# Kohler with Cracked/Blown head



## hotrod_magee (Oct 30, 2007)

I'm working on a 1250 Cub Cadet with a 12hp Kohler (K301). The story I got is that it was worked on by a friend and afterwards it was running fine, then seemed to lack power, then made a squeeling sound and finally died and would not restart. I checked compression and laughed. After doing a cylinder leakage, I found 90% leakage and a lot of air coming from around the head. I also noticed a crack in the head. After removing the head I found the gasket to be fine, but the head to have cracked and having a hole all the way thru the head. 

I have since found a used head to put on it, but am just wondering if there is anything I should be checking before sending this back to the owner. He never complained about it surging and the spark plug doesn't look to have been burning lean for an extended period of time. It is a point system so I wasn't sure if I should be checking gap and such to make sure something didn't get out of wack there to cause this problem. 

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.


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## 30yearTech (Sep 14, 2006)

How does the top of the piston look? 

Is it possible that something got into the cylinder and was trapped between the piston and head that could have caused the head to be damaged?


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## hotrod_magee (Oct 30, 2007)

Piston actually look just fine. So good in fact that I can tell you it has been rebuilt 10 over. Cylinder walls don't show any signs of abnormal wear from anything either.


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