Re-powered Terramite

[watersteps]

Anyone tried a re-power project on their T5C? Mine runs OK but it seems to be a little short on power. 1999 with 1800 hours. I was thinking about a V4 air cooled engine. I only have mine for 3 days now and it runs OK but it does bog down when pushing deep snow. I was really more worried about over powering it and hurting the trans and hyd pumps.

 

[watersteps]

I just picked up a 40 hp (37hp) Kohler CH-1000, used with a noise inside. Motor still has compression and I can turn it over by hand. I plane on starting a teardown soon and I will provide pictures as I proceed. Later.

 

[RalphandhisTerramite]

Nice! Perfect winter project...

 

[Alexhasson]

I just picked up a 40 hp (37hp) Kohler CH-1000, used with a noise inside. Motor still has compression and I can turn it over by hand. I plane on starting a teardown soon and I will provide pictures as I proceed. Later.

Well... how's this project going?

 

[watersteps]

Well thanks for asking. I recently moved to a small farm with a 30 by 60 barn. I am in the process of building shelves and un-boxing all my equipment. Taking a lot of time. I have the 40hp sitting on a rolling dolly next to my tool boxes. I should be able to put it on the work table later this week. I will start taking pictures at that time. I can't wait to start taking it apart.
I have to split my time between "honey do" projects and my mowing tractors and a Polaris 4 wheeler.

 

[watersteps]

Well here we go, got the CH1000, 40hp Kohler up on the tear down table today. I looked over, everything seems to look ok, it turns over ok by hand. I can feel and hear compression, no noise or tight spots. Oil is down to 2 or 3 drops and black. Sparkplugs look great, nice chocolate brown.
I started taking it apart and found out that it must have come off of a saw mill, saw dust packed everywhere. From the condition of the bolt heads it was apart before. At this point I noticed that the rocker arms are tight on all valves but #2 exhaust, it has a little play in it. I have to check and see if this motor has hydraulic lifters. Piston tops look very clean looking through the plug hole.
Now while I was removing the plastic shrouds I found a piece the shroud broken and pushed out from the flywheel area. See pictures, I can not find any damage to the flywheel.
When I get a chance I will take more of the engine apart and post pic's.

 

[watersteps]

Ok next step. I removed the plastic and metal shrouds and cooling tin from the motor. Next was the carb and oil filter mount. Then the intake and the heads. Now I see a problem, both pistons have eyebrow marks on the heads from the valve hitting the piston. Both heads show very little marks on the valves. Ok that means one thing cam gear is broken and or out of time. Why?
The next thing to remove is the crankcase cover. Bolts come out easy but, the cover does not want to slide off the crank. After a little prying with wooden strips the cover comes off.
Well the first thing I see is the crankshaft bearing surface is dis-colored. The inside of the cover shows me that it was very hot around the bronze bearing insert. Next the timing gear is missing teeth (that is why it is out of time)
and somewhat melted. The Crank gear has also been hot and has oil burned on to it. The cover seal for the crank is also melted.
Well it looks like the engine was run low on oil or the oil passage was blocked to the crank. The bronze bearing or bushing got hot and cooked the crank seal and started melting the timing gear.
I will mic the crank to see if it is damaged in any way. The bushing did not spin in the cover so that should just need to be replaced. The valves will have to come out and be checked for being bent.
Now I have to take everything apart and clean it up.




surface

 

[watersteps]

Ok, I spent several hours taking everything apart and checking for problems. The crankshaft bearing on the pto side has been overheated due to lack of oil. The crankshaft looks to be in very good condition, I will mic it and make sure. The bearing will have to be replaced, the crankcase cover bore where the bearing is installed looks like there was a previous problem with the bearing. Case appears to be ok for a new bearing. Cam gear that was damaged is going to be hard to replace. Looks like I may have to buy a cam and gear together.
While I was checking out the crankcase I found a small piece of magnet stuck to a screw on the flywheel side of the block. The magnet came from the inside of a flywheel but, the flywheel that is with this engine has all the magnets in place and no broken ones. Looks like someone tried to pull the flywheel and broke it and punched the hole in the plastic shroud that I mentioned before.
Cylinders look good and pistons are of standard size, so I will just hone in a good cross hatch and put new rings in.
More info later.

 

[watersteps]

Well that repower idea just went up in smoke! There are no crankshaft bearings or cam shaft and gear assembly's available. New or used. So I will now try to sell all of the good parts and get some of my money back. Thanks for watching this post, and I will just use my 20HP Kohler until something goes bad.

 

[agjones]

A 24hp Kubota would be a great fit...

 

[Dart1917]

https://www.sepw.com/parts/kohler-62-012-16-s-kit-camshaft/

https://www.jackssmallengines.com/jacks-parts-lookup/part/kohler/6203003s

 

[iam2sam]

I'm late to this thread. I have a T5C that was repowered by the PO with a Honda V-twin. Haven't used it extensively (actually needs a good going through after sitting for a while at this point) but it seemed to have adequate power. Here is my question, though. Given that everything on the T5C is hydraulic, including the drive system, is increading the HP of the engine powering the pump really going to materially increase the power at the loader or backhoe, or over the ground speed? Isn't there some limitation imposed by the main pump? I can see a potential improvement in recovery time.

 

[agjones]

That engine is a great match for the machine. And very fuel efficient. I have repowered a couple of machines with them. Change the filters all around.

To answer your question, a switch to diesel would gain more bite before a stall but the Hydraulics limit the power by the relief valve that keeps hoses from breaking and rods from bending... Get good At small bites

 

[iam2sam]

I pretty much have only "small bite" jobs for the T5 to do. In fact, I'd love to find a narrower backhoe bucket, as I have a lot of road drainage ditch clearing work. I seem to recall that Terramite had a 9" bucket option, but I'd bet those are rarer than hen's teeth. I've consider trying to see if a mould-board plow could be used or modified somehow to "turn" debris up and out of the ditches. I will also note that prior to my purchase of the T5C I had rented a T7 diesel to do some jobs at my site, and it was pretty impressive in moving some not-so-small bite boulders using the hoe. Don't know if it was the diesel or the higher capacity pump...

 

[agjones]

Titan attachments at palletfirks.com has decent buckets. Haven't tried one on a terramite yet but use them on two others... Fine. The teeth are removable for cleanup work. I also use their Ditch bucket... Great. Check the scratch and dent section.

 

[iam2sam]

I look into that. Thanks!

 

[River Valley Landscaping]

I have a repowered allmand 25k which use to have a Koehler 25hp. Previous owner burned up the original motor when an employee tipped the tractor over. His choice for replacement was a harbor freight predator 670cc 22hp. It was a slap it in for cheap and get it to be driveable kind of repower just to be able to sell it. Very poorly done. After I purchased it I had no hope for the knockoff engine he chose so I used it for a year with no throttle, choke or ignition hooked up to the dash of the tractor. Instead it was just a key switch and throttle zip tied to the side of the engine just like how they have them on the shelf at harbor freight. 3 years later and I have a few hundred hours on it and have done full yard renovations, filled in in ground pools, and use it in temps from 0 to 100 degrees and it always has had enough power. Only basic maintenance along the way. Best part is if it blows the engine, for under $800 I could drop a new one in. I’m not crazy so I wouldn’t go as far as to recommend someone to buy a predator engine from harbor freight, but that is my experience thus far. And adaptors to Koehler engines are available online.