Rod Knocking!

[BlueSky]

In my Husqvarna 46" cut riding lawn mower with the Kohler courage 21hp engine. It has a build date of 2010 and I don't remember exactly when I bought it but it has only been used to cut about 1/4 acre of grass. Bad engine design I'm told. Trying to decide whether to buy a new crappy Kohler engine replacement, try to rebuild the existing engine or spend $2500 on a new mower with a Kawasaki engine? Decisions! Decisions!

[slowrollwv]

I have the same motor on my Scag zero turn but it is a 25 horse. I mow about 3 acers for the past two years. No problems yet. I am not sure if they make a different motor for commercial use or not.

[Condor]

In my Husqvarna 46" cut riding lawn mower with the Kohler courage 21hp engine. It has a build date of 2010 and I don't remember exactly when I bought it but it has only been used to cut about 1/4 acre of grass. Bad engine design I'm told. Trying to decide whether to buy a new crappy Kohler engine replacement, try to rebuild the existing engine or spend $2500 on a new mower with a Kawasaki engine? Decisions! Decisions!

 

I think if you're sure it's a rod, I'd try to re-bearing it first before :mo money:on some other option...??

 

With that few hours it's strange that you'd be having problems so soon....

[BlueSky]

Kohler makes a better engine called a command I believe. I think the courage line is a cheap line they came out with for cheap consumer mowers. The SV line of courage engines which I have one of are not very durable from what I have been told. They don't make an engine in the "courage" line any more. I think they renamed their cheap line "confidant".

[RDawson]

I had one to drop a cam. There isn't a bearing in the aluminum case, just riding on oil. Check that before rebuild or there could be a second failure. Luckily we have a Briggs factory here in town and I managed to buy a new QC'd motor for $125. Every so often they pull one off the line and test it for a few hours, I got one of those 25 hp. Bolted right back in place of the Kohler.

[slowrollwv]

The 25 H Koler courage that I have was bought new two years ago and I put it on the mower that I have. If they quit making them it had to be very recently.

[VanRiver]

How about putting a Yamaha 1300cc Venture motor on that lawnmower? I've been thinking about doing that if and when my Kubota zero turn engine gives up the ghost! Nothing beats having 5 gears of lawnmowing power, could cut my 5 acres of grass in 17 minutes flat! Ha HA!

 

Here is a guy that used a Yamaha R6 motor!

 

 

https://youtu.be/0Of-1cM3bXM

[BlueSky]

The 25 H Koler courage that I have was bought new two years ago and I put it on the mower that I have. If they quit making them it had to be very recently.

 

My particular engine 21hp SV610-0212 is not available any more. A supplier has a recommended courage replacement 20hp SV601-3241. But the factory is not making any more courage engines. A short block and crank kits are available for my engine from the suppliers. Mine was run hard. My stepson said he could mow the yard in 15 minutes. I was gone a lot working temp contracts. I also run it fairly hard.

 

But, my first rider was a 36" cut Murray with a briggs engine that had a splash lube system. It mowed an acre of grass for 7 years and my son used it to mow neighbors yards for pay that were an acre or larger. Then it mowed my current yard for 3 more yrs before it started knocking. I bought another Murray with ohv and pressure lube and it lasted 10 yrs on my current yd that is 15k sq ft including the house. Now I buy the Husqvarna with the Kohler courage and it lasted 7 or 8 yrs on the little lot. Seems to me each mower had a worse engine than before. If I buy another it will have a Kawasaki engine. Lowes has a Hustler zero turn 42" with a Kawasaki engine for $2799 before my 10% veterans discount.

[93 venture]

https://www.harborfreight.com/engines-generators/gas-engines/708cc-22-hp-v-twin-riding-mower-engine-epa-62879.html

[BlueSky]

How about putting a Yamaha 1300cc Venture motor on that lawnmower? I've been thinking about doing that if and when my Kubota zero turn engine gives up the ghost! Nothing beats having 5 gears of lawnmowing power, could cut my 5 acres of grass in 17 minutes flat! Ha HA!

 

Here is a guy that used a Yamaha R6 motor!

 

[

 

 

I liked the Hayabusa!

[BlueSky]

Briggs sells an "Intek" engine that is designed to replace the Kohler courage for about $555. One guy who said he had been repairing engines since 1972 said it was the worst designed engine he had ever seen.

