Hi All,
I have a Kohler 10E in my 396. It has a Ford VSG-413 4 cylinder gas engine with a build date of 2002. The generator has low hours on it and is in great shape except for one thing. One of the exhaust valves rusted into place slightly open, probably from lack of use before I bought the boat. I removed the head and a machine shop got the valve out, but it is damaged. The head itself is fine. Finding parts for this engine (other than some tune-up parts) is very difficult. Kohler has discontinued most parts for this engine. Their list prices for some of the parts (they don't have) is 10X-20X the typical price from a distributor. This engine was used in other applications such as Bobcats and skid-steers. I have tried industrial and farm sites. I found a few items but no valves or push rods. I think I have a line on a head gasket set as a custom order from Clevite through Jegs. We'll see if it actually shows up. I also found a site in England (MotorDoctor.co.uk)that has parts for Ford cars which share some of the parts, but their shipping to the US is quite expensive (although way less than a new generator) I am going to contact them to verify if parts for the J6B Ford engine found in older Fiestas will fit the VSG413. The valve specs are identical. I have placed an order for a custom valve from Manley Performance to replace the bad one, but I can't find a replacement pushrod. Has anyone run across a source for parts for this engine? I hate to replace a genset that could run for many hours with a few bucks in parts. Several sites list parts for this engine, but most don't actually have stock and can't get the parts. I will share any sources I find. I 'm sure somewhere there's a warehouse with a bunch of new old stock or replacement parts that is just not accessible through internet searches. I hope we can pool some knowledge and avoid spending $14K on a new replacement.