Have a 30hp Kohler in hand. Owner says it only has about 40 hours running time. It's a 750-0003 the same one Cooks uses for their mills. It also came with a long story...point is he thinks he's 'washed out' the rings. It starts and runs fine but he says it has no power. It has 150lb compression both sides ( will crank with compression tester in one side but not the other). Anybody have a way to test it short of pulling my Onan and setting this one in place? If I do use it, it will take some retrofitting to get things hooked up...throttle especially. But for the price it would be worth the time.
150# comp sounds good to me, I'd check things like a clogged muff, dirty air cleaner or the governor. Steve
After piddling with it for a while this afternoon I am convinced the cylinders and pistons are not the problem. No oil blow by and good compression. Wouldn't be surprised to find the bug in the governor. I found a manual on line that goes through adjustment. If I am going to use it on my WM I will have to flip the muffler (it blows to the left) and deal with the shaft sitting about 2inches lower than the Onan. It would be nice to be able to use the stock WM drive belt. Anybody that has swapped out for a Kohler; did you build up the platform so the shaft would be the same height?
Check for a clogged muff first, rodents or dirt dabbers but I'd lean towards the governor also. I have a older MM tractor that I left the air cleaner off for a while and the mice completely filled the intake manifold up with acorns, it would start and idle good but wouldn't rev up . I'd build up the shaft hieght to match the onan. Steve
Bodger, I ran into the shaft height problem when I swapped out the briggs on my mizer for a kawasaki. I just slid it out an inch, had to drill new mounting holes anyway and used the stock belt. If you go that route, you need to lower the upper belt guard about in inch to keep the belt from flapping around. Also had the muffler problem, stock exhaust pointed right at the plastic fuel tank. I stuck an elbow section of a chrome P-trap on it, pointed straight up. Looks impressive anyway.
Yea, I searched and read your posts about the swap out...when you say the 'upper belt guard' do you mean the safety guard or the steel rod that attaches to the motor to control flap? I'm spending some time looking and measuring and thinking. The Kohler has a built in 20a alternator the WM has an external 100a to run the hydraulics. I'm trying to figure how to wire it up, it should be pretty simple. I'd also like to bypass the switch on the motor and use the switch on the box. Has anybody done this swap?