Scag Z Cat repower options

[Mr Mower Man]

I have a 42" Scag Z Cat (SZC42A-19KA) in the shop with a ruined engine (Kawasaki FH580V-AS33-R) at 900 hours. Ran low on oil and broke the rods. The hardest part about finding a replacement engine is the exhaust. I can get another FH580V easily enough, but other options (like a Kohler Confidant or Briggs Commercial Series) would cost less. All that is useless, though, if they won't fit. The Scag exhaust is an oval shaped muffler cocked to about 45 degrees, and the rear muffler/engine guard follows it's contour pretty closely. I'm afraid that putting on a Briggs with a standard 4" below deck canister muffler will interfere with the rear guard. There are no drawings that I know of that give me the dimensions of the engine with the muffler attached, which would be great to have in this case. Have any of you run into this scenario before?

[bgsengine]

Sometimes you can find a similar model that had a different engine equipped - often enough engines are shipped without muffler, manufacturer makes the exhaust system to fit, so sometimes you can find the exhaust (or pipes) that was built for the engine brand you're installing Other times you need to do a bit of cutting and welding and fabricating, or re-engineer the exhaust to suit the new engine.

[Luffydog]

If you go to other engines might want to look at the wiring harness for the unit as well.

[Mr Mower Man]

I decided just to go with another Kawasaki FH series engine. I try to stay away from fabrication when possible, since it's not profitable (for me, anyway). The only change I might have to make is to add a starter solenoid somewhere on the frame, since the replacement engine has just a bendix starter, and the original has the shift starter. Unless, of course, I'm able to swap starters. Not sure about that one. I guess I'll have to wait until I get it to see if the old starter will fit the new engine. Unless you all have an idea, of course. The old engine is FH580V-AS33-R, and the replacement will be FH580V-ES20-S. You think the original shift starter will fit the new engine?

[Mr Mower Man]

I thought I'd button this thread up and give you all an update of the finished project. I went with another FH580V from Kawasaki, since I don't think any other engine/exhaust combination would fit without fabrication (which I always try to avoid). The starter on the new engine was a bendix style, but I wanted to avoid wiring in a separate starter solenoid I'd have to mount on the frame somewhere. So I reused the solenoid shift starter from the original engine. I had to use the old engine's metal shroud under the flywheel too, since the hole for the starter gear was different. So that was a bit more disassembly/reassembly on the new engine than I was expecting, but still better, in my opinion, than adding a solenoid somewhere else. The customer is happy, so I am too.