Edited July 19, 2018 by BlueSky

[BlueSky]

Well, I decided to buy a new Kohler replacement engine. The replacement was not the exact same spec engine. When I tried to order it, I found out it wasn't available. But, the short block is, so that is what I ordered. So, now I have to install it when it comes in "5 to 7" business days. $478.26!!! for a short block!

[slowrollwv]

That sounds like the best thing to do. The Scag mower that I have had a 22 hp on it. But when I got it from a friend he had bought the 25hp to put on it. He has a lawn service contract with the county schools board so he gets a great discount on lawn equipment . I an trying to buy the Scag Turf Tiger he has and let my son have this one.

[BlueSky]

Well, the new Kohler Courage short block is installed and running. It was a lot more work than I thought. I ended up watching a lot of videos on lawn mower repair during the job. They were interesting for the most part. One guy who calls himself Tyral Dactal makes some good videos. The governor shaft fell inside the engine so I had to open up the new block and fish it out. All of the bolt holes in the block were not tapped and the screws are self tapping which I found to be a pita. I took the cover off my old block to see what the governor shaft looked like and it isn't obvious why it was knocking. the top balancer is tight and the rod appears to be tight. Perhaps it's the lower balancer. I haven't read anything positive on line about the Courage engines. My knocking engine has a total of 64.5 hours on it.

[Condor]

Well, the new Kohler Courage short block is installed and running. It was a lot more work than I thought. I ended up watching a lot of videos on lawn mower repair during the job. They were interesting for the most part. One guy who calls himself Tyral Dactal makes some good videos. The governor shaft fell inside the engine so I had to open up the new block and fish it out. All of the bolt holes in the block were not tapped and the screws are self tapping which I found to be a pita. I took the cover off my old block to see what the governor shaft looked like and it isn't obvious why it was knocking. the top balancer is tight and the rod appears to be tight. Perhaps it's the lower balancer. I haven't read anything positive on line about the Courage engines. My knocking engine has a total of 64.5 hours on it.

 

Self tappers are a pita... I find that before putting one back in turn it counter clockwise until it clicks. Then turn it clockwise. This way you don't end up cutting another set of threads because the old and the self tapper threads mesh. This works with just about every threaded fastener and keeps them from cross threading...which is another pita... :-) Works really well when putting spark plugs in an aluminum head...

[BlueSky]

Looked at the old short block a little trying to determine what was knocking and it isn't obvious. The counter weights appear to be tight. I'm thinking it must indeed be a rod knock. These don't use rod bearing inserts, so I assume the rod comes machined to the correct dimensions to fit the crank. A new rod is $80. I'm also assuming it isn't either of the two main bearings. I may get around to disassembling the short block and figuring it out just out of curiosity.

 

Way back when in the late 40's or early 50's, my Dad worked at the small town of Windsor's power generating plant which consisted of several diesel engines turning generators. I remember him saying when a rod bearing started knocking in those diesels they had to manually hone the rod and rod cap to refit the rod to the crankshaft. They used a lot of bluing to refit it. And as I remember the old chevy sixes had babbitt rod bearings, early 50's or so.

[Condor]

Way back when in the late 40's or early 50's, my Dad worked at the small town of Windsor's power generating plant which consisted of several diesel engines turning generators. I remember him saying when a rod bearing started knocking in those diesels they had to manually hone the rod and rod cap to refit the rod to the crankshaft. They used a lot of bluing to refit it. And as I remember the old chevy sixes had babbitt rod bearings, early 50's or so.

 

Yep... I owned a '53 Chevy Suburban 3100 with a 235 straight 6 in it that had bad rod bearings.. Hey I bought it for $100 bucks, who was I to complain. So anyway I dropped the pan and was going to replace the rod bearings...only there weren't any. Poured bearings... So what I did was do a little red neck engineering, and using trial and error, filed the ends of the caps off until I got the right gap using 'plasti-guage' and buttoned her back up. Got rid of the rattle, still had a little oil pressure, and pulled my restored 1934 Gar Wood boat all over SoCal for a couple of years. They don't build 'm like they used to... :-) Not saying to do this to a V4, just sharing a memory... BTW I did the boat restoration, and wished I had both of 'm today... :-)

 

Here's a pic of one like it...

 

http://www.genevalakesboatshow.com/RegistrationUploads/DSC_7928_06DDYYYY1057394.JPG