If you got hills and thick grass Kawi is better stay away from the FX730 though

 

either one or even a vanguard. whatever you get make sure it's efi. carb engines are a thing of the past now.

 

I so want Vanguards on JD's man killing me. You have to spend some serious extra cash for the Kohler EFI to amount to power a Kawi can put out on these hills and thick southern grass I have tried them HP vs HP not in same league.

 

get the popcorn

 

I so want Vanguards on JD's man killing me. You have to spend some serious extra cash for the Kohler EFI to amount to power a Kawi can put out on these hills and thick southern grass I have tried them HP vs HP not in same league.

yeah a 29hp kohler if probably equal to a 27hp kawi.

 

Is that how most are? Is there really so much difference in HP from Kawasaki to kohler? I ask because I just chose a Kawasaki instead of a kohler on my ztr.

 

Now that you have opened this

We run a little fleet of Exmark Lazers. Our older Lazers from 02 and 03 have Kohlers, our newer Lazers have Kawi FX 801s
We got 3 back in 09 and another in 2012.
first 09 broke a connecting rod in the first 3 months, dealer cover it
second 09 broke a connecting rod after 2000 hours, we replaced it with a new engine.
The other 2.... so far so good.
All of the FX 801s have had the governor seals replaced, once, so far.
2 have had new coils put in.
3 of them have had the choke rod fall off, which means you have to replace the choke shaft on the carb, unlike the Kohlers that use a nylon keeper to keep the choke rod in place, Kawasaki use a metal keeper that is fitted to the choke shaft. The keeper can not be replaced with out replacing the choke shaft
And, the Kohlers have hydraulic lifters, Kawi does not, so at some point you will have to adjust the valves......

The Kohlers, a couple of crank seals. A governor, from low oil..........

I like the Kawi, they keep me in a job

 

Unless they solved it those hydraulic lifters were notorious for bleeding down and causing some pretty noisy chatter.

 

50.00 and .5hr later good as new. I had one making noise at 1000hrs I replaced all 4 for less than 50.00 while the mower was still on the trailer. I'm at 2300hrs now with no chatter. This was on a motor from 2008

 

Can't speak for the kohlers but have had three different kawis, one used two new, never had a single problem with any of them

 

I hear you have to use a diesel rated 10-30 in the Kohlers to prevent the noisy lifters, such as the Kohler 10-30 or Rotella T 10-30, I've used those oils and never had an issue with mine over 2900 hours now.

 

few points here, the 1. fx730v kawasaki is a great engine. 2. kawasaki engines of same hp rating as kohler the kawasaki is stronger. 3. gas use with a kawasaki will be worse. say a kawasaki burns 1 gallon the kohler in same time frame will use about 4/5th of a gallon. both are great engines