My name is Steve, and I'm a Cub Cadet hoarder

[twoton]

Looks like you got a nice deck with it...

[sorner]

Yeah even my wife who is skeptical of my purchases of these older cubs said wow that deck looks real nice.

Now for a question, I don't really want to put a lot of money into the mosquito fogger KT17, but I think it is just the crank case breather. Are they a dependable engine at this age? The inside of the air filter and down into the throat of the intake is oil soaked. Is it worth it to fix that to keep it in the 682 or go with my original plan and drop the CH18 in? It's up around 1100 hours on the 682. The engine is real clean, and I can tell someone has been into the crank case breather before because it looks like they wire brushed around it and put a bead of gasket sealant around the cover. When running it there is a little oil mist coming up the tube with the air filter off. I'm leaning toward the CH18 and selling the KT17 to someone who wants to mess with it.

[dodge trucker]

I have a KT19 on another brand of machine that was a smoker when I got it... 1750 hours showing.... I found a brand new OEM Kohler breather and replaced the leaky seals and that so far seems to have done the trick... have not messed with that machine lately as I have to pull the motor and swap the starter (again) so I can again run it. I'd try that since you are 600 hours less, and see what happens... but gather the parts for the swap so you are ready when/if the need arises.

[john hall]

Ol George seems to be very knowledgeable on these twins--I'd PM him for advice. I can't tell you about the KT, but the Magnums did have breathers that would fail and soak the air filter. Guys here tipped me off years ago to that being a problem on my M20 in my 2072. The breathers were redesigned on the Magnums--don't know if it happened during the production run or if engineering upgraded the replacement parts due to high failure.. I think it went from a rubber valve to a metal reed style--you kind of have to replace the whole unit. Don't know if the same applies to the KT engines or not.
The one thing that concerns me is how much smoking your engine is doing. I've been around 4 of these twins in the last year or so (all with a good amount of hours) and none of them smoked noticeably. To contrast, I've seen quite a few K series that looked like they were 2 cycle.

[ol'George]

Well it don't hurt to look inside the breather box, and post a few pix.
of what you find.
The series 1's are not worth fixin, but something simple inside there is worth investigation.
Let us see/know what you find there as john said,either a reed valve or a dime sized rubber check valve should be there, if defective will cause it to "puff" excessively into the rubber tube vent to carb.

Also something to note, the little orange piece or what looks like 1/4" rubber hose does need to be over the stud that retains the covers,( between the covers) if missing, it will puff oil mist excessively into the carb.

A light coating of oil in the inside of the aircleaner is normal for a older engine.
--------but not slobbering/dripping.
As far as dependability, most died an early death from poor oiling to the connecting rods, that was rectified with series 2 and magnums.
If your "foggers" problem, is a simple check valve fix, so be it.
but if it is internal wear. let if die a natural death and replace with a good series 2 or better,a magnum. as they are a bolt in,--- or if you prefer, a later conversion as others have done
let us know what you find.

[sorner]

The blue smoke comes in puffs and then fades, more so when idling or lower throttle. There's not too much smoke at full throttle. I had a K241 that had bad rings and worn cylinder walls that was smoking a LOT more than this does, and that was a constant smoke.

I took it for a ride around the yard with the air filter off to see if it still smoked, and it did. So either it's more than the breather, or there's oil down in the intake plumbing that it was still pulling in (which is definitely possible). There was a puddle of oil on the metal air filter base. So oil coming up that tube is definitely part of the problem if not all of it. I've never had a Kohler opposed twin before, so I don't know much about their longevity and common issues (yet). I used to have a Briggs opposed twin that I couldn't keep the valve seats in, that was the only problem I ever had with that engine.

