Craftsman GT 6000 Build

Alright well I made some progress tonight! Might as well just let the pictures tell the story hahaha.











Only thing I had to change was this plug.



This engine has a low oil pressure switch so I had to take the plug from the wiring harness I got and put it on this tractor.



I wasn't able to get it to start, I can get it to fire if I spray carb cleaner down the throat of the carb so I figured it was the fuel pump. So I unhooked the line from the carb and cranked 'er over a few times and fuel was coming out just fine. That's good, so I'm just assuming that it's something in the float bowl. I'll take a look at that tomorrow sometime but for now she's in!







Hopefully it's just a matter of giving the carburetor a good cleaning tomorrow.

Good luck cleaning the carburetor. I have my fingers crossed that that’s your only problem.

I have never seen a tractor before with the engine oriented that way that wasn’t shaft drive. Does this tractor use special idlers or something?

You have snow ????

Crazy_Carl wrote:

Good luck cleaning the carburetor. I have my fingers crossed that that’s your only problem.

I have never seen a tractor before with the engine oriented that way that wasn’t shaft drive. Does this tractor use special idlers or something?

Thanks Carl! I'm actually working on it in the basement right now. Also yeah this tractor has a twisted belt setup because the transaxle input pulley is on the side of the trans. So it uses two idlers just under the frame to twist the belt and run along the frame through the cluch and to the transaxle. Kinda complex but it seems to work fine.

biggasmowers wrote:

You have snow ????

Yeah haha, just a skiff. Enough that I was able to have some wicked fun drifting with the Ford around today hahaha!

Hehe I experimented with the park brake (ebrake) in the little bit of snow we got in the impala, good fun I tell ya.

Couldn't see the sticker very well, but did that old engine say 15 hp?? That's pretty low for a big ol oppy like that. There is a 20 horse horizontal oppy like that in the junkyard near me in a cub cadet. Guy said he wanted 200 for it too

No they're both M18's. I think the only horizontal Magnums are the M18 and the M20.

WooHoo!!! I got 'er!! Hahaha.

The carb wasn't dirty, which was weird, so I cleaned it anyway and put it back on. Nothing. Tried a few times, nothing. Put the brand new plugs in outta the other engine. Nothing.....

So I tried a little carb cleaner in the right hand cylinder through the spark plug hole. Boom! Fired right up and stayed running! YES!!! Hahaha. Runs really good too, idles nice and sounds great. I shut it off and started it a couple times as well and she took right off each time. I am very happy with this engine so far, so now I can finally start modding the tractor haha.

Yippie! Don't you love that "it finally started for the first time" feeling? I can't help but wonder if you have a vacuum leak or low compression that made that motor hard to start. I wonder how it's going to do on the next cold start.

Yeah haha, it's pretty great. I'm not sure exactly what the compression is, but it didnt seem low on power at all. I was cruising around at idle no problem so hopefully the compression is fine, it would suck to find out it needs a re-build hahaha.

Don't pull a 3DMachines and lock it up lmao

Haha, I'll try.

Anyways since Carl had me thinking a bit I went back out into the snowy abyss and tried to start up the big scary Kohler. Though cold as ice, she fired right up and ran great! Haha, I'm glad. It must've just needed that little bit of carb clean to prime the whole thing. Hopefully she'll stay running good.

Awesome Job Allis, Got a video yet of her running?

Thanks mighty! I tried to make a video, but it was too dark. I'll try again tomorrow hopefully!

Awesome , are you going to pulley swap it ?

Just a heads up on the that engine.  The hole in the firewall...  I read somewhere that you put the breather tube through the firewall (like your original image)


during summer to pull in cooler air, and it goes engine side in winter (like you have it post engine swap)



to pull in warmer air.  Don't know the truth to that, but information none the less.

Interesting. I guess that helps the carburetor. That way you don’t have to tune it for the cold weather. If the engine always draws the same temperature air, the air fuel ratio will always be right. Of course this only applies if you have a hood lol

Yeah I knew about the snorkel through the fire wall, I just left it that way for now because it's a bit of a pain to weave it in there hahaha.

The cold temps was messing with it wanting to start. Sometimes a motor just doesn't want to fire in the cold. My Jeep was like that with Motorcraft spark plugs, LOL. I would use a torch to heat the plugs up, then prime the carb and wait a few minutes for the gas to evaporate because of the cold, then crank it.

Wow , thats what ive though of doing on a mower engine but never had the guts to hold a hot flame near an area that could have gas vapor.....oh i guess your signature mentions cremation , never mind

Haha, I'm still not sure why it just needed that little prime to start the first time, because now with the engine ice cold I can turn the key with no choke at idle and it fires right up and stays running. So I'm pretty sure it wasn't the cold when I was trying to start it the first time, but who knows. In regards to the tractor not having a hood, I really would like to build a custon grille for it so I figured I'd leave the hood off to remind me to do that, hahaha. I'm also thinking about maybe leaving the side panels off of the tractor and just having the custom grille and then the stock hood. I don't thinking that would mess with the cooling of the engine, it might actually improve it because of the better air flow but I'm not sure. If anyone has some info on that part feel free to share!

Well in the winter you may want the side panels to keep the heat in. Being air cooled, they don’t have thermostats, so their operating temperature is solely dependent on the surrounding air. An engine running too cold is as bad as running too hot. The clearances will be off, oil won’t be quite the right consistency, parts will wear that shouldn’t, and it’s just not good

Well it'll still have the hood on, so that'll house the heat a bit. But I dont think it'll be cold enough to throw clearances off or anything, it's not being run at full throttle constantly so there wont be as much cold air flowing as there would be at full throttle for a ling time. Also remember there's still combustion happening at the top of each cylinder, and I havent actually changed the cooling system on the engine itself. Besides, all the tinwork on the engine actually directs the heat out of the engine bay completely, so removing the side panles shouldn't hurt it. Hopefully hahaha.

I think the engine will heat itself up to a good temperature , cold or not . but it will take longer to get warmed up and get the oil flowing , but it is pressure lubed so i wouldn't worry about it but i would run a thinner weight oil as recommended by the manufacturer . And having the hood side panels off in summer will keep the heat produced by the muffler dissipated .

Yeah that's kinda what I was thinking. I'd like to make the grille with expanded steel or something like that, so there should lots of good air flow.

I guess you could also wrap the exhaust pipes in the fiberglass heat shield for less heat too.

Well since I am being pushed to do dual exhaust (plus I actually would like to as well haha) there shouldn't be a pipe crossing in front of the engine anymore, just one on each side. So that should keep the exhaust heat down I would think.