Will a Oil/Water Emulsion Freeze Up?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
May 10, 2005
Messages
2,731
Location
Toronto, Canada
Something is severely contaminating engine (Toyota 4Y) oil in our forklift at work. When I first saw the contamination I figured head gasket leak, so I had an oil sample analysed at a good lab, run by the large local CAT dealer. They found lots of water but no glycol.

So I have been checking various systems on the engine but keep coming back to an antifreeze to oil leak through a blown headgasket. I think the lab made an error and missed the glycol.

Today I transferred the drained contaminated oil from the engine from one container to another. It had been sitting outside with last night's temperature being -17C and today's daytime temperature being -8C. I noticed that there were no chunks of ice in the oil/water mixture. Should I conclude that this indicates antifreeze contamination and not water contamination?

The water is really mixed in with the oil. After a week of sitting motionless, there has been so separation whatsoever of water from the oil in the drained oil container.

I am going to try an experiment tonight and leave a mixture of oil and water outside and see if it ices up. The only problem is that I wont be able to mix the water into the oil as thoroughly as the engine did.
 
Is the coolant level dropping in the forklift? That should tell you. Does the forklift get run enough to get good and hot?

I wonder if its a sodium add pack , could the water form an ionic bond with some of the sodium add and not freeze.
 
Last edited:
I can't tell yet if the coolant level is dropping.

Good thing you mentioned add pack, I was going to use some old power steering fluid in my overnight experiment but I should use some Rotella 15w40 which is what was in the engine.
 
I just mixed up 4 parts Rotella 15w40 and one part water in a tomato can and stirred for five minutes with a screwdriver but it did not mix very well. I could still see globules of water. The can is in my shed overnight and I fully expect to see chunks of ice tomorrow morning but it is not going to prove anything because I could not mix it well enough.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top