Oil Emuslification

[diogenes]

Can somebody please tell me why my 900i.e. oil has started to froth through the sight window?

1. It is obviously an air cooled engine so no leaking gaskets.

2. The oil is new.

3. The bike is stored at a minimum of 50f to 68f. Not cold!

I can only assume that it may have got some condensation inside when being run in cold weather.

Any advice and suggestions as what to do would be appreciated.

[spacemonkey]

Don't worry me old china, they all do that sir! Condensation old chap. Give it a good blast when the weather warms and it'll bugger off. Til next year. Bye the way, did you change the brand of oil? I found some mayo more than others.

And I always scope this section..

[Elmo]

Dio after a good run remove oil filler cap and leave until engine is cold,this will let the water evaporate away so im told.

[spidermonkey]

dio mines the same more often than not when only taking in a short ride. steve

[diogenes]

Thanks Lads. Very much appreciated. That's why in my opinion this site is brilliant - wisdom, experience and damned good practical advice. Cheers.

p.s. Using Shell Space, as by the book.

[Pedro]

Dio

mine does this over the winter when it only gets short runs - the oil doesn't get hot enough to fully "dry out" the condensation. Having said that, I use Semi-Synthetic Rocl Oil and don't get much in the way of emulsion.

The guys are right - give it a good run and open the filler for a while. Probably also pay to change the oil & filter every 3000 miles too.

Ped

[BoozyBOB]

common problem ..if you only do short rides...
i agree with El Mon...but dont leave the cap off to long as the cooling process also attracts water vapour..

[Didge]

Dio, Mine does it all thru' the winter. Long rides, short rides doesn't seem to matter. BUT......this is what I have found on very close inspection.
The mayo,is not in my oil per se. It seems to only be on the sight glass. When I dump the oil, there is no sign of mayo anywhere.
So....my conclusion is this:- Oil gets reasonably hot, but sight glass is always cooler. The small amount of internal condensate thus accumalates on the sight glass. On short runs, the glass hardly gets warm at all, so problem will be worse.
You may all now thank me for my scientific endevours.
Oily Didge

[McMONSTRO]

You're dead right there Didge, its only in the window, leave the bike in the cold garage and it clouds up, bought the bike into the nice warm dining room to fit some bits on during the cold spell and Hey Presto............clear as the Popes concience :D

McMonstro

[ssrider]

Not sure it happens only on the sight glass.

I commute on my bike (~15 miles each way) so I get quite a lot of build-up in the sight glass. What I tend to do is to remove the oil filler cap for about an hour when I get home each day and that at least keeps it down, or so I thought . . .

Then the neutral light switch packed up a few months ago and when I took it out it was covered in this mayo-like stuff .:mad:

It looks like you can expect to get emulsified oil build-up wherever there are cool parts.