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.

[Aaron Keown]

I have noticed that if we dyno on a day that it is raining the problem will be much more noticable.There are many things that can make this happen including just about every single one that the posters above me mentioned.IMHO the biggest reasons that this happens depends on the humidity and the fact that these engines just are not run long enough to prevent this from happening.A good example is if you have ever known an older person who will only drive their car to church on Sundays,everything on the car stays in excellent shape except for the exhaust system which will rust away in a year because the vehicle just is'nt run long enough to overcome this.This probably does'nt happen with new cars anymore since most of them have stainless or aluminized exhaust.

[Mike Pearson]

That is interesting about Pennzoil. I use Pennzoil when I dont have synthetic in the engine and I am almost always fighting the milk in the valve covers and condensation on the rockers. I do remove the pan evac lines to let the engine breath when not in use. I am going to try a different oil next time. The humidity is always high in Florida. Any body tried blowing warm air through the engine with something like a blow dryer through the breather hole in the valve cover to chase out the moisture?

[Bimbo Jones]

"I have a 12 volt mattress air pump that will push or pull air that would help remove the moisture even faster." I mentioned earlier works well pulling the moisture out. Any condensation left in the crank case will settle to the bottom and I quickly remove the oil pan drain plug and any milky oil comes out first and I replace the plug quickly as soon as it runs clear, about a 1/2 of a cup or less will do it. If I had the money I would just put a belt driven air-vac pump on it.

[Mike Pearson]

I never get any moisture in the pan. When I drain the oil you would never know that there is condensation in the valve covers. I think I will try the forced air trick. I also use the System One filter. I lost two engines due to filters collapsing. I would never use an over the counter oil filter again on a race engine.FYI they were AC Delco filters.

Thanks,

[Bimbo Jones]

A buddy of mine shut off his dragster after a burnout last season after a burnout due to little or no oil pressure. Someone suggested he check his oil filter first and sure enough it had collapsed. It was a oem Fram filter.

[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