Kohler Twin

[Gregor 4,838]

It seems there can be many perils to rebuilding an engine. Some come from ignorance. These can usually be overcome by gaining knowledge through experience. Others from lack of the proper tools. It takes several specialty tools to rebuild an engine. This one usually takes money, or a good friend with tools. Another one is finding parts. So far I have been lucky in procuring the parts I have needed for all my rebuilds. This peril also takes $$$. Many times it's more money than the project is worth, but you can't put a price on a good time. Then there are the completely unforeseen perils. Whoda thunk? I was inspecting the inside of my MV16 just to have a look, and found this guy.

A stink bug deep inside the bowels of my crankcase. If you don't have stink bugs in your area, let me tell you they are a pain in the   They have been especially bad this year for some reason. They don't bite, or do any real harm, they are just pests. I don't know if he could have caused any harm to my engine, but I just didn't want him in there. With some prodding from a long screwdriver, I got him to exit through the cylinder hole in the block.

He won't be coming back into my engine, or anyone else's for that matter. Sometimes there are many perils to rebuilding an engine. You just can't avoid all of them it seems.

[Handy Don 10,567]

1 hour ago, Gregor said:

Sometimes there are many perils to rebuilding an engine. You just can't avoid all of them it seems.

Yep, that stinkbug found out about peril!

[Gregor 4,838]

I didn't get much done on the MV16 yesterday. Spent a good part of the day in the "big city" with Mrs. Gregor. While there I went to Motion Industries and picked up 4 seals for the motor. There was room in the bosses, so I put 2 seals on top, and 2 on the bottom. More is better, right?  I have the pistons and jugs installed, and the valves set, and lapped in.

While on the subject of lapping valves, I have a ?. I have seen on youtube where guys have used a drill to lap in valves rather than a conventional lapping tool. I have never done this, but wondering what others think of this practice. Any thoughts?

I also have the stator installed. This is one I rewound several months ago. We'll see if I did it right. I'm not sure how you are suppose to torque the jug to block nuts. Obviously, you cannot get a socket on theses nuts, and many of them, you cannot get a crows foot wrench on either. Maybe there is a special tool designed for this. If there is, I don't have it. I simply reverted to the old German torque value of GUTTE-N-TITE, with my longest 1/2" wrench.

This is the gasket set I ordered from Little Red Barn. I know these sets are made up to accommodate different motors.

There are 19 various gaskets and seals in this set. The ones I have outlined in red, are not used on this motor.  Seems to me, that's a lot of things to have to buy, simply to throw away.

We'll see how far I get today. I think there are some "honey do" jobs on my wifes list. Maybe it will fire up by the end of the day. Then again, maybe it will NEVER fire up.

[Gregor 4,838]

My wife decided we needed to make another trip to the big city today, so I was away for several hours, and no one put this thing back together for me while I was gone. why. But here it is, such as it is. You can see a temporary push button kill switch on the left.. The green wire is DCV to battery. According to the spec # this motor was built for a Cub Cadet. There were a couple of shields I left off, that I believe were unique to that tractor. It has all the necessary tins needed for cooling.

If I were going to rebuild one of these for use, I would not order the kits available. I would order quality gaskets, and rings from who ever had them. I know it would cost more, but I believe in the end, it would be worth it. It was obvious these were cheap gaskets, and the rings looked as though they had been sitting around for years. After struggling with the valve springs for an inordinate amount of time, I ordered 2 new valve spring compressors. The cheap ones are just too flimsy, and tend to let go at the worst time. I hope the new ones are better.

Kohler MV16 First Run

 

I don't have a throttle, or choke cable hooked up yet, and it's sometimes hard to be camera man, and throttle man both. I think the carb still need some adjustment. but that will wait until tomorrow. It smoked quite a bit when I first started it, but I wasn't surprised, given the amount of oil I used assembling it. At least I know it will run. That's a good feeling.

 

[Gregor 4,838]

So, I wasn't real happy with the way this motor was running, but it was running, so I let it go until this morning. Checked a lot of things, did a lot of things. I noticed the exhaust on the left cylinder was HOT, while the exhaust on the right cylinder, was just warm. If you watched the video, it is running on 1 cylinder. I can pull the plug wire on the right, and it makes no difference. Long story short, the right plug has spark, but it's very weak compared to the left. They both operate off of the same coil, so I am thinking it has to be a bad plug wire. I have replaced plug wires before in coils, but I wanted to make sure I could do it to this coil. The one on the right needs to be changed if possible. Can I simply pull it out, and stick another in it's place, like I have done in the past, on single cylinder engines?  Thanks  Greg  An after thought. Is it possible for a coil to deliver good spark to one side, and not the other?

