I am looking at buying a 27 Kohler engine, but it had a pretty bad problem when I test drove it. We drove a couple minutes at WOT and then the engine cut off. Started back up fine, ran for about 30 more seconds and then the oil dipstick shot out of the engine about 30 feet.

There also is evidence of a small amount of oil leaking from the fill cap.

Other than this problem, the engine ran fine. The engine has 25 hours on it, but it has been sitting up for the past year.

I guess this is because the oil pressure is getting way to high, but I have no idea what could be the cause? Is there a vent that could be clogged? Is this the sign of a bad engine?

There is a breather in the valve cover, but the motor won't run long at all with it completely closed. At least it's that way on the vertical. What kinda frame is it on? Had the owner ever seen this problem before? Only time I've ever seen that much pressure inside the case was when that breather was completely closed up.

This motor is on a go devil surface drive setup. As far as I know, this is the first time that anything like this has happened to this motor. Could the breather get clogged if it sat up too long? The engine did shut off almost immediately once it was fully loaded now that I think about it. It was able to run fine at idle and was shooting a small amount of oil out of the Dipstick hole on the way back.

Do you think there is any risk of a gasket blowing from this short period of high pressure?

Thanks for the input.

If you blew a gasket, you'll see it leaking. Check and see what's going on inside the breather and go from there. I guess it's possible for it to get that clogged up. I don't really know what else it could be though.