old wheel horse

[puttputt]

Was out at the cabin so had a look at the Kohler K341. It will be a drop in. The pto shaft portion is the same length and diameter. Took the head and oil pan off the K341. Decided to pop the piston out. Looks like this engine has seen very little use. It is still standard and everything looks to be in very good shape. No scratches or scuffing to the cylinder walls and the valves and seats are very nice. So I will paint the engine red and throw in a set of rings. This engine has the balance gears and from what I've read most say to leave them out on reassembly so still have to decide on that.

[puttputt]

Just a question out there to any one maybe reading this. On this old Wheel Horse, the engine is bolted directly to the angle iron frame. Would it be an idea to put a piece of inner tube between the engine and frame to possibly dampen vibration? Inner tube shouldn't create a height problem when tightened down. Or not necessary?

[JSinMO]

Maybe one of the guys with more knowledge will jump In as I can only speak in general terms on this. I see no reason not to try it, but I think inner tube will be to thin to notice a difference once you tighten the bolts. In my experience dampeners are made of pretty thick rubber.

I assume your tractor was solid mount originally. I have one tractor that I have to perform bolt checks on as routine maintenance. For whatever reason it has the right, or wrong, vibration that loosens bots. Others that are built the same way have no issues.

[Eugen]

Before Jeff posted I had similar thoughts, that it's not enough to make a difference. The 244 and all the 444s I got have the engines mounted on the round rubber dampeners. My 644 has a k321 from a John Deere, and the PO bolted it right on the frame with several steel plate squares stacked as distancers. Not sure I can feel the difference in vibration.

[DavidBarkey]

Just a question out there to any one maybe reading this. On this old Wheel Horse, the engine is bolted directly to the angle iron frame. Would it be an idea to put a piece of inner tube between the engine and frame to possibly dampen vibration? Inner tube shouldn't create a height problem when tightened down. Or not necessary?

There were many back in that era that were hard bolted , that is why they had balance shafts in them . But it has been well documented about the balance gears failing . But i beleave that was mainly due to high shock loads on the crank shaft . Inner tube will not stand up to the heat , oil and pressure . It will just cause a loose condition . If you want an inexpensive rubber mount , get the swab kits from an older model truck like this .

Comes with cupped washers and a free bolt for future projects.

[puttputt]

Thanks for the comments. After some thought, I will likely just mount it directly to the frame as it was originally. There were/are many of these old Wheel Horses out there still in use that are mounted that way so for the amount of use it will see with me I will stick with mounting it directly. If bolts come loose fairly easily maybe I'll look into installing thicker mounts.

[puttputt]

Worked on the Wheel Horse a bit last weekend. Took the block to a retired mechanic I used to work with. He has a valve grinder. He cleaned up the valves and seats and deglazed the cylinder. He said it took nothing to clean it up. I painted the block and the tins. So I'm waiting on a gasket set and rings. I had a shifter boot ordered from ebay but it was lost somewhere through the global shipping program. So I have to re-order from somewhere else.

[Eugen]

Hard to find someone to do that nearby, and that would do it at a decent price. I'm fortunate to go to Toronto sometimes where one member of our forum has a full set of tools to do it and at a decent price. The grinding of the crankshaft is another matter altogether

[puttputt]

Hard to find someone to do that nearby, and that would do it at a decent price. I'm fortunate to go to Toronto sometimes where one member of our forum has a full set of tools to do it and at a decent price. The grinding of the crankshaft is another matter altogether

Yeah, hard to find someone with a valve grinding set up today that's close. The price to have the valves and seats cleaned up and cylinder honed was cheap---FREE!!! Doesn't get any cheaper than that. And the fellow I took it to was a very good mechanic in his day and still is. He has rebuilt a number of vintage John Deere tractors and stationary engines etc as a hobby.

[Eugen]

I got lucky and bought an old Black and Decker valve grinder not far from here, but I got nothing to cut valve seats. Those sets are pricey $$$