Questioni live up in the frozen North in Winnipeg,put my Spit in a tent style garage for the winter with new oil & anti freeze,we had a particularly bitter winter with a couple weeks -40c and i'm not sure if this was the first time it had been stored outside like this,anyway when the weather broke about a month or so ago i went in to start it up checked the cardboard i'd put under the car, not much in the way of leaks so started it up and pulled it around the house into the drive,did some cosmetic stuff put alloy rims on etc. went for a ride around the block checked the oil and it was completely emulsified,checked the rad and it was down quite a bit,i knew to expect something bad but i changed the oil and drained the old filter as much as it would put it back on and ran it for a while,the oil didn't seem to discolour as much as i expected over a few runs so i did a complete oil change with a new filter and have been keeping a thorough check on the oil,it's been a couple of weeks since and about a hundred miles or so and the oil is not discoloured,oil pressure is good no steam ever came out of the exhaust i'm scratching my head still.Any ideas?
AnswerAs to why the oil got contaminated?
More than likely due to freeze/thaw/condensation; the actual mechanics of what leaked where is likely in the head itself.
Normally when cars are stored over the winter, the recommendation is to remove all fluids and purge the system so that no fluids are stored; but investigate more, I'm not an expert in storing at -40c.
As long as you dont see water droplets on the oil dipstick, and the inside of the oil filler cap doesn't look like peanut butter, you're probably ok; Keep with the changing of the oil; that's the only real way to get the water out, get to run at temp for along period of time, that should drive most of the water out of the oil and passages in the engine, and then change the oil; that should be sufficient.
