K301 Opened Up

[dgoyette 12]

Super Micah glad to hear it!

[dennist 139]

Sounds like your machine shop treats you well. Glad to hear it's running.

[MaineDad 85]

Update:

Mowed the lawn last night and noticed some light smoke during the process. Let her cool down and decided to remove the head just to see how things were doing on the inside and this is what i found

Now I am thinking the oil culprit could be the intake valve guide because there is a noticeable spot of oil smear. Can a valve guide send this much oil up to the combustion chamber?

[MaineDad 85]

The guides are the only thing I did not touch during this rebuild. I just checked and the exhaust valve has more play then the intake valve. If possible, I plan to replace the valve guides with the engine on the tractor.

[illinilefttackle 399]

Micah- You are right about the valve guides-this is one of the most forgotten or short cutted items in engine rebuilding- just ends up making more work-your picture is a classic example of oil going past the guide-

if it was an overhead valve engine-you would get a big puff of blue smoke upon startup- because oil would drip down past the seals worn out by the loose guides- sounds like you have a plan tho- Good Luck-Al

[MaineDad 85]

Any tips on removing these guides? Drive them out from the top with a socket?

[WH nut 553]

I would have run it to seat the rings before I went through all that trouble,you didnt even give it a chance .But thats just me.

[shorts 182]

I wouldn't want to be the one that had to tell you that after you replace the guides you may need to recut the valve seats so they are centered on the guides

you need a '' special tool '' to remove/install valve guides, it's a drift punch that fits in the bore of the guide and has a shoulder that sits on top of the guide so you don't destroy/break the guide as you remove the old and install the new ones.

you need to disassemble the engine far enough to get the lifters/tappets out of the block so you have room to drive the old guides out.

measure how far the guides stick down into the lifter/valve spring area, the new guides should be installed to the same depth.

you may need to drive them down until they almost touch the bottom of the tappet/spring area and snap the bottoms off of the guides, and then finish driving the remaining pieces out.

put the new guides in the freezer for a couple of hours to shrink them so they will install easier, lubricate them with a touch of grease and install them to the proper depth, check the guides with the valve stems and make sure that they don't need to be reamed for clearance then check/lap the valves to make sure that they are sealing completely on the seats, if not have the seats recut

[MaineDad 85]

I ordered both the Kohler valve guide removal tool and installer tool. Hopefully with the removal tool (slide hammer) I can remove the guides without disassembling the engine. The installer tool will drive the guides into the correct depth.

I will have almost all of the tools do start my own business when I'm done :thumbs2:

[shorts 182]

the installer tool just installs the guide, you need the 2 guages to set the installed height properly. after you install the guides they will need to be reamed to size to properly fit the valve stems. the valve seats will need to be recut so they are concentric to the valve guides so that the calves will close and seal properly.

You need to disassemble the engine to properly ream the new guides after installation and then insert the guide tool to recut the seat and then properly clean the metal particles from machining out of the block before reassembly.