Water/oil cream in crankcase.

A few months ago i noticed a build up of white emulsion in the sight glass on my 2004 sv650. i change the oil soon after and forgot about it as no more had appeared. now i tried to take it out yesterday and when i tried to start it the starter motor was going but the bike would not fire.

so today i began to remove the tank and air box. after checking the air filter inside i noticed it had sunk in the center as if it was struggling to get air through the filter. removed the baffle from inside the air box and noticed a small buildup of the creamy foam leading from the pipe attached to cylinder one. (pic attached)

Next step was to remove the crankcase and found this!!!!! (see pic 2)

Does anyone have any advice on a next step to help find the fault??

[Grant66]

Looks too much emulsion to be caused by condensation unless you poured some water in the oil filler cap. Is the oil filler cap sealing properly?

The water pump attached to the crank case cover in your picture would be a good start point, there is a o-ring that separates the water and oil located on the pump body.

Other obvious place where oil & water could mix is the head gasket.

[millemille]

Looks like too much emulsification to be normal cold weather condensation build up, possibly a head gasket failure.

You can either have a leak down test done on each cylinder to find any leak (a head gasket failure will either cause bubbles in the coolant expansion bottle or you'll hear hissing out of the oil filler and/or breather) or have a block test done by a local mechanic or garage to see if there's combustion gasses present in the coolant.

[Sid Squid]

Head gasket! Water pump! Whoa stop everyone! Any number of things could be wrong, but the really obvious stuff hasn't been ascertained yet, so:

Two first questions:

1: Does the cooling system level drop?
2: Do you commonly do short journeys?

OP: Please answer these first, before pulling any more bits of engine apart. The answer to the first question will be particularly telling - if it's not losing water it can't be an engine problem, the head gasket or water pump.

[millemille]

Originally Posted by Sid Squid

Head gasket! Water pump! Whoa stop everyone! Any number of things could be wrong, but the really obvious stuff hasn't been ascertained yet, so:

Two first questions:

1: Does the cooling system level drop?
2: Do you commonly do short journeys?

OP: Please answer these first, before pulling any more bits of engine apart. The answer to the first question will be particularly telling - if it's not losing water it can't be an engine problem, the head gasket or water pump.

No, it can't be any number of things.

There's a very limited number of reasons for emulsified oil and once you've ruled out condensation build up - which in 23 years of working on engines I'm confident is not the cause of the emulsification in the pictures - the head gasket or water pump are the two most probable points where oil and water can come together.

The OP hasn't mentioned drowning the bike so that rules out water ingestion.

thank to all for your help, ill try and answer all your questions as detailed as possible avoid confusion.

Grant66 - yes the oil filler cap has been seated properly and the O ring appears to be in good condition.

MilleMille - I'm not quite sure what you mean by a leak down test, May i ask for more details of what that is?? and to get a block test done, i assume it requires me to take the bike to my local garage which causes the problem of how to get it there. just to clarify. the big has never been drowned.

Sid Squid - 1 - no, I haven't noticed any significant drop to the water level in about 3 months from when i last completed a coolant change.
2 - Yes i do, my usual trip to work is 10-15 miles but over the past week i haven't used it much and has only been riding a maximum distance of 5-10 miles.

Once again, thank you all for your assistance with this

[Sid Squid]

@ millemille.
Nothing is known yet, the OP isn't very verbose, so, perhaps a good idea to check that first, no?

SVs have extremely resilient head gaskets - they're really not known for duffing a gasket, I've worked on countless SVs and I can say with absolute certainty I've never seen an SV put coolant through the head gasket into the oil, not once. Water pump failures are similarly rare.

Now, you could be right - both mentioned things COULD be the problem, but the first things come first. Two very important factors are still unknown

Two very important questions that weren't asked.

[embee]

It doesn't take much water to produce that type of emulsion. The key is to look at whether the bulk oil is creamy or just the "cold surfaces", e.g. the clutch cover.

If it's not losing any noticeable coolant from the make-up bottle then considering the time of year and the reported usage it is quite likely (carefully chosen words) that it's condensation effects.

The actual oil used can affect how it is prone to emulsify, some are a bit more prone than others.

The oil needs to get to typically 80C to self-clean effectively. Unless you are using an engine regularly at decent speeds it may well not reach this. I fitted an oil/water heat exchanger (Kawasaki oil cooler) to my curvey and did some fairly basic warm-up measurements before and after. This is the standard set-up from 15C ambient cold start on a ride starting in 30-40 limits for a couple of miles, then 50mph limit and finally on a 60mph road.



As you can see, after even 10mins the oil is only around 50-60C. In a 5C ambient it will be even lower, and thus very prone to condensation/emulsion.

First thing I'd suggest is to sort out the air filter side (as reported) and clean the breather pipes (or at least check they can breathe freely) and take the bike for a long run, an hour at least at 50+mph, to give it a chance to dry out.

As Sid and Mille say, there "may" be other issues, but if it's not losing measurable coolant it's unlikely to be catastrophic.

[yorkie_chris]

Was the rest of the oil lumpy and horrible? Was there free water at the bottom of it?

That crap in breather pipe is not abnormal.

I have recently purchased my SV and the clutch cover was nearly as bad as the one in the pictures, I cleaned it out and the problem hasn't returned. My bike had been stood out in all weathers for 4 years though which probably was the cause as well as the owner just starting the bike every couple of months to warm it up.