I got the 682 with intentions of just dropping my extra Kohler Command 18 into it, I would be pulling it anyway to pull the covers and make sure it's clean, and check the front seal. So I think that's pretty much a done deal then. I was just curious if it is worth it to change my plans, I don't think I will. This Kohler Command came on a free tractor that the PO said had a rod knock, and it turned out his rod knock was just the valve push rod popped out. That was an easy fix and if the KT was going to be something easy like that I would think about it. It seems like most of the tractors I've picked up the PO thought more was wrong with them and gave up on them and let them go cheaply. Those are my kind of deals.

So if anyone wants to take a trip to central PA for this KT17 I'll let it go pretty cheap.

[sorner]

Originally Posted by ol'George

Well it don't hurt to look inside the breather box, and post a few pix.
of what you find.
The series 1's are not worth fixin, but something simple inside there is worth investigation.
Let us see/know what you find there as john said,either a reed valve or a dime sized rubber check valve should be there, if defective will cause it to "puff" excessively into the rubber tube vent to carb.

Also something to note, the little orange piece or what looks like 1/4" rubber hose does need to be over the stud that retains the covers,( between the covers) if missing, it will puff oil mist excessively into the carb.

A light coating of oil in the inside of the aircleaner is normal for a older engine.
--------but not slobbering/dripping.
As far as dependability, most died an early death from poor oiling to the connecting rods, that was rectified with series 2 and magnums.
If your "foggers" problem, is a simple check valve fix, so be it.
but if it is internal wear. let if die a natural death and replace with a good series 2 or better,a magnum. as they are a bolt in,--- or if you prefer, a later conversion as others have done
let us know what you find.

Does that orange piece go between the top cover that holds the air filter down and the black outer cover that says Kohler 17 on it? I don't have it, there is no orange piece at all. I know what you're talking about because my Command engines have that too. What does that have to do with oil? I thought it was just some kind of spacer to go between the pieces.

[sorner]

Originally Posted by ol'George

Well it don't hurt to look inside the breather box, and post a few pix.
of what you find.
The series 1's are not worth fixin, but something simple inside there is worth investigation.
Let us see/know what you find there as john said,either a reed valve or a dime sized rubber check valve should be there, if defective will cause it to "puff" excessively into the rubber tube vent to carb.

Also something to note, the little orange piece or what looks like 1/4" rubber hose does need to be over the stud that retains the covers,( between the covers) if missing, it will puff oil mist excessively into the carb.

A light coating of oil in the inside of the aircleaner is normal for a older engine.
--------but not slobbering/dripping.
As far as dependability, most died an early death from poor oiling to the connecting rods, that was rectified with series 2 and magnums.
If your "foggers" problem, is a simple check valve fix, so be it.
but if it is internal wear. let if die a natural death and replace with a good series 2 or better,a magnum. as they are a bolt in,--- or if you prefer, a later conversion as others have done
let us know what you find.

Well crap. I looked it over when I got home from work again and it is a series II. I didn't know there was a series I or II, and that one is crap until this thread. So does that swing the pendulum back to fix this one?

[dodge trucker]

even as a series I, if a breather would fix it, I would..... and run it til it dies while I look for a transplant candidate in the meantime... if a series II it definitely makes it more worth it... I bought a new in box OEM Kohler breather for my KT19 for like $25-30ish a while back, een a while cannot remember exact price.
There was a guy on Ebay that had brand new ACDelco metal bodied fuel pumps for the KTs and Magnum twins for $50, when I bought mine he had a bunch left. Mine is on and working great.... worst case sceneario is that you can pull these and put them onto a Magnum twin, they are the same between KT and Magnum.


I cannot swear to this but besides point ignition vs electronic breakerless, and the Magnums having a spin on oil filter I have heard that a Series II is basically the same thing as a magnum... I have heard of people adding the oil filter base and filter to a Series II, they are supposed to have a blockoff plate on them where this would go, or at least some of them did.

[zippy1]

The breather, not the air cleaner... It's a cover on top of the engine. There is a rubber tube coming out from under the air filter assembly that it goes into it...