Oil strange color: please advise...

[nortstudio]

After my 1993 FZR600 sitting for a little over a month, I finally got a chance to start it up yesterday. The oil looked a little low, so I topped it off. When I removed the cap - there was a bit of white "foam" inside the cap (I've seen this when engines don't get up to temp in the cold).

Today I checked it through the sight glass and the color looked odd. Milky colored (for lack of a better term). Can someone tell me if this is just from the cold temps and not running it for so long. The oil doesn't smell odd - but this discovery freaked me out a bit.

I did an oil change about 400 miles ago, approximately 2 months ago (1 of those the bike was just sitting).

I know the photo is not great - best I could do. Best way to describe the color is "baby s#%t brown."

Thanks in advance.

[A-JK]

Your oil has water in it. Check if your coolant level has lowered, if it has your cylinderhead gasket is probably broken and your coolant gets mixed with oil (if so it is likely that the coolant will have a film of oil on it).

[FZRDave91]

Hate to say it man, but I think you have an internal coolant leak... just went through the same thing and my oil looked just like yours.

[nortstudio]

I just swapped to a homemade coolant reservoir (because of chopping the rear fairings). I was afraid that may have caused an issue.

Do you think swapping this may have caused the issue - or is it only possible from a headgasket leak? I will check the coolant level later today - but I'm not sure I can narrow it down with this recent change. It definitely wasn't like this before I messed with things - always looked like good oil color.

Is there any other signs of head gasket leaks I should be looking for?

Appreciate your quick reply.

[FZRDave91]

My bike was really hard to get started because of the blown head gasket (lower compression and coolant fouling the plug up Im sure). The spark plug on the cylinder it was affecting was wet. I also had steam coming out of the tailpipe when it was running. You might also remember hearing a cylinder misfire @ lower RPMs. I wouldn't run it with that in your bottom end, and I hope you were using coolant and not water. Coolant has rust inhibitors and water doesnt, so imagine what that can do to your bearings if it's water and sits in there for a while.
Coolant in the crankcase from my experience/s has been caused by blown head gaskets and cracked cylinder heads. Let's hope it's just the gasket if it is coolant that is in there. I don't see how changing the coolant reservoir would cause what looks like has happened to your bike. Probably just coincidental.

[nortstudio]

Thanks Dave. I definitely had coolant (50/50 blend) in the bike. Hopefully that turns out to be a good thing.

What would be my next steps here? Should I change the oil and see if it happens again????? Or did you just go ahead and swap the gasket??

It does seem like an awful big coincidence that it happened right when I messed with the coolant. Very frustrating.

[A-JK]

The reservoir swap hasn`t done any damage. You should check the coolant for any oil directly at the radiator. If there is oil on the coolant it is definetly the headgasket.

If the headgasket is broken there are quite few thing that may happen: white smoke from exhaust, oil & water get mixed = "baby sh*t in the coolant and/or in the motor, abnormally high pressure in the cooling system (boiling/overheating quickly) to name few.

The best case is if the coolant level is normal and none of the above symptoms match your bike. Then it might just be some consendated humidity in the motor after being unused for so long and all you have to do is change the oil and it`ll be ok.

[nortstudio]

Thanks so much guys. I will definitely check the radiator (and anything else I can) ASAP. I'll hope for condensation - but be prepared for the worst (seems to come with the territory!)

Does it seem that oil change is first step to diagnosis?

[FZRDave91]

Id run a compression test and see if on or more cylinders has low compression. Inspect your spark plugs, they can tell you a lot as well. Either way, I would definitely get that oil out of your bottom end.

You dont want to run your bike with that stuff in there for too long because it makes your oil get foamy and wont lubricate your engine like it should. If you decide to just replace the head gasket, get your head sent off to get checked for cracks and warpage while it is off.

I hope this helps Good luck dude.

[blensen]

I would change the oil before I did anything. Yes you have water in the oil, but that could be from condensation from sitting for so long, especially if the temperature has dropped significantly since the last time you rode the bike. Change the oil and filter, and if you still have the same color, then it's time to consider doing a head gasket replacement.

[DonTZ125]

Call me crazy, but isn't it also possible the seal on the water pump has given up?

[nortstudio]

I'm up for any options to check. I will replace the oil and check for oil in the coolant first. But if you have any specifics of anything else i should check, I would appreciate it.

I'm REALLY hoping that this idle time has something to do with it - because the bike was running pretty decent right before doing these mods (none of which had anything to do with the engine - other than the reservoir swap).

Which "seal" are you talking about? The parts fiche only shows o-rings and a gasket for the water pump?

If the head gasket is leaking, is there supposed to be oil around it on the outside of the head?

[DonTZ125]

Nope. sorry, you're right - disregard. I'm used to the Yamaha 2-strokes that have the water pump driven from an internal shaft, so the seal is a double-lipped affair, with oil on one side and coolant on the other. Once emptied the rad on my '83 RZ350 into my transmission while riding back from CFB Petawawa to Toronto. Nasty, ill-smelling foamy GOO coming out of my tranny breather port ...

Unfortunately, that brings us back to a blown headgasket.

[nortstudio]

Ok, so it looks like my only test is to change the oil, check the coolant, and then worst case, move into plugs and compression to see if that answers my issue.

Sound about right?

[nortstudio]

So I dumped the oil and coolant. The coolant didn't look to have oil in it (it looks thicker green at the radiator cap than in the reservoir - but I think that's normal, no?).

I let some run out into a clean cup from the lower part of the engine - looked great. The part that came pouring out of the hose when I disconnected it went into a bucket that wasn't spotless, but it looked to be clean. I ran some fresh coolant thru and it's coming out clean - but that probably doesn't indicate anything without oil in the engine.

I'll put some fresh oil and coolant in when I get back to garage - and hope for the best.

Thanks for all the help folks.