K301 burning oil

Alvy · #1 09-28-2013, 11:39 PM

Hello all, I had completely rebuilt my k301 out of my 127 for a bad knock which turned out to be a bad rod journal/crank journal. I had the crank ground and am using a .010 under rod. Replaced piston, rings, valves, all gaskets, seals, etc. while i was in there. I mic'd the cylinder and components when I had it all torn apart, old piston was standard piston/ standard bore, still some cross hatch left too. Long story short, since the rebuild, it burns oil bad, constantly, never clears up and smokes cold and hot. I staggered the rings and all the normal stuff, checked ring gaps, torqued everything per the manual, etc. I read that somewhere if the breather is not put together right this might happen due to the little valves in there on the plates. Took the breather all apart today and cleaned and inspected the order and still no dice. Can you guys think of anything I'm over looking? The engine knocked like crazy before the tear down but never smoked. Would the wrong oil do this or should I just bite the bullet and look at the rings to see if by some chance something happened to them or if im by chance put any of the rings in upside down would it cause this? It runs perfect just smokes bad and I'm really bummed because I thought it would go away. I'm seeing oil everywhere around the head and head bolts which i think is coming from the exhaust joints and inside of muffler is covered. I'm a little embarrassed because that this is the way It is now but I just need to get it figured out because the rest of the tractor came out really well. Thanks in advance. BTW no worries in thinking about even the simplest thing that it could be I'm open to any and all advice on this one.

darkminion_17 · #2 09-29-2013, 12:12 AM

Too much oil in the motor?

J-Mech · #3 09-29-2013, 12:18 AM

Did you hone the cylinder at all?

dvogtvpe · #4 09-29-2013, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Did you hone the cylinder at all?

even though your bore checked out ok you still need to hone the block then recheck the piston fit. If you didn't hone it you get what you have. no ring seal. I don't particularly like doing those types of overhauls because you don't get the engine life out of it that you would by starting with a fresh oversize bore
now if you didn't hone it you will need to take it apart and do that. you will need new rings again and make sure you wash the block out real good

Alvy · #5 09-29-2013, 01:47 PM

Thanks for the input guys. I didn't think I needed to with the cross hatch that was in there but there's me thinking again. I will do that and let you know. Bums me out but that's what is probably going on and my apparent bad decision. Now if one of the rings was put in upside down would the same thing happen? Just want this to be the last time I go in there for a long time. I'll just have to do some more research to make sure or maybe someone can post a definite link for me for the k301. I'm sure they're all installed the same but want to make sure I'm doing it right.

Alvy · #6 09-29-2013, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkminion_17

Too much oil in the motor?

Lew I actually did think that but no matter where the level is it does it and eats it continuously

dvogtvpe · #7 09-29-2013, 06:08 PM

generally when there's marks on the compression ring its got something to do with the way the inside of the ring is cut and how the piston groove is machined. oil rings if its marked its critical. then the have scrapers. they do nothing on the upward stroke but on the downward stroke they scrape oil off the walls. usually they are really hard to get in if they are on upside down or they break. there's sometimes an expander behind the oil ring. certain types of expanders can overlap when they shouldn't and then there's no tension there. so just be carul and follow the instructions

Alvy · #8 10-05-2013, 05:52 PM

Well I want to say thank you guys very much for the advice. Turns out I am a chucklehead and put the middle ring on the top and the compression ring in the middle as well as no honing. Took out motor last night and got it apart. I will say that it's confusing still to me, I found a thread with a guy on here with my exact problem and he had the same instructions/images that came with his Stens kit which are very vague and unclear as far as im concerned. I found an image of the kohler rings and they are individually packaged with clear instructions on them. Funny thing is there are so many different opinion on how rings go with members on here and other sites, youtube, etc, and some people are so confident in being wrong too! Anyway,i guess I learned my lesson and will make sure next time to do the necessary leg work, research, and get the good stuff. I honed the cylinder as you guys said and it looked great, ring end gap was good also. Put it all back together with different rings and all torque specs and it's awesome, no smoke other than its a little rich upon hard acceleration but I can deal with that. It smoked so bad before it was almost unbearable. Pics to come but wanted to let you guys know.

Edit to add pics of lake Kohler

J-Mech · #9 10-05-2013, 06:35 PM

I don't know that you necessarily need to use "better" parts. I don't see anything wrong with the aftermarket kits. Even on the big diesels I overhaul I use aftermarket. I have 3 kohlers tore apart right now, and am planning on using non-kohler overhaul kits. The important part is correct prep and installation! Glad you fixed it!

dvogtvpe · #10 10-05-2013, 07:40 PM

Quote:

I don't know that you necessarily need to use "better" parts. I don't see anything wrong with the aftermarket kits. Even on the big diesels I overhaul I use aftermarket. I have 3 kohlers tore apart right now, and am planning on using non-kohler overhaul kits. The important part is correct prep and installation! Glad

I agree, I use allot of aftermarket parts to, eventually the compression rings being flipped would have caused a problem. honing was the oil consumption issue. good prep work is as important as torqueing the rod cap