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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 7:45 am
by Mjollnir
Eeeeeew. That's dirty.
I always think coolant and oil when I hear milky. Maybe your valve cover corroded through. This is a classic symptom of a blown head gasket on a car, but I don't think those are problems on these engines.
My bet is Valve cover corrosion, although I think a cracked cylinder sleeve can also cause oil and coolant to mix. Does it still run well?
Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 1:24 pm
by Jaybr
Brian, I believe the hose your talking about is the vent for the transmission.
What kind of oils are you using? my guess would be engine oil and tranny oil are mixing.
I use Redline in the tranny which a milky yellow color on it's own, not sure what it would look like mixed with motor oil.
Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 3:10 pm
by thomez
Mine drips from that line as well, I believe it is my coolant mixing with my tranny oil. Look in the tranny sight window and see what color it is, or pull your clutch cover. I looked in there and it was a definetly a milky mix :confused:
Also check and see if your coolant level is going down, I can't keep any in the bottle, it is all going into tranny oil, and then leaking steadily out that d@mn hose...
I talked to Doug about it and he said that it was either my cam cover corroded through, or a cam seal.
Pull it apart and let us know what you find, I bet I have the same problem as you do. Probably nothing serious, it will just need a major cleaning, and the part in question replaced, and put back together.
Sorry for your bad luck... I got it too :confused:
Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 4:34 pm
by thomez
I'll bet it is your cart plate gasket or something then. Mine was coolant for sure... the level goes down... consistently. It still runs like a top, everything works perfectly, just leaks... :confused:
Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 7:28 pm
by Jaybr
You can't replace anything on a dale with the motor in the frame, except the clutches and oil filter:mad:
Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 5:39 pm
by NRath
I would find it unlikely that the coolant were working it's way to the left side vent hose. The coolant would have to leak through the cam seal into the engine oil. Then, there would have to be another leak to get it from the engine oil to the tranny oil, which is where that vent line feeds from. Now all that fluid swapping would have to happen without overfilling the engine oil or it would start puking. Hmmmm... sounds unlikely to me.
Is it a steady drip or just once in a while? If it's rare, it could be this- your riding and hit some water, a little water goes in the hose a couple inches. That mixes with the oil residue in the line and drips out milky. It's an idea, a definite possibility, but no farther out there than the coolant into the engine into the tranny in my mind. Neither one seems that likely to me, though. Mine's never dripped that I noticed and I've seen a mud hole or two. SO back tot he question- steady or rare?
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 12:37 pm
by bknight
:mad: :mad: im in the same boat as you briansgi
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 12:54 pm
by cannondale27
Look for loose bolts or seeing that the engine oil isnt contaminated I would look at the oil pumps.Scavenger pump look for it being loose or seal.On the main pump(one with filter on it)look for missing epoxy in the checkvalve holes.It would seem oil is being pumped into the tranny.But dont overlook the possibility of there being a airlock somewhere in coolant system which would prevent the coolant level from going down in bottle.It could be possible to have some kind of blockage which could cause a headgasket(o-ring)failure from overheating and lose all cylinder coolant into trans.It is doubtful but it just seems weird that mixing the two oils would make it milky.Maybe mix some up in a cup to see what it looks like.I have already found plastic caps in the waterpump so nothing would really suprise me.
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 1:06 pm
by cannondale27
Mix some up and see.Then you will know.
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 5:02 pm
by NRath
Light grey definitely sounds funny for an oil/oil mixture. What kind of oils have you been running? It actually may be better than expected. I have heard of the tranny taking in some water if you've been playing/riding in it. Ryanstones took on a lot of water once. I think it goes in through the vent hose. That would definitely make it grey-milky looking. With that possibility, before dropping the engine, unless you just want to, finish the oil change and go for a ride. See what it looks like, then. You may save yourself a lot of trouble. I'm terrible about looking for the most complicated solution to a problem only to find it was the simplest!
Also, when Stones filled with water, it killed his clutch plates- hope you don't see the same thing!