Emulsified engine oil in Perkins M90

DickB

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Has anyone had water in the engine oil on a Perkins engine. I have taken the cylinder head off and the head gasket looks ok, but I woderif the oil cooler leaked water in. I am not sure where the water has come from!
 
How much water are you talking about? It is quite common for cool-running engines to develop emulsion in the rocker cover. Water in the sump would be a different matter. Does the engine have a camshaft-driven water pump? Failure of the shaft seals is a common source of water in the sump with this type.
 
Hmm the engine had 2 gallons of oil plus 1 gal of water!!! Question is, whether the water is salty or not! I hope it is salty which means the water has come from the raw water, but if it is fresh water (primary circuit) then I have big problems! I tried tasting it but I only could taste oil. Disgusting. I am rebuilding it and will run again and hopefully cured problem. Thanks for the help...
 
I would highly recommend oil analysis in this case.

Hmm the engine had 2 gallons of oil plus 1 gal of water!!! Question is, whether the water is salty or not! I hope it is salty which means the water has come from the raw water, but if it is fresh water (primary circuit) then I have big problems! I tried tasting it but I only could taste oil. Disgusting. I am rebuilding it and will run again and hopefully cured problem. Thanks for the help...

Two recommendations:

1) Go to a salt water aquarium store, they have hydrometers used to set the salinity of an aquarium and will easily tell fresh water from salt water

2) Start an oil analysis program on your engine (I use Blackstone Labs). They were able to point out the raw water pump was starting to leak salt water into the engine long before I could notice it in the oil due to excess sodium in the oil.

I perform an oil analysis on every oil change, in one case it caught an intermittent hour meter as the oil looked fine but near end of use while the hour meter was showing about half that much time on it.
 
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