oil slime

[prairiehotrodder]

my 555 BBC always seems to create slimy, milky oil in the valve covers and the oil itself changes color to milky very quickly after an oil change. I've tried royal purple, AMS oil and cheap napa synthetic. Same results. My motor seems to create alot of moisture. The breather bottle gets water in it pretty quick as well. Whats the answer to this problem ? Sometimes i wonder if its a bad idea to use tall aluminum valve covers. Being tall and aluminum they disappate heat on the outside and cause condensation on the inside. Or is there a different oil i should be using ? I just run 10W30 synthetic in the brands mentioned. I need tall valve covers to clear my stud girdles, but should i switch to steel ? I'm using the good moroso 21047 kick-out oil pan which is supposed to prevent windage if thats an help.
Thanks
Brian

[mt-engines]

my 555 BBC always seems to create slimy, milky oil in the valve covers and the oil itself changes color to milky very quickly after an oil change. I've tried royal purple, AMS oil and cheap napa synthetic. Same results. My motor seems to create alot of moisture. The breather bottle gets water in it pretty quick as well. Whats the answer to this problem ? Sometimes i wonder if its a bad idea to use tall aluminum valve covers. Being tall and aluminum they disappate heat on the outside and cause condensation on the inside. Or is there a different oil i should be using ? I just run 10W30 synthetic in the brands mentioned. I need tall valve covers to clear my stud girdles, but should i switch to steel ? I'm using the good moroso 21047 kick-out oil pan which is supposed to prevent windage if thats an help.
Thanks
Brian

what temp does your engine run at? how about oil temp?

[prairiehotrodder]

its a drag race engine. On race day i drive up and down the return road to try and get it up to about 180. Then it sits for an hour and then gets idled to about 140 - 150 before making a pass. Its generally a fairly cool running motor. Don't have an oil temp gage.

[dynoflo]

i think you have more problems than condensation. i had sbc on dyno. broke cam in without using water brake and everything was fine. started making pulls and it started huffing out of breathers. pulled valve covers and small amount of condensation was found. changed oil let run with the water brake use and oil looked fine. started making pulls and it started huffing again. pulled apart didnt see anything wrong. threw block in truck that night and next morning rust mark showed up in lifter gallery. very small crack only leaked when block was under stress.

[RDY4WAR]

its a drag race engine. On race day i drive up and down the return road to try and get it up to about 180. Then it sits for an hour and then gets idled to about 140 - 150 before making a pass. Its generally a fairly cool running motor. Don't have an oil temp gage.

What fuel are you running? Alcohol?

[prairiehotrodder]

i worried about that for awhile, but its been this way since the block was new. First as a 540 now as a 555. I pressured up the cooling system for hours and it never leaked. The coolant is a 50/50 mix of antifreeze. No green coolant ever in the oil, just watery milkiness mostly in the valve covers. If i get it really hot, like 190 -200 it cleans up the valve covers but the oil stays dis-colored.

It runs on AV gas at 12.9 CR

[Roundybout]

It’s not getting hot enough, long enough to burn off any accumulated condensation. But lots of drag racing engines go through the routine exactly like yours and don’t have a problem so as mentioned it’s possible you have a small obscure leak that only shows under race conditions. I’d do a shorter time interval between changes. It shouldn’t be doing what your describing so soon IMO.

If you race under humid or wildly varied weather conditions between oil changes that may account for some of it. Maybe think about an oil pre-heater of some type?

[Schurkey]

My motor seems to create alot of moisture.

Water (steam) is one of the primary exhaust components of an engine.

The breather bottle gets water in it pretty quick as well.

Describe your PCV system. Any chance this "breather bottle" is so restrictive that there's essentially no crankcase ventilation beyond relieving pressure?

[prairiehotrodder]

i have 2 chrome breathers. One in each valve cover and the drivers side one has a hose going to a moroso catch can. There is no PCV valve.

brian

[prairiehotrodder]

My motor seems to create alot of moisture.

Water (steam) is one of the primary exhaust components of an engine.

The breather bottle gets water in it pretty quick as well.

Describe your PCV system. Any chance this "breather bottle" is so restrictive that there's essentially no crankcase ventilation beyond relieving pressure?

I think we have a bingo.

I went and check this out and the breather with the hose was sopping full of slime. I found a piece of pipe and replaced the breather with it. No need to have a breather in the valve cover and on the breather bottle both on the same side.