Dave Jenner Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Just another quick question aimed at all you B81 experts! Just some opinions sort please. The engine is running pretty sweet now and all efforts on continuing the restoration work are on the body. I just happened to dip the oil yesterday and was surprised to see that it was very pale, a bit milky looking. Alarm bells of water in the oil sounded, so I took a small plate off from the plug side of the rocker box and stuck my fingers in. No nasty frothy stuff, still oil that looks a little milky but lots of water droplets on the top of the inside of the rocker cover that came out on my fingers. I checked same on our other Salamander (MK6) and oil was also milky looking. The engine on this vehicle has not been run for over 12 years. The hanger the vehicles are stored in is cold and quite damp so I'm wondering (and hoping) this is just a characteristic of that. Once I've worked out the how! I'll be doing an oil change. It's a dry sump oil system by the way which I assume is common on Stalwart, Saladin and Saracen? Cheers Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Hi Dave, As the Salamander does not have long runs, the condensation in the top of the engine is quite normal. The engine does not get hot enough to evaporate it off, and while standing and cooling down it re-occurs. On some low use engines, a creamy sludge gathers in the rocker cover especially if the oil is not changed regularly, often refer to as "mayonnaise" as it looks similar. cheers Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wally dugan Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 DAVE you have come across a problem which is common when you have vehicles stood for long periods of time there are many papers written on this subject mainly on those that are in museums giving ideal storage conditions of temperature and humidity which is costly to instigate starting and running for short periods is worst than not running at all we were lucky the museum at Beverley it was ideal for storage as both the temperature and humidity were constant summer and winter without any major cost but we also had storage at leconfield which was far from prefect were this problem was a constant worry if you want to know how we dealt with this l would be happy to help you regards wally Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Jenner Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 Thanks Richard and Wally, you have both confirmed what I thought was probably the problem, it's nice to have that second or third opinion though! Wally, yes I would be interested to know about how we might be able to alleviate the problem. Cheers Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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