Cub Cadet 129

[Watashi]

Has anybody put an engine in a Cub Cadet 129 other than a Kohler? If so what engine and how much modification was involved? Thanks

 

[Anonymous-0]

Check out small engine warehouse. I think they had an overhead valve Briggs engine and a Honda conversion pretty resonable price.

 

[dhermesc]

They are available, but given how cheap you can overhaul the Kohler K301 I don't know why you would want to. Even if you hire everything it should only run about $500 tops (you pay them to remove, overhaul, and reinstall the engine). My last one ran about $200 for the overhaul kit (new seals, gaskets, rod & piston - $100) and the machine shop (about $25) and I paid a mechanic ($75) to install the crank, piston and PTO clutch and reset the carb after I installed the engine.

Tulsa small engine warehouse has a spot on their site that shows what replacement engines will fit in place, but I can't find it right now. They use a Tecumseh 11 hp for 10 hp cubs and they have both Briggs and Honda engines for the bigger Cubs. Their engines are pretty good but expect to pay $600 to $1200 for them and they are much lighter than the old cast iron Kohlers.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I just did a K301 in a cub cadet 124. With my employee discount I had nearly $300 in parts alone and it still needs a new muffler. Some of the parts had gone up 15% since I priced them in November.
And it can't be done for under $500 at $60 per hour labor.

 

[dhermesc]

Overhaul kits for a 301:

Gasket, seals, new rod and piston with tune up kit is $88.49 delivered:

http://cgi.ebay.com/12HP-ENGINE-REBUILD-KIT-FOR-KOHLER-K301-FREE-TUNE-UP_W0QQitemZ130355870952QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1e59d0bce8


Same as above but with new valves included is $114.98 delivered to your house.

http://cgi.ebay.com/MASTER-REBUILD-KIT-FOR-12HP-Kohler-K301-W-FREE-ITEMS_W0QQitemZ130355870945QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1e59d0bce1

I haven't used this supplier but he's $126.35 for the without new valves - but he does include the new governor gear.

http://cgi.ebay.com/MASTER-ENGINE-REBUILD-KIT-FOR-KOHLER-K301-12-FREE-KNIFE_W0QQitemZ270511184038QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3efbb918a6


I have used the first kit with a new governor gear on the two I've overhauled (only ground the valves). You can get the piston oversized and the rod undersized for no additional fee.

My only recomendation is to change the oil twice early on, I usually only run it half an hour on 10w30 at light load (tuning and playing with during setup) then change it to 30W for a 5 hours of normal operation then back to seasonal changes. That first couple of oil changes do have quite a bit of metal from break in (newly honed bore, new rings, new rod on an old crank etc...). I'm probably being obsessive but for a few dollars of oil its cheap reassurance.

The same supplier was used for my 1450 (K321) two years ago that now has over 150 hours service with no issues and I expect to last another 1000 hours. The manufacturer for the rod and piston is Stens.

http://www.stens.com/dealers.html