Help needed - oil became grey tacky, water mixed?

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I have pulled maybe a dozen rocker covers off of auto, motorcycle and boat engines over the years. None required a new gasket. In one or two of them the gasket stuck to the top on one end and the bottom on the other and I ended up breaking it. A little Permatex at the broken joint sealed it up. But with more care you should be able to separate the two sides without breaking the gasket.



David
 
Thank you all, will post picture of what surprise I will found under the cover :)

L
 
I have rebuilt dozens of engines over the years. Most valve covers are not fitted with sealant on both sides of the gasket. This is to make it moderately easy to remove a valve cover for valve adjustment and potentially for injection work. If the gasket sticks on removal often you can gently work it free without damage or even carefully use a razor blade to free the sticking gasket areas.

Having said that some engines don’t use a valve cover gasket. We use to use stressed valve covers in formula cars I use to race and therefore used only sealant do the large forces. They never leaked but had well machined surfaces. I would not use more sealant than needed to avoid some from breaking loose inside the engine

As I said in an earlier post, I recently went through this on my diesel genset. I would definitely remove the valve cover to inspect and make sure you don’t have significant mayonnaise Coolant induced mayonnaise can be much harder to remove the seawater contamination
 
Former racers now doing Diesel Trawler Boats

Silver Linings 1,

Glad to hear you used to be involved in racing & working on Formula cars.
I can attest that you learn a lot doing that & many things you learn transfer to other things you do in your life. :)

I did to, In SCCA, predominately - Formula Ford, - FF-2000 - , -FC, - Formula Super Vee & - Formula Atlantic were the main classes I was involved in. Dabbled in a few others here & there as well. :socool:

Also did a lot of Sports 2000, CSR & DSR sports racers stuff & now the newer P-2 class for prototypes.

Not many of us still around. :eek:

Just wanted to say hi from a fellow former racer that is into Diesel Trawler Boats now.


My 2 cents - When gluing down a valve cover gasket, I prefer to have it glued to the valve cover & not glued to the engine head. You can take the V/C off & get it out of the engine room & work on it where you have more room than in the ER. Much easier & less bleeding by the mechanic.

Thanks.

Alfa Mike :thumb:
 
Last edited:
Hi Alpha Mike. It is good to hear from a fellow racer. I worked at a couple Porsche shops in high school and through college Then I started roadracing motorcycles for several years and then switched to formula cars. Mostly raced SCCA nationals and the pro 2 liter series. FC and FF2000 but worked on some FF1600s as well.

I got pretty in to data acquisition and started doing my own triple Penskies and doing some custom wings and aero fab. Between that and learning how to build racing engines and properly setting up a gear box, one really can learn some nice engineering skills that carry over into other parts of life as you mention

It’s been very helpful on the boat when something goes wrong on an island in the middle of nowhere. To be honest, same with my regular job, the skills learned from engineering a formula car have been very helpful.

Are you in the California area?
 
Today we went again for a short ride, 1h full cruise speed. I measured oil temp and max temp has been 91C what is perfect. Also after the ride I checked oil, after 2 ride of 1h each oil is cleaner than ever, never got a so nice looking oil! I guess the multi oil change flushed all the dirt but maybe also the fact that engine and oil run warmer make things better.
I did not open the rocker cover yet by lack of time, I needed to finish batteries charger replacement and alt rewiring.
However today I found a tiny oil leak I searched for during the last 2 years! It was coming from a fitting on the oil pan, on the oil hose going from the pan to the filter. Oil was slightly leaking from the fitting and then follow the hose from below so was not visible while looking from above. Another thing to fix :)

L
 
Looking back I'm glad you fixed it and you were very active about what happened on here.

Now to one of your first questions. The only time I've seen oil milky from condensation was on propane forklift motors that were ran only a few minutes at a time and hardly warmed up to burn off the moisture from using propane as a fuel source.
 
I still not 100% convince the issue was created solely by the oil cooler (I am not a believer and always full of doubt) BUT it gave me the chance to get some lesson learned like:
1. Engine was running too cold.
2. My coolers setup is not clean (hanging, not well supported).
3. found an oil leak on a oil hose fitting I was looking for.
4. Found a oil hose that was damaged, and I would not have been to see it without removing the oil cooler.
5. Found that the exhaust water injection hose was shafing and subject to be damaged.

All this said I also realized that an oil change can be done in 20 minutes and cost me 30$ filter included, so I will change my oil change schedule to 50h instead of 100h in an effort to try to keep oil (and passage etc) cleaner. I am stunned to see my oil clear and clean after 2h run while before it was becoming black just after a first run.

