Long story short........ Bought a 27 GDLT for $1000 thinking it was a good deal. Knew it had a blown head gasket when I bought it. Fixed that and took it for a run. Had a bad skip when cold and when it did run smooth would not make over 3k rpm. Decided to tear it down it down for some mods. Was not too happy with the findings from the teardown.
Here are the results:
Governer gear stripped out with the plastic shavings in the crankcase.
Bad scratches in the cyl walls. (Needs to be bored now).
Has head studs on only one side. Bolts on the other. (Don't get that one)
Didn't think it was charging. Stator is trashed due to the magnets in the flywheel coming loose.
Sheared key for the flywheel.

Plans are--- port, polish and shave heads .020., Geker cam and valve springs, bore cyls and check rods and crank for proper sizing. and carb work.

Here is my question now, I want to do some carb work but there is not much to do with the stock kohler one barrel carb. I am thinking of building a new intake and putting on a modded 35 briggs carb. I know they are reasonably priced and readily available. Anyone ever seen that done or think it will or will not work? Let me know what ya think.

Anyone have a suggestion what to do about a carb to go with head work and a cam on this 27 kohler?

JpEater, the magnets coming loose on Kohlers is common. We have seen it several times. You will have to buy a new flywheel to fix that if you want to keep your charging system and the flywheels are not cheap. It is still a good engine though. If you need, we can bore it for you.

On the carb, we have done several conversions using the 35 Briggs carb. You will need to make a custom intake and fabricate a choke rod and throttle rod out of what you have or out of new material. Not a major deal but the carb package will work fine on that engine. If you go with a Mikuni, you will need to fabricate an intake as well so not much difference in labor time. We have flanges for the Kohler intake ports in stainless so we could make an intake manifold for you if you need. You will be very happy with either carb on the Kohler engine.

By the way we also have Mikuni's in stock if you need to go that route.

On the head studs, I assume it had a blown head gasket at one point and the guy bought replacement head bolts and instead of bolts, got studs. Ifyou buy a gasket set for the 27 Kohlers, they come with bolts and studs.

Now the question is. Do I want to go with a stock style carb setup or just go with the Mikuni? I assume jets are more readily available for the Mikuni for getting it fine tuned better?

get a Mikuni 33mm "pumper" carb with an intake adapter from EVT. don't go anymore .030 off de heads and be careful with those hyd. lifters (make sure u bleed 'em all de way down)

yeah...... Coondick has seen what happens first hand if you don't.



I GUARANTEE you'll flatten out a lobe on your cam

Well after pricing all the parts to fix what I have I am not too sure its worth it. I found a good deal on a 30 kohler. I am trying to figure out if it will fit. I am now at the point where If i would have thrown in a little more $$$ i could have a surface drive. Damn factory .010 pistons and rings aint worth $135 per cyl to me.