My personal feeling is that the limiting factor in the durability of these engines is usually the cleanliness of the incoming air (IOW the oil-bath filtration).
Relative to water intrusion...the engine oil emulsifies water pretty easily, so it "disappears" instead of puddling underneath the main oil level ala gear oil in a transmission.
However...once you get to the boiling point of water, 212F, there's nothing that can really hold it back from turning to a vapor. There is no chemical bonding between the oil and water, just fine mixing.
Newer vehicle engines use positive ventilation (PCV) which is actually metered leak around the throttle blade on a gasoline engine. These older engines just have a vent/breather ...so there's not a "driven" airflow.
I'd worry a little bit about the combustion acids building up over time...but the modern oils are very well equipped to deal with them....much moreso when the engines were new.
I have 2 LPG forklift engines which get used moving pallets and machinery around my shop, probably mostly about 20 hours of idle per year...the oil comes out pristine...golden/clear like it just came out of the bottle, yet I still change it once a year out of principle.
This post was edited by mattofvinings at 16:59:24 12/17/08.
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Today's Featured Article - Women and Tractors - Tractor Engine Repair - by Teri Burkholder. One of the great things about working on a tractor engine with your other half is that you know what he is thinking of at all times and can anticipate his every move and his next thought of what he will do. With Ben, anyway, I can tell! He'll be busy working and I�m handing him tools and he says, "give me that..." and I�ve already got it in his hand or "hand me that....."and I�ve got the portable light right where he needed it placed to see. "Run in the house and get me a...."as I open th
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