Emulsion on dipstick.

 

Its not water cooled so it can't be a dodgy head gasket - does that mean I'm
not thrashing it enough?

 


Do you park the motorcycle somewhere you can't watch it? Is somebody
angry with you? Maybe that somebody has been adding water to your
crankcase.

I recommend changing the oil if it looks like tea with a lot of cream
in it. Park the motorcycle where it can be watched.

Oil in the crankcase normally stays around 82 degrees C. when the
engine is running.

If the oil temperature gets up to 100 C, it will boil normal
condensation out of the oil. Your cylinderhead temperature probably
gets up around 160 C under normal operating conditions.

That's hot enough to not only boil condensation out of your oil, it
turns the oil into brown wax.

Small amounts of sulfur in the engine oil and fuel combine with
moisture when the engine cools off, forming sulfuric acid which isn't
good for the steel parts inside your engine.

Too bad you can't keep your engine warmed up to operating temperature
all the time.

 



Its garaged over night and when I checked the oil I had to clean off
undisturbed road grime off the filler before unscrewing it.

The oil itself doesnt look too bad, its just a bit of emulsion around the
top of the dipstick.

The motorcycle doesn't do much mileage, last night the temperature outside
was about -5c and I don't think the engine reached what I would call proper
running temperature by the end of the journey.

With the typical journey length that might not happen untill summer.

Seems OK at the moment (if a little thin) the level hasn't fallen at all.
Its about time I changed it but I need to wait for the clocks to go forward
because the previous owner damaged the sump plate casting around the drain
plug and I might need the extra hour of daylight to change the sump plate if
the drain in the old one won't seal back up.

Won't do the alloy parts much good either! Also I use Slick-50 which, if
burned can produce water soluble hydroflouric acid, it etches glass and if
you get it on your hands its like "paint on leprosy", but I've no idea what
it does to metal.

 



Maybe your engine is sucking moist air in through the crankcase
breather system while it sits. Racers have a set of plugs to cap off
everything when they store their machines through the off season.
Carbs, exhaust pipes, any way air or dirt can get into an engine gets
capped off as soon as the engine is cool enough to cap the holes.


Nothing to panic about, just something extra to worry about.


You can always idle the engine until it gets good and hot before you
put the motorcycle away for the night, even if petrol is ? 8 per
Imperial gallon, it's something you should do.

I used to meet a bunch of riders for coffee up at Griffith
Observatory, which was only three miles from home. But I always rode a
15 mile loop to get there with a thoroughly warmed up engine.


It would be rough on aluminum, and if you boiled it and mixed it with
insecticide you could get rid of your pesky Muslim neighbors too. ;-)

 



Funny thing the water vapour from the exhaust at warm up before pulling away
seems a little excessive even for the cold (and often damp) weather we've
had lately, as I said before the oil level hadn't dropped at all so its
unlikely to be burning it. Its used every day so the condensation is
probably due to too short journeys.

There's a row of houses behind the garages and a row of retirement homes
facing the garages, making any more noise than just parking up wouldn't go
down too well late at night!

Sounds like all I need do is give the bike a couple of good runs to clean it
out, we had heavy snow forcast today but when I went outside I actually felt
some warmth from the sun for the first time this year, if it warms up a bit
more the bike won't have to be run so far to clean it out.

AFAIK I don't have any Muslim neighbours - but I do have a neighbour who
richly deserves the slowest most painful death imaginable!!!

Thanks for the advice, maybe the situation will improve as the weather
warms, I'd really like to shift the emulsion so it isn't left in there at
the oil change.