Turns out quite a few of the Kohler Courage 19HP motors have an issue with vibrations loosening the bolts, and then the case/block cracks from the vibrations. Well, guess who lived this problem? <- This guy. This motor has had a rough life, and its at least 10 years old, so I wasn’t worried so much if this didn’t work, but I hope it does.
Here you can see the crack after I’ve cleaned it, and opened it up with a dremel tool. During this process, I found a hole, and opened that up as much as I could, this should really give something to grab on to for the next step. I also hit the entire area with some 100 grit to rough up the entire area.
At room temperature, J-B Weld sets in 4-6 hours to a dark grey color. A full cure is reached in 15-24 hours. J-B Weld has a tensile strength of 3960 PSI and sets to a hard bond overnight. It can withstand temperatures up to 550ºF when fully cured.
After mixing up a fair amount of JBW, and thoroughly de-greasing the crack area, I (as neatly as possible) covered the area. Its not pretty, but its done. After a couple hours it seems really solid, but I’ll wait the full 24 hours before I test! While the crack was narrow, I decided to try to cover as much surface as possible to have plenty of grab. Again, Dont care if its pretty, as long as the oil doesn’t spray out the side.
All thats left is to let it sit overnight, and de-grease it in the am before testing!
