moisture in engine oil?

My cub has some moisture in the engine oil. Mostly just high on the dipstick. Oil itself looks to be fine. 2 weeks ago it was just fine and was fine before that. Exhaust does not smell like antifreeze and antifreeze level is the exact same as it was a few weeks ago. Engine runs flawlessly so surely it can't be blown head gasket or a crack. Left me scratching my head??????

Condensation can cause that. Easy way to check islet it sit a few days then do not start it but slowly open up the drain plug and do so just enough to get it to start dripping. If just water you should get a water drip. If it is antifreeze it should be green in color. Either way that will help you figure it out and also get the water out of the oil

Condensation. You're not getting the thing hot enough to burn it off.

Allan

I for sure ain't had it hot enough to burn off any water. What would be a good way to get the moisture out? Sea foam claims it can do that but I have only put that in fuel not oil. Smells just like alcohol so scared me to do so.

Do as I said or take it out and run if good and hard for a couple hours. Also does it have a thermostat in it if in fact it should have one?? I do not remember if the cub had them or not been to long since I messed with the one a friend always has me work on for him

Every gas engine car or truck I've owned since 1973 has done that in winter. Don't worry about it. It's not hurting a thing.

That crap will plug up drain holes and pump filter screens.

Quit using the tractor for 20 minutes at a time, get it HOT; change the oil often until it clears up.

Whenever I see an engine like that, I consider it abuse.

Allan

That brown goop never gets close to any small oil passages. You only see it in places where no oil circulates and that are away from engine heat. Places like the top of dipsticks like in this case and oil fill ports. There's none of that goop in the crankcase. No need to change the oil, an oil analysis would show no fuel or coolant in the oil.

Any place that warm, not hot oil circulates will be clean.

Yes, running the engine for longer time periods helps, as does covering the entire radiator to raise engine temp. Idling the cold engine actually makes the accumulation worse, lowers engine temp more. But running ANY engine when it's really cold is hard on it.

It's funny.... You think something harmless like this is abuse and is bad....yet you store ALL your equipment outside in the weather which is the worst thing you can do to equipment!

Just FYI, my Farmall 'H' with a clear, open-front radiator area will not warm up in winter, it pulls too much cold air. With the radiator air completely blocked off, NO air flow, it warms up nicely but only up to the 140F to 160F range. I do think that's hot enough to get rid of moisture, but it sure isn;t boiling hot.

I should have though of that. I cover the radiator on my hunting truck to warm up. Only issue is as of right now I don't have a temp gauge on it. But trust me that is for sure to come.

Dr Evil, Respectfully, I'm going to call you out on this "sludge is harmless and doesn't get in any oil passages." comment you made. Your just plain wrong on both of those. Engine sludge is generally caused by excess moisture in the crank case. Think about it. You say it's not in the crank case, only on the dipstick and the oil fill port. Well guess where the dipstick is? It's the crank case. The sludge foam from the moisture floats to the top because of the air in the foam, but guess where the rest of the moisture goes? To the bottom of the oil pan where the pickup tube is for the oil pump! That contamination is being circulated through out the engine to all oil passages large and small. To clear out this contamination, the engine needs to be brought up to running temperature, change the oil, then run it more and drive out the remaining moisture. I don't know if this tractor uses a thermostat, but if it does, it probably needs a new one. It's very hard on an engine to not ever get up to proper temperature. You never drive out the condensation if it always runs cold. Sludge builds, and eventually, the engine oil passages clog up and premature bearing failure occurs. I've opened up many sludged up engines that were just neglected or the owner didn't realize they had a problem with engine temperature. A bad thermostat sometimes makes an engine run hot, but if it's stuck open in cold weather, it won't let it get warm. If the engine is so old it never had a thermostat, there were manual ways of controlling the engine temperature, like covering the radiator.

I pasted your post below for argument purposes.

"That brown goop never gets close to any small oil passages. You only see it in places where no oil circulates and that are away from engine heat. Places like the top of dipsticks like in this case and oil fill ports. There's none of that goop in the crankcase. No need to change the oil, an oil analysis would show no fuel or coolant in the oil. Any place that warm, not hot oil circulates will be clean. Yes, running the engine for longer time periods helps, as does covering the entire radiator to raise engine temp. Idling the cold engine actually makes the accumulation worse, lowers engine temp more. But running ANY engine when it's really cold is hard on it. It's funny.... You think something harmless like this is abuse and is bad....yet you store ALL your equipment outside in the weather which is the worst thing you can do to equipment!"

Fine! So drain the oil. Tell me how much of that baby poop brown goop you find. Then pull the oil pan and look harder. There won't be any.
You get into places like the air passages, those formed steel tubes running from the top of the governor housing to the front of the cyl head and from the cyl. Head to the air cleaner there may be some. But none anywhere warm oil flows.

Allan is correct on his statement that if you only run a tractor 20 minutes at a time when it's zero degrees you will get to the point of having water in the oil. But as long as you get the tractor reasonably warm, say run the engine an hour, no sludge will plug any small oil passages.

If you read the operators manual, you'll see that your supposed to change oil and filter much more frequently when the engine is run for only short periods in cold weather.

Your talking about the black sludge from not changing your oil and filter. That is NOT what the original poster and I am talking about.

You probably won't get a whole drop of water out of the drain either if you do as old says.

This is nothing to panic over. One good workout and it will disappear. It'll probably come back, too.

Moist air moves in and out of the crankcase through the dipstick breather cap as the engine runs. This is where hot and cold meet, and where the condensation forms. It's no big deal.

While I agree with some of what you've said, you're still wrong on several points. The brown stuff turns black after it's baked when the engine reaches normal temperature. By the way, I haven't responded to any of Alan's comments, only your's. Please don't try to pull others into the issue that have made correct statements in an attempt to draw attention away from your lack of expertise. The fact is, brown foam in the oil contains water which undermines the mechanics of the engine. If you have that in your engine, there's certainly more water which is a known fact, undermines the engine. It's not a good or OK situation under any circumstances, unless of course you really don't care about the life of your engine, however the original poster does care because he asked for advice on how to manage the situation didn't he? We all know you can get sometimes get away with taking a risk, but in this case he's asking how best to avoid or mitigate the risk. Sorry, just stating the facts.