Edited October 21, 2021 by Gregor

[Gregor 4,838]

Success !   It's amazing the difference that 2nd cylinder makes on a twin cylinder engine. Starts much easier, runs smoother. I did a lot of tinkering on different things, but I won't bore you with all that. I will tell you, I rigged it up so the spark plug wire from the left side, went to the right, and the right to the left.  ( I wasn't sure this could even be done, but it turns out, you can) Same problem, right side won't fire. That tells me it's probably a fuel issue. I did check compression yesterday and it was 92 right side, left side 90. Both cylinders are served by the same carburetor, and intake manifold, so how is that possible? At this point I was lost. I called my small engine guy to pick his brain. He suggested I pull the intake, and check for some kind of blockage. I didn't know how anything could get in there, but I had nothing to lose but time. I have lots of time. I pulled the bolts and discovered something. Kind-a hate to admit I did this,  but it might save someone else a headache someday. While taking the bolts out of the right side, I found I had missed one of the holes in the intake gasket, and it was caddy-wompus over to the side. The cylinder was simply sucking air through the void it left. Corrected it, fired it up, and it's now running on 2 cylinders. I learn something new every time I rebuild another engine. This time it was, DON'T DO ANYTHING STUPID !  But in my defense, the intakes gaskets are not easy to see.

 

If I had plans for this motor, and was going to use it, I would probably order new quality intake, exhaust, and head gaskets.  Some day I might.

 

On the down side, I do not have 12 VDC from my regulator. I will have to check ACV from stator. Maybe my stator re-winding job failed.

 

Kohler MV 16-2

[Handy Don 10,567]

1 minute ago, Gregor said:

Success !   It's amazing the difference that 2nd cylinder makes on a twin cylinder engine.

Uh...yeah! 

I would have guessed that both plugs fire at the same time, but via two separate windings in the magneto. Your test still doesn't make that clear, but if they are separate and one was bad, the problem would have followed the "bad" wire. Good diagnosing!

My think new mantra is "don't drop the nut/bolt/screw/washer, Don, 'cause you'll spend 10 minutes trying to find out where it went"!

[Gregor 4,838]

@pfrederi I was wondering if you have this same spring on your M18. It is on the throttle linkage. I didn't find it on the parts breakdown, so it may be unique to the MV series, or the Cub Cadet application. I have included several pics, so you can get an idea of where it is located. These are pics I took before disassembly. One end of the spring hooks into the lever beside it, as you can see.  The other end, is what I am wondering about. Mine is simply resting against the intake manifold, but I don't know if that is right.

The last pic, is how it sits now. At no throttle, (idle) there is no tension on it at all.

I appreciate any light you can shine on this. Thanks   Greg

 

 

I did finally find it in the parts breakdown. It is part # 52 089 08S. I do not see it in the breakdown for the M18.

Edited October 21, 2021 by Gregor

[Gregor 4,838]

20 hours ago, Gregor said:

I would probably order new quality intake, exhaust, and head gaskets.  Some day I might.

 

Today was the day. It came sooner than I thought. I ordered from OPE engines. I have never ordered from them before, Thought I would check them out and see the quality of parts I get.

[Jeff-C175 7,195]

On 10/19/2021 at 5:38 AM, Gregor said:

Stink bug...

 

I opened an electrical box yesterday and there was one inside.  No idea how it got in there, no openings a flea could fit through!  I think they have super powers and can transport through solid metal!

[pfrederi 17,129]

18 hours ago, Gregor said:

@pfrederi I was wondering if you have this same spring on your M18. It is on the throttle linkage. I didn't find it on the parts breakdown, so it may be unique to the MV series, or the Cub Cadet application. I have included several pics, so you can get an idea of where it is located. These are pics I took before disassembly. One end of the spring hooks into the lever beside it, as you can see.  The other end, is what I am wondering about. Mine is simply resting against the intake manifold, but I don't know if that is right.

The last pic, is how it sits now. At no throttle, (idle) there is no tension on it at all.

I appreciate any light you can shine on this. Thanks   Greg

 

 

Must be Vertical unique part.  This is Horizontal M18

 

 

[Gregor 4,838]

Thank You.  That's a little different set  up than what I have on the vertical. I am having trouble with the throttle. It will sit and idle just fine. I can throttle up a bit to a higher RPM, but once I reach a certain point, it takes off like a rocket. It's like I go over center on something, and the throttle open all the way. I took a lot of pics, before disassembly, and I'm 99% sure I have it back the way it was, but it's just not working quite right. I never did remove the governor assembly out of the block.Since I just bought the bare motor, I'm not quite sure just how, and where the throttle control cable was hooked up originally. again.  Greg

[Gregor 4,838]

I tore the MV16 down again, for several reasons. I ordered new KOHLER gaskets, from OPE engines. They are MUCH better quality than what I received in the kit I bought. I think I am done buying kits. I bought head, intake, and  exhaust gaskets. I also bought new seals for the intake valves. I also wanted to find out why my stator was not putting out. It seems I was less than careful routing the wires under the flywheel. I repaired the damage to a wire and check the stator again. I have a good reading through the stator. I'll try it again. Also, in order to re-torque (tighten) the jug to block bolts after a few hours run time, you have to remove the starter and flywheel. I have not received the new seals for the intake valves yet. Hopefully tomorrow,

[Gregor 4,838]

The new gaskets I received from OPE were better than I got in the kit, but they were still just paper and fiber. No fire ring. I still have the old original gaskets I took off. They are metal. I cleaned them up the same way you would clean up a head on a granite tile with 1000 grit paper. The new gasket is on the bottom in the pic. I am considering using the original gaskets. Is that a bad idea?

[Jeff-C175 7,195]

4 hours ago, Gregor said:

Is that a bad idea?

 

I think so, IMHO.

 

The metal gaskets are designed to crush and conform when you torque them.

 

Once crushed you probably should not re-use them...