Water in engine oil

[mlh1936]

My 8V 92 has been off the road since October. I have run it approximately once every month since then. I checked the oil today in preparation for a trip back home to Georgia and found that I had no oil showing on the dipstick. I added oil to the engine and when I checked the dipstick it appeared that I had water mixed with the oil. The engine had not previously had any overheating. Do you guys think I have a blown head gasket? How far do you think I could safely drive it in an effort to get to a repair shop? If it is not safe to drive very far, does anyone know of a good diesel repair shop in the Melbourne Florida area?
Thanks.

[TomC]

92 Series engines have wet cylinder liners. Which means the only thing separating the coolant from the oil is the O ring seals on the cylinder liners. The seals have been know to leak especially when the engines sit too much. I always suggest you get the bus towed to the shop to have them look at it and DON'T run the engine. With coolant in the oil, there's a good chance of spinning a bearing and ruining the crankshaft ($$$$$). Much cheaper to get it towed and find out exactly why the coolant is in the oil. I'm betting that you'll need to break down the engine to pull the cylinder liners and reseal them. Good Luck, TomC

[mlh1936]

Thanks TomC, not a pretty picture.

[wildbob24]

The first thing I would do is have an oil analysis done to verify that it is coolant. If it's water with no color, it could be condensation from sitting for the last 6 months.

Bob

[expressbus]

mlh,

Ditto on what Tom C posted. I went through the "where's the water going" after operating for seven years. Took the bus to a heavy equipment repair shop. The two possible sources for water getting into the oil are the water pump, and number two, the cylinder sleeve (liner) seals. If I recall there were three individual seals on each liner. The cooling system has to be pressurized to check on either. To check on the sleeve seals the oil pan has to be off. Took an oil sample and sent it off. Came back with minerals in it that only come from evaporated anti-freeze.

In my case I had one sleeve that was leaking slowly. Pulled the head off and found some vertical scouring of one sleeve so pulled the head on the other bank and found two more scoured liners. I had an in chassis rebuild done. That's another story.

The liner kits ran around $500.00 each shipped from California. Total cost was right around $21,000.  

[TomC]

The wet cylinder liners on 92 Series engines is why I went with a bus with a 8V-71 with dry liners. Good Luck, TomC

[luvrbus]

If the air box drains have water and antifreeze dipping then it will be on the top end head gasket, head or a injector tube, the water pump will not leak into the engine the way they are designed I don't know of any reason to remove the oil pan on a 8v92 to check for a leaking cylinder o-ring ? that can be done at the air box covers

The block has 2 o-rings per cylinder 95% of the time those leak because the cooling system has not been maintained or some guy used the wrong o-rings and used a hand cleaner or soap to install the o-rings and like Bob I would not panic till I had a sample done it could be the air compressor a 500 dollar item  JMO

good luck

[akroyaleagle]

Another possibility is the engine and or transmission cooler.