How Do I Verify or Recreate Pitted Flywheel Timing Mark

[oliver2-44 9,723]

It's 2am and I woke up pondering a little problem (at work we use to call them "challenges"

I'm working on cleaning up and painting parts to a Kohler 12hp k301 engine I picked up to rebuild.  This engines been around the block and appears to have red as a base color, then ford blue and the top coat is cub yellow.  My current challenge is the flywheel was quite rusty and I'm having trouble finding the timing marks.

I had wire wheeled the flywheel and gave it a nice coat of paint. Then I remember I wanted to paint the timing marks to make them easy to use, but could not find them.  So I buffed all the paint off that area and it has a fair amount of pitting. I looked at it multiple times with a magnifier glass, looking at various angles and found a few faint things that I wondered were they lines or pitted rows.  So I pulled out a 14 hp engine I have and looked at its flywheel and found the "T" mark about 90 degrees from the keyway.  So I looked closely in that area on my 12 hp flywheel and sorta/kinda imagine I found a line in that area. but it just wasn't for sure??  I then put the 12hp flywheel back on the crankshaft with the key, and watched the valves and brought the piston to top dead center.  As shown in the picture below, I them made the pencil mark you see on the right side of the ring gear from the raised timing line cast in the aluminum housing.  On the 12hp flywheel, there is a very faint line that matches this mark on the left side of the ring gear where the "T" timing mark would be.  In the picture below I tried to rub some pencil lead into the line to get it to show up. (The heavy pencil mark on the left side is just a marker for me to find the faint line)   I could not find anything in the general area where the "S" mark should be.  

 

So should I trust this faint line?  It's so faint you have to get your light and just the right angle to even see a hint of a line.  

Is there some way to use a dial indicator on the top of the piston and verify/recreate a new 'T" timing mark. What would the overhaul experts do to save this flywheel/engine?  

 

 

 

[RetroMower 349]

wrong post srry 

Edited April 27, 2019 by RetroMower
Plz delete

[953 nut 55,145]

When a Kohler engine is at TDC the PTO end key way will be at the top. Based on the comparison to a second flywheel you have probably found TDC. The ignition timing mark on the Kohler engines is twenty degrees before TDC. Doing the math that works out to 1/18 of the circumference of the flywheel. Your flywheel rotates in a clockwise direction so the "S" mark will be to the right of the "T" mark. Measure the circumference of the flywheel, divide by 18 and go that distance to the right to find the "S".

Hope this helps.

The flywheel in this picture is from an older Starter/generator K-241 and the timing marks are on the back face of the flywheel.

[oliver2-44 9,723]

Thanks @953 nut that’s some great information.  It will be Monday before I get back to this.