Kohler 7 3E

[Carverlvr2]

I’m back to tackling the genny again. Hoping someone here can shed some light. Kohler 7.3e, 2004 with 900 hours. The genny was hard starting last season (the few times I got to run it) and found the electric choke adjustment and new plugs and that seemed to help reduce the cranking time but then I noticed it would run great until I put the soundshield back on. It would shut down within a few min of closing it up. Didn’t do that the previous season. I don’t know if it’s shutting down for high temp or lack of air or some other cause so I pulled the entire soundshield off, pulled the spark arrestor and carb for cleaning/rebuild, and pulled the heat exchanger to back flush just incase that was causing an over heat. Replacing the thermostat too just for good measure. I noticed two things when dissembling:
1. The foam in the soundshield was clearly imprinted with the choke, carb connections, and coolant cap. In the top sitting too far down?
2. There’s a chamber that sits between the flame arrestor and the carb. There are two hoses coming off either side but the one on the left was not connected and had oil everywhere. What does this do? This could also be the source of the oil I’m finding in the pan and all over the back and side.
I appreciate any help you can provide.

[Carverlvr2]

Ok. I figured out the larger hose that was sitting disconnected is the crankcase vent tube and can certainly explain some or all of the oil I keep seeing but I’m now wondering if that got knocked off accidentally at some point or can it build up enough positive pressure to blow off? I would love to learn more about how all this works.