Quote:
Originally Posted by lovehamr
Really, enlighten me further vis a vi the water leak in my Buell XB12X please. Maybe in Carlsbad this doesn't happen, but here on the southeast coast this can happen anytime the temp drops and people don't operate their internal combustion engines to full operating temp on a regular basis. That means gas or diesel; water, oil or air cooled. The “brown muck” would be properly termed an emulsion, and while I would agree with others who’ve said that “evaporation” can occur at almost any time, when the water is suspended in an emulsion it is essentially trapped by enveloping oil thus slowing or nullifying any ambient temp evaporation. If, on the other hand, the engine and its fluids are brought to full operating temp (my Canton thermostat doesn’t open until 212 degrees F) then that same water becomes gaseous not just vaporous. At this point, what water is trapped in the emulsion will be released during the resultant expansion allowing it to be vented. The salient point is that if the oil is never brought up to sufficient temp for this to occur then the emulsions will continue to collect and hold water. If this emulsion reaches the sump and is pumped through the oil system then this will result in damage to the engine and I don’t see how anyone could argue that point as it is not an unknown occurrence. And just so that we are clear on this; water (gaseous) IS a major byproduct of the combustion process. For those who didn’t take chemistry in high school (or don’t remember it) gasoline would be represented by C8H18. Its combustion, in the easiest sense of the word is to carbon dioxide and water and could be expressed thusly: 2C8H18 + 25O2 ~> 16CO2 + 18H2O |
And if anyone needs further proof of this, come look at my wife's car....it gets driven about 1.5 miles in the morning, then parked all day and 1.5 miles home and parked all night...in the winter, by the time she gets to work, the heater is just starting to blow warm air..take off the oil fill cap and you'll see just what Steve is talking about..“brown muck”. I try to use it for my work (about 250 miles per day of highway driving) at least once a month to help minimize this....
and if that's not enough, come by my shop and I'll crank up my race car for you and you can see for yourself. Each valve cover has a 12AN fitting with a 3/4 inch inside diameter clear hose going to a vented catch can in the passenger front corner of the radiator support, so the clear lines are about 3 feet long each.When I crank it up when the outsdie air temp is say,60 or lower, the condesate in those clear hoses is amazing, I'd bet a tablespoon in each during warmup, that's why I have them going down hill so the condensate will flow into the catch can and not back into the engine. but the point is, the block and all internal components are cold and condensate will form on the inside of the crankcase/block and drip down into the oil pan...long drives at highway speeds gives this time to vaporize or evaporate off......on the race car, a 20 to 30 minute race with my oil temp at anywhere from 220 to 250 degrees will take car of the condensate, that and frequent oil changes......
David