Only thing that worries me a bit is that a as oil is warmer, oil pressure is lower than it was before, but in the norm for the engine. Before oil pressure was never going lower than 40psi at cruise speed ( 1800rpm), now after 30 min when max temp is reached pressure is 30psi ( as mentioned before norm is between 30 to 60psi at normal speed). I guess I am a bit too much paranoid.

I have 2 questions if anybody has any info:
1. Is there any more precise oil pressure gauge then the faria I have. Mine is brand new and works fine but the range is 0, 20, 40, 60, max and not really precise.
2. I would like to fit an oil temp sensor and gauge, what would be the best place to fit the sensor?

L
 
The oil viscosity thins out a little when it warms up causing the oil pressure to drop off a little. Glad to hear you're making progress and catching those little troubles before they become big problems. :thumb:
 
Lou,did you change the oil grade? Straight 30 might mean thinner oil at working temp than 15-40.
Do you have any specs of acceptable oil pressure ranges for the engine?
You must have done a good job extracting the old oils. I had a startling improvement in oil clarity after the mechanic used a vacuum extractor pump overnight on my engines.
 
BruceK said:
Lou,did you change the oil grade? Straight 30 might mean thinner oil at working temp than 15-40.
Do you have any specs of acceptable oil pressure ranges for the engine?
You must have done a good job extracting the old oils. I had a startling improvement in oil clarity after the mechanic used a vacuum extractor pump overnight on my engines.
Click to expand...
Nope did not change oil grade, still use SAE 30, and for sure it is thinner than before. I checked oil 10 min after stopping the engine and it was thinner (and hotter) than it was before while cooled.
Spec of oil pressure are 30 to 60psi at full speed, min 12psi at idle so I am still in the normal range, just at the lower end of the range when oil has reached its highest temp.

L
 
Last update on the subject. We just came back from our last cruise of the season (so sad). We did two cruise legs, 4h then 3.5h. Everything went perfect, as the engine warmed oil pressure dropped and stabilized, everything was in correct range from oil pressure, oil temp and water temp. Not any trace of smoke in exhaust during the first leg, some white smoke (vapor) today but it was expected as it was very cold outside, nothing to worry about. Checked oil after each leg and it was perfect clean, golden look, tiny traces of black particles but very few compared with before (oil was black after first run before). Looks like having oil warmer while running is just doing better!
Boat will be hauled out this week, next step for me is to replace and reroute nicely raw water hoses, remove the oil cooler that is still in place (not connected to oil lines), redo tranny oil cooler support and replace all oil hoses with new ones.
I was very happy to see my engine running well ! :)

Thank you everybody for all your input and help.

L
 
Well done Lou, definitely a short season back there.
 
Greetings,
Mr. X. "...definitely a short season back there." Yup. Mr. L_t and friends at home...


200.gif
 
LOL dear Mr RTF you are right on target! This morning was 5C outside when we woke up, 12C in the boat, not bad but that the beginning of the end for this year.
Mr XsBank yes that was a short season between mechanical issues, battery charger swap and work obligations, hopefully next year will be better, just 1000 things to do :)

L
 
Greetings,
Mr. L_t. Yes, indeed 1000 things to do...always. BUT, I find, I usually learn a little something in most if not all of those 1000 things. I used to attempt to do 3 or 4 things at once and as a result, none of them got done well, or at all. Prioritize the list and do one thing at a time doing the MOST important first. You may only get 3 or 4 of the 1000 things done but if the MOST essential, you should be ready to go first day in the Canadian spring (I think that's about June 27th isn't it?).
Are you going to cruise the Rideau again next year?
 
Lou_tribal said:
LOL dear Mr RTF you are right on target! This morning was 5C outside when we woke up, 12C in the boat, not bad but that the beginning of the end for this year.
Click to expand...


Hi Lou the season is also coming to an end here. Yesterday dropped to 106 degrees (41C). Ohh the horror of the coming winter!

PS - wanna switch places???
 
RT Firefly said:
Greetings,
Mr. L_t. Yes, indeed 1000 things to do...always. BUT, I find, I usually learn a little something in most if not all of those 1000 things. I used to attempt to do 3 or 4 things at once and as a result, none of them got done well, or at all. Prioritize the list and do one thing at a time doing the MOST important first. You may only get 3 or 4 of the 1000 things done but if the MOST essential, you should be ready to go first day in the Canadian spring (I think that's about June 27th isn't it?).
Are you going to cruise the Rideau again next year?
Click to expand...
Indeed, one thing at a time we will get there!
We expect to be back on the Rideau next year, not sure when tough. We may try it during month of September instead of going at the opening like previous time. We will avoid July/August months for sure. September would also give me make time to get the boat prepared to get back on water in spring instead of rushing as usually.

L
 
Glad to hear this water in oil problem has been resolved. Maybe next year will be a good year for water time.
 
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