It's a Saturday morning here in early January 2010 and absolutely freezing outside. Suddenly I realize that in the corner of my garage I have a blown Ten horse Kohler engine that sooner or later I will need to determine if it's worth the effort & cost to rebuild.
I acquired this engine in the summer of 2009. I wasn't looking for an engine or anything else in particular when I spotted an ad for a Kohler engine that was running but after warmup would pump out enough smoke to cause a fog alert in two counties. I thought this could be a nice project at some point in time, and since I have a JD 110 tractor with a 10 horse engine of unknown condition in it, this blown engine could come in handy as a potential parts donor.
The owner of the engine stated that the engine was complete with a strong starting motor, coil, fuel pump & ignition system. So for a sum of $60 bucks & a two hour drive I decided to pick it up. I told myself that even if it was beyond repair, the starting motor, fuel pump & ignition parts were well worth more than the purchase price.
When I got it to my shop, the first thing I did was to build a dolly for it out of some scrap 4 X 4's so I could roll it round without breaking my back. It probably weighs in at around 150 pounds or so. After building the Dolly, my plan was to hook up a gas tank & battery to it & start her up to see what I could learn about the condition it was in. Unfortunately, after I returned from a brief vacation, & got all the outdoor pre winter tasks taken care of, the weather had turned really cold along with my desire to stand on a cold concrete floor to do any testing at all.
Maybe my postponing this project was a good thing. Because it has given me the time to think about how I should go about testing & evaluating the condition of this little gem. And then maybe in the Spring I will have enough time to tinker with it. I say "maybe" because as with all my plans, the one thing I can't control is what situations will come up that need more immediate attention. I always have to remind myself that my John Deere interests are my pass time & hobby. So unfortunately there are many delays to contend with.
How would YOU do it
I must confess that I'm no authority when it comes to engine rebuilding, so I thought why not ask the people that are! If you click on the TRACTOR FORUM button to your left & go to the Jerrys Deere Barn forum, you will see a forum called "HOW TO DO IT". If you have any thoughts or ideas on what might be wrong with this engine or how YOU would go step by step to evaluate it, I would like to hear about it. Just post your ideas & thoughts in the "HOW TO DO IT" section of the form. You need to be a member of the forum before you can post into the forum. The forum is FREE & it's a one time sign up. See the forum & the Home page for information on joining.
If I get enough responses & information I may be able to put together an article on How to test & Evaluate an engine Before the rebuild process. Or if YOU would like to write an article on the subject & submit it for publication on Jerrys Deere Barn, please send it to us. See the Library index page on how to do that. I hope to hear from you soon!
