# Kohler Courage 18hp-Ticking time bomb?



## BassMasterCHS

I have a Troy-Bilt Bronco powered by a Kohler Courage 18 hp twn cam. It has about 70 hours on It. I've done some readIng and it seems that they lIke to blow up. 

Other than ensurIng the valve cover bolts are secure, what else can I do? It runs fIne now. Sorry about the capItal letters, phone Is beIng stupId rightght now.


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## Country Boy

How old is the unit? From our latest dealer meetings, it seems they corrected the issue in the last year or two. They reinforced the block to prevent cracking issues. The engines that I saw with the cracked blocks all had over 400 hours on them. If it does crack on you, Kohler may help you out yet. We had a block replaced by Kohler after 5 years and 487 hours. Its a case by case basis, and you'd have to have your dealer call their distributor to get a pre-approval for the warranty. IIRC, they covered the parts, and the customer picked up the labor.


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## BassMasterCHS

That'd be awesome. The sticker on the engine says it was manufactured on 6/25/2008. It has roughly 100 hours on it. Thanks for the reply! My friend has a 65ish International Cub Cadet with a kohler engine and it still runs like new!


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## Country Boy

Big thing is to make sure the bolts don't loosen up. What was happening is that the block was actually flexing from the engine vibrations and that would loosen the bolts and then crack the block. They had video from high speed cameras and the block was wobbling like jello. The new blocks have gussets cast into them and the castings are thicker to prevent the issue. The Courage series engines (except the XT6 and XT7 are what they call "bucket engines". The sump cover is at the top of the engine rather than the bottom. This is supposed to eliminate gasket leaks down the road because the oil isn't sitting right at the gasket. Overall they have been very reliable engines for us, and I have done very few repairs to them. We sell mostly Kohler engines on the lawnmowers we sell at work, and they are the one engine we rarely have to work on. I only carry a drawer or two of parts for them, whereas I have 8 drawers for Briggs and 3 for Tecumseh.


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## CamperJim

Mowing less than an acre lot (minus house, barn, shed and a 180' double driveway) and only once a week for 5 months a year at seasonal residence. At 25 months old, I was mowing and mower started clanging (always maintained). I shut off PTO and in the few feet back to barn clanging self destructed the engine, blowing a 2" hole in very thin aluminum block. Repair place laughed and said "yea, they do that, it's unrepairable". Troy-bilt refused to help. New Kohler engine cost more than entire mower (?!?). Pure junk.
Based on my experience - AVOID!


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