[TEET]

Pat, This could obviously go either way for you..I learned from experience it can too. Back when I was young(er) and foolish...well..more foolish, I did a re-ring job on a couple Kohler's for wheel horse's I owned. They exhibited the same symptoms you describe in your K301. I looked over the cylinders real good, they looked good with no major "visible" wear...same with the pistons. I re-placed the rings and used them both for probably 6 months when they let go on me..snapped rods in both of them. I noticed that the smoking slowed down quite a bit after doing the rings, but having only new rings and everything else internally was 40 years old and still worn..well...the "new" weakest link let go..being the rod(s).

When I got my first cub some years back, I decided to do it right, buy the manuals, and some of the proper tools needed to do a rebuild correctly (ring compressor, bore gauge, valve spring compressor, pullers, cylinder hone, lapping tools, etc). The tool that I actually think saved my butt the most now when rebuilding, is my bore gauge, because it lets you take accurate measurements on all sides of the cylinder from top to bottom...and these cylinders don't wear uniformly, but "oblong", meaning the front and back side of the cylinder walls wear more than the sides....just the nature of the engine design. Previously when I re-ringed them, I would just measure the rings, or the top of the bore which always seemed to look pretty good, but the wear was worse below this point unbeknown-st to me. I was more recently able to determine several times that my blocks needed to be bored .010. by measuring correctly with the bore gauge.....These aluminum rods fatigue over time also, and like I found out before, the next thing to go will be the weakest link.

to make a short story long... I would think that just re-ringing might bite you in the end, and you'll have to open it back up and do it right sooner than later. Its tough because with no budget, you end up with more problems if you try to cut corners...ask me how I know..lol I have the tranny from my 682 sitting here apart because I don't have the extra cash for the few seals that it needs....ugh

This was just discussed in another thread, but in my area I can get my cylinder bored for $35-50...then all the (oem Kohler) parts for me to rebuild are usually around the $200 mark

Good luck!!

Jeff (teet)