K301 Hard to start, not much compression but does not smoke. Is it valves?

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Dec 14, 2014
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  • / K301 Hard to start, not much compression but does not smoke. Is it valves?
Engine runs, does not smoke but has been getting very hard to start. I can turn the engine two or more revolutions by hand using the flywheel screen and it turns fairly easily with little resistance. I took the head off and everything looks good. Not much carbon and the valves don't look burnt. How do I check them, or is it something else?
Thanks
 
Joined
Dec 14, 2014
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11
  • / K301 Hard to start, not much compression but does not smoke. Is it valves?
I case it matters, I had changed the carburetor, spark plug, plug wire, coil, condenser, points and set timing with timing light to get it to start better but none of this helped. That's when I found the flywheel easy to turn. I did all this before I posted question. I have another K301 to compare this to and it has a lot of resistance when turned by hand and it comes up on compression.
 

bertsmobile1

Lawn Royalty
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  • / K301 Hard to start, not much compression but does not smoke. Is it valves?
remove the plugs on both engines and rotate each one.
I the bad one is subsantially easier to turn the check the cam, the lobes wear off over time so the valves do not move as far as they should.
Handy having a running one to compare to
Can go one step further and pull both rocker covers off and see is valves are moving the same amount on both engines.
 
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