FRANK - I was actually kidding Tom H about over-heating his CC's engine. When it's really cold, single digit temps, these air-cooled Kohler's actually run too cool. I almost found out about this the hard way right after I rebuilt my K241 the first time back in 1985. I blew a LOT of snow with it that winter, then mowed with it a couple times that spring. Sometime in May I get a phone call from one of my friends to come over to their new house they bought... "Oh... and Bring your CC along.." He wanted me to mow his back yard which had foot or more tall grass with dead grass and clippings from being mowed with a Bush-Hog mower on a small farm tractor 2-3 times the summer before. I ran my CC wide open as hard as it would go for an HOUR, then I started hearing a knock. I let it idle to cool off, then went back to mowing at a easier pace by only taking 6-8 inches of tall grass per pass. NO third gear mowing in THAT back yard! I was running over garden rakes, nails, toys, etc... had one flat tire when I loaded it in my truck.
I did an oil change after I found an oil analysis kit and sent in the sample. All that snow blowing that winter had loaded the oil up with condensate water and gasoline from running too cold. Had thinned the oil out and I was lucky I didn't sieze the rod on the crank, break the rod and window the block while mowing. Small factoid I read years ago... burning ONE gallon of gasoline produces FIVE quarts of water... and when your engine runs too cool a lot of that water ends up in your engine oil.
So it's probably a good idea to change your Kohler's engine oil after 20 or so operating hours in winter because of running in cold temps. The oil stays colder and won't boil the water & gasoline out, and working the engine hard like I did won't remove it soon enough to prevent damage in most cases.
Pushing snow with a blade takes much less HP from a CC engine, they run even colder than a CC with a blower.
