water in oil

[mustangdart]

Due to $ problems my dart was parked all summer. I drove it into the shop and dropped the oil, it was milky looking. Pulled the valve covers and there was white milky sludge all over. It was the same thing when I pulled it out of storage this spring. Is this condensation or do I have a leak? I run E85 could this cause a condensation problem? If it was a water leak shouldn't the sludge be green and smell like antifreeze?

 

[67Dart273]

This is probably condensation. I'd change the oil, run it and get it VERY good and warm for several hours to drive out the humidity, then change the oil AGAIN and run it long enough to then determine if and what you have going on

 

[billytuffnuts]

I'm thinking you've got a blown head gasket or other coolant leak. I don't think just water would cause your oil to become milky, thats more of a coolant and oil mix kinda thing. Plus I can't imagine there being that much condensation that it would cause all your oil to do that.

Check your coolant...if coolant is leaking in to the engine then its possible for oil to contaminate your cooling system.

Definitely change your oil, and then again shortly after. I would probably go rent a cooling system pressure tester and see if it holds pressure before running it though as you can ruin your bearings with whats in there now. If it holds pressure then maybe I'm wrong, but if it doesn't...theres some more work ahead of you.

 

[moper]

If you live where the temperatures fluctuate a lot (like I do in CT) then it's probably just condensation. You have to drive the car and get it to operating temps for a little while now and then, or keep it inside. The condensate will just boil out of the oil if you run it normally, but if you have milky now, you should change it.

 

[RustyRatRod]

Puzackly. It might be normal for your situation. I would remove the valve covers and drain plug and dump diesel fuel all over the heads until it ran clean out of the drain plug. let it drain out real good put the plug back in and a new oil and filter and see what happens. Oil is like a sponge if you don't heat it up and burn all the contamanents out. It will just keep gettin worse and worse if it's not heated beyond a certain temp on a regular basis. I bet that's all it is. Certainly worth spendin a few bucks on to find out.