[mikeduwe]

Last winter I picked up my 74 140 and upgraded and cleaned it up some. Here is the thread on that:
http://www.wfmachines.com/discus/messages/17/275680.html?1392291885

And the tractor as it sits currently.

I have always wanted to do a 16hp in a 140, and hop it up a bit in the process. The 14hp in there current has some knocking and burns a bit of oil (needs to be bored oversized) so I'm not real happy with it.

I found a deal locally on someone selling a 300 with a broken transmission, so I picked that up. Tractor is ugly (was used strictly for blowing snow) but the engine ran great.

I pulled the engine out with my mini engine hoist which is actually a wheelchair lift. Works perfect for garden tractors.

Once I had the engine on the bench, I cut the wings off the block with an angle grinder and 4.5" cutoff wheel. Was a scary thing to start, but it went great. This is so the engine clears the front hydraulic lines on the 140. If your using an engine from something other than a John Deere, you may have cutouts in those wings that need to be filled in to keep oil in the engine, so using a JD 16hp is best, particularly one out of a 300/316 since it has the driveshaft adaptor already. The oil pan on the 300 already has the tapped holes to bolt it down to the 140 frame.

I'm going to use the 16hp flywheel housing since it will flow more air to the head than the 14. Since I'm going under seat fuel tank, I will modify the stock tank to clear the engine and chop the top off to use it as a toolbox.

Will have more details on what needs to change with the sheet metal and controls when I get to that stage.

 

[mikeduwe]

Now for the fun stuff.

http://www.kirkengines.com/

Kirk does a lot of work on these little K Series engines and knows his stuff. His "Killer Kohler" articles have some neat and simple ideas how to squeeze a few more ponies out of the engines but still allow them to be used every day and still be reliable.

Links to them are on the right side at the bottom of the list of red items.

I pulled the head and sandblasted it clean, then smoothed and polished the combustion chamber. I'm going to have the head milled 25 thousands per his recomendation so I can still run 87 octane and not have to worry about knock.

Last night I did the partial relief on the valve pockets:

I will be doing some mild porting to clean up some lines and casting marks.

If time and money were on my side, I would tear the engine down have it bored 10 over and do a Kirk hot cam, maybe some day.

Thats where its at right now. More to come.

 

[mikeduwe]

Got most of the porting done. Have a little more to clean up with some smaller tools, but got the big surfaces and big corners smoothed out.

 

[oleboy]

Mike, looks good. Exhaust port?
What will be the advantages gained?

Burn efficiency
Flow of burned gasses

 

[the_other_drew]

I vote intake port.

Are you doing any lower end work?

 

[mikeduwe]

Thats the intake. Better flow = more power.

Unless I find some more funds, I'm only doing "free" mods for now. Some day I would like to put a Kirk hot cam in, bore it 10 over, maybe take out the balance weights and do the Kirk balance plates.

 

[oleboy]

I've never thought of porting and polishing a garden tractor. But I imagine it does help.

I'm more interested in the gas tank mod. These K321's like the sauce..

 

[flyingtim01]

Mike, thanks for the detailed build thread. I'm planning the same thing for my 140, though I'm still searching high and low for complete K341.

I had already resigned myself to having to bore any replacement engine I find 10 over, but I hadn't given any thought to doing any light porting or polishing work. I imagine that will improve any flow lost after shaving the head.

I'll be very interested in your 'seat of the pants' report when you fire it up and put the plow in the ground. Keep up the good work!

 

[mikeduwe]

Not much progress the last few days. Blended the spark plug hole in the head and started sandblasting some of the sheet metal. Next I think I will work on reworking the 16hp blower housing to use the 140 coil location and block off the air hose that went to the filter on the 300.

 

[mikeduwe]

Dropped the head off at the machine shop for the 0.025" milling.

Going to order the gaskets soon to put it back together.

Need to buy the flywheel screen assembly since my 140 was set up with a 300 screen already.

 

[mikeduwe]

Got my head back yesterday. Going to run it over some sandpaper on a sheet of glass to make sure its flat, then all I need to do is order up some gaskets to put the engine back together. The more laborsome part will be filling in the unused holes from the voltage regulator and air intake hose on the 16hp blower housing.

 

[1966JD110RF]

Mike this is fascinating stuff. My K321 is tip top, so no plans to swap it. But I am definitely intrigued by the under seat fuel tank. I hope you will document that very closely. Thanks!

 

[mikeduwe]

Will do, I know there is a lot of interest in that part of the conversion. Wanted to get the engine swap done first so I could put the 16hp to use. I have a nice 300 fender pan coming my way over thanksgiving from Indiana. I plan to do the fuel tank swap this winter and have everything buttoned up for spring plow days.

 

[1966JD110RF]

Okay, will stay tuned. So, is the 300 fender pan necessary for the under seat tank?

 

[mikeduwe]

To fit around the tank (mounts and shape) I believe so, but it also has the hole for the filler neck.

 

[1966JD110RF]

Ahhhh -- filler neck hole! I had forgotten about that. Is there also a corresponding hole for the transmission fill?

This should be interesting.

 

[cfolk1]

On the transmission fill I just shortened the fill tube and cut new threads in it where it goes into the transmission. I shortened the dipstick at the top the same length I shortened the tube worked just fine.

 

[trav1s]

I am rebuilding a K301 for my 312 and appreciate the pics of your work. I am going to do many of the same things when it goes back together AND add the crank balance plate. I am also planning to have the cam reground to up the performance. The head work looks great too!

 

[mikeduwe]

Cory, I'm going to use the 300 transmission fill. It is quite a bit shorter and is filled from below the fuel tank. My 300 was an early one, the later ones used a site tube and just a pipe with a cap on the end, mine has a dipstick.

Sounds good Travis. If I had a few hundred more $$, I would have gone with the cam and balancing too, but at that point might as well do an overbore and new piston etc since its all apart anyways. Someday in the future.

 

[mikeduwe]

Got this coming in the mail. No cutouts for the voltage regulator or air hose, hopefully everything else fits. Its from a K341 from a Wheel Horse.