water in the oil???

[Graeme Smith]

I am helping a friend who has been adding coolant on a regular basis, not a lot of coolant, but still needs topping up, we use a catch can setup to handle the coolant top up, ie the std RW surge tank is gone and in its place a standard racing catch can is installed where it can be easily seen. The catch can receives any coolant that is released via the radiator cap, then when all cools down that coolant flows back into the radiator, same idea as most cars. The catch can has a coolant level tube that can be seen so the owner knows it has lost some coolant. When he dips the oil tank no water is seen, the oil is visually as it should be. the only place where we see the creamy oil is in the oil catch can (it is connected to the vent tube on the oil tank and its job is to separate any oil in the fumes coming from the oil tank, it has a dip stick and we see about 2 mm of creamy oil when it is removed for inspection. We have pulled off the barrels and checked for cracks between the sleeves at the base of the barrells, no visible crack is seen, and inside the crankcase shows only oil, no creamy at all. So now I have run out of ideas of where the coolant could be getting into the catch can and only there??
Whilst we have the barrels off we plan to machine of the fire ring protrusion and replace with the solid full face gasket and studs, When looking at the talon engine set up it shows the solid head gasket and a base gasket, so I am wondering how much should be machined of the barrels to allow for these instead of the current no base gasket and the fire ring setup, any ideas??

[Graeme Smith]

These photos are of the bores of the cylinders, should we be concerned I plan to pressurise the water jacket (15psi) and spray soapy water over these marks etc, to see if any are leaking

[Graeme Smith]

[Lyle Swallows]

yikes, a pressure test for sure, that does look likes its been pitted, either from sitting, or from the backside in the water jacket.
let us know the results!

[Graeme Smith]

Update, we have pressurised the water jacket in both cylinders, sprayed soapy water everywhere and have not found any leaks, no crack can be seen and no bubbles between the cylinders.
We cannot see any cream colour anywhere in the crankcase, we can see some cream in a couple of push rod covers and under the pax rocker cover.
Our next testing we will heat up each head and pressure test again as well as the barrels. any other thoughts / suggestions appreciated

[Lyle Swallows]

i think the cream you're finding is typical combustion by product/water vapor in the ambient air condensing and mixing with the oil.

any ICE engine will develop that creamy water vapor in the crank case ventilation system.

now for your missing coolant, if the system isnt able to be sealed and is open to atmosphere then the boiling point will be lower than ideal and isolated boiling will occur in the cylinder heads turning to vapor in the coolant system which could then vent to atmosphere.

do you know the coolant system is getting pressurized and holding?