Milk in valve covers

[Bimbo Jones]

What FED 387 said about the Pennzoil being the worse about milking. I run a fuel injection setup on my sbc dragster and in heavy humidity 40-50% or more I'd still have some stuff in the valve covers. I would pull the exhuast vac off the valve cover after running the motor up to 200 degrees while I loaded it up in the trailer and I have a 12 volt mattress air pump that will push or pull air that would help remove the moisture even faster. I went from changing oil after 10 or 12 runs(twice a month) and now I wait until I start feeling guilty which is usually 4 or 5 races(I could go longer judging by the way my oil looks). I also have a System 1 oil filter so which I check after a race just to keep an eye on things.

[MikeMoller]

I had this on small block motor, used small amount of thread sealer on the head bolts and the problem went away.

[FED 387]

Believe me when I tell ya we tried everything--pressure tested the heads/magnafluxed the block/replaced every gasket that was even near water/sealed every bolt that was near water/checked for cracks or leaks every where even swapped out engines but still using Pennzoil and finally after talking to Glidden at the Gators when he borrowed some spark plugs from me he suggested switching brands of oil and it magically went away---seems the moisture mixes with the Pennzoil differently than it does with the other brands of oil resulting in the milky look we switched to Valvoline then and never had a problem like that again

[Eddies66]

This is an ole one that I was thinking about and wondering if this may be the problem. My Dad used to tell his mechanics and me to stay away from Pennsylvania oil because it had a high ash content. It would reck havoc in a Detroit Diesel by clogging the injectors, they switched to Valvoline and the problem went away. This is really ole school stuff here.

http://www.baileycar.com/oil_overview_html.htm

[charliejr]

This used to happen to our small block. Ever since we warm it up to 180-200 the "milk" went away and the oil looks clean

[Lew Silverman]

I found this is a fairly common problem when the engine doesn't reach operating temperature. The valve covers are one of the cooler areas on an engine, so they tend to collect the moisture. When the engine warms up the condensation goes away.

Has anyone experimented with a block heater? I seem to remember that someone used to install a heater in the cooling system to bring the engine up to temperature quicker and cut down on the warm-up which just seems to flush the cylinder walls with fuel. It might also help with the condensation in the valve covers.

Lew