My first tractor - Help!

Ok, so I bought a 1967 Ford 3400 gasser with a loader for $2600. I was overexcited and I bought it without looking it over thoroughly.... So I get it home and I pull the dipstick and realize that the oil is a milky tan color, meaning water in the oil. The tractor did not smoke when it ran. There were no bubbles in the radiator or oil in the radiator. I found out the breather tube was plugged and figured the water got in the engine by condensation from only being run for short periods of time. So I found some advice online that said drain the oil, fill crankcase with diesel fuel, disconnect sparkplug wires, turn engine over 10-15 seconds to mix it all up, and drain out. I did this twice, then refilled with oil, ran it a few minutes, and parked it in the garage. The oil looked fine on the dipstick, so I figured I was OK. Now it's 2 weeks later and tonight I pulled the drain plug and milky tan oil came out. Uh-oh. The oil on the dipstick looks fine still. What does this mean? I thought since I had no smoke when it ran and no bubbles in the radiator that my head/head gasket were OK. Do I have a rust-through in the water jacket?? Or is this water left over from before somehow? Help!

It will take many oil changes to get all the condensate out of crankcase if that is the only problem. Pull the valve cover and clean it up will go a long way in stopping build up in pan.

Well since I only know a little bit about that tractor all I can say is good chance it has a bad head gasket. Many times you will not see signs of it in the radiator but will find coolant in the oil. One way to know is if you park it say for a week then slowly open up the drain plug watch for antifreeze dripping out before you get the oil drain plug all the way out.

(quoted from post at 19:59:06 07/29/12) It will take many oil changes to get all the condensate out of crankcase if that is the only problem. Pull the valve cover and clean it up will go a long way in stopping build up in pan.

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Thanks for the reply. So I pull the valve cover and just dry it off as best I can with rags or compressed air? Should I leave the valve cover off for a while to let the moisture escape? Would you recommend another diesel flush? Also, I have a kit to detect combustion gas in the radiator, maybe I should try that out. I will have to reinstall the radiator and put on the new exhaust header first.

Think them good thoughts- can you take it out and work if for a few hours? If
you're real lucky maybe it's still condensation in the oil, work it long and
hard enough to burn the condensation off and see if it comes back, might also
check the crankcase breather. Try running a compression test and see if that
tells you anything. But be prepared to do a head gasket,if you do it yourself
it's a lot of work but not really that much in parts unless you end up breaking
or replacing a bunch of other parts on your way to and from the head gasket.

I would let it sit for a few days and see if the water will de-emulsify from the oil. Then crack the oil drain plug and if there is water/anti freeze in it it will dribble out first.
I would not use diesel in it. Post back with your results.
That is a very good tractor and worth getting to the bottom of this.

i'd fill the rad with plain water.

change oil with walmart 15/40 and add in some seafoam to oil.

run her all around ( get warm ) and then let set

check and post back.,

I drained the oil out of mine and left a cup under it overnight. The next morning the cup had water in it as running over, hole in the cyl wall. Had it bored and a sleve put in, but you have better luck than me, I hope!

Update: It took me a while to fix some other issues with this tractor (see my other posts), but it's finally back together and running and no water in the oil! Looks like my original surmise was right: plugged crankcase breather and lots of short runtimes by previous owner led to buildup of condensation in the engine, hence the milky tan oil. I did one more oil change and ran it and there is no more water in the crankcase. I'm so glad it wasn't a rust-through in the water jacket! What a relief!