G'day vint_mow,
Thanks for the info Gadge. I should buy a copy of Gregory's.
The earlier editions of their 'Small Engines' series manuals cover these Kirby 4-stroke models: LV22, LV30/VK30, VK40, LKV40, HK25. These are Nos 112 [1974, 159pp] and 199, which also cover a few Briggs, Villiers and Victa engines, along with some Kirby 2-strokes.
Note that there are two editions of #199, with publication dates of 1982 [232pp] and 1990 [252pp]. The 1990 version covers the Victa PowerTorque 160cc 2-stroke as well as the earlier 85, 125, 160 and 170cc full crankshaft Victa 2-strokes, hence the greater page count.
These are all out of print, but come up on FleaBay often.
I am actually not sure if the engine I have is an LKV40 to be honest. I purchased the engine block "as is" with no idea of the model number. It is actually the same size as the old VK-30 to my eyes, just with valve ports reversed. Everything looks to be the same size otherwise.
So could my engine be an LKV30 or LKV35??? Was there ever such a beast?
I am not sure if there is any way to tell which engine just by looking at it. lol!
Popping off the head to measure the bore and stroke might be the only definite way of working that out!
