I was thinking about the "milky dipstick" issue and condensation in the oil system and I had an idea. Granted this might not work but it's still an idea that I'd like to see if it could work or not. How about a water separator in the oil system? Basically like one in a diesel fuel system. Diesel fuel is really just a light oil anyways. This shouldn't be that difficult to retrofit and would appear similar to another oil filter type of device mounted somewhere else. If this could remove the moisture out of the oil then it would definitely have a benefit. On the other hand maybe it would do nothing.

Discuss.

My first thought is that it wouldn't work very well. The flow rates of crankcase oil are much higher than for diesel being fed to the cylinders.

An alternative is popular with airplane people which is to circulate warmed and dried air through the crankcase when the plane is "garaged".

My main concern is centered around system pressure differences. I'm just wondering if a water separator could take the pressures that the rotary oil system produces? I'm not too concerned about flow rates as these things are available anywhere from a few lites an hour up to a few thousand gallons an hour. It's really a pressure, size, and price issue.

you should go back to contemplating the rocks between us and the rest of the universe :)

My single oil cooler system is setup to where this would be easily implemented. Maybe you can take a look at my system at the statewide meet and see what you think. I get the milky crap all the time and my car is garaged and my oil is heated up fully and driven pretty hard everyday.

You could set it up so that most of the flow bypasses the water separator. Then you wouldn't have such an issue with pressure differential or flow rate.
It's not as if you have to guarantee that all the oil gets processed every time around. Any water you can remove is going to help.

do u have a link to a water separator device? if anything that goes inline, it should reduce the oil pressure from the injectors.

A fuel / water separator is basicly a fuel bowl. The separating filