My husqvarna riding mower has a Kawi with ~600 hours on it and it can be a bit of a pain to start sometimes. I adjusted the valves in it once before and they were VERY loose.I worked on a 2-lung kawi yesterday to no avail. 15 years old, 712 hours. Owner says the first start is rough every year. He says he gets about 2-5 years out of each coil, and there are two. Says about every 2-3 years he has to buy a new float/pin/seal for the carb or fuel spills out the weep hole. we scratched our head yesterday. To me it sounded like it lacked compression, and the spark on both coils (one brand new) looked weak. I suggested he check the flywheel magnets, and it should be checked for compression. Even during the summer, I hear them having to crank it a while to fire. I thought kawi was known for excellent engines.
I think my Yamaha inverter generator uses a 7.5 hp kawi. It has been a smooth and precise engine with zero issues. But, it’s always been babied too, with less than 100 hours on it. It’s still new.
My ancient scag 3-wheel mower has two coil packs on the Kohler Command. It got new ones at around the ~1800 hour mark. I've only ever had the valve covers off of that motor once, and that was to change the gasket. It got a new (cheap eBay/chinese) carburetor around the same time as the coil packs. I'm convinced the hydraulics will die before the engine will.