right about the valve spring/bad valve. I think a broken connecting rod would be a bit more dramatic.   Good luck.

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Achto
11 hours ago, slufoot733 said:

I am wondering though, if the connecting rod has failed can the engine still turn over? The starter engages and turns the engine as usual. The other cylinder even tries to fire on occasion. 

 

Depending on where the rod breaks and the position of the piston at the time of failure, it will turn over and could even run on one cylinder. Briggs Vanguard's are well known for throwing rods and I have seen them run on one cylinder several times. Usually with the only complaint being low power.

 

Like stated above you will have to do a tear down to determine what happened to your engine.

 

If you do have to do a rebuild, you could use after market parts to keep the price down.

 

 

Edited by Achto

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pacer

This does sound a bit odd, I havent ever had an engine do ANY thing like you describe.... But, I think I'd make a guess at the valve issue also.

You mentioned parts for the big twins (18 & 20hp) and its not bad for pistons, valves, and gaskets, but connecting rods/cranks:eek: they can be a real problem!! 

I went into my 532 couple yrs ago as it was beginning to smoke a bit and I wanted to get into it before it just got worse. As I mentioned I found pistons/rings, valves and gaskets no prob ... but... on reassembly when torqueing the rods one stripped out the threads. I prowled ebay for some 6 weeks before I finally found a good used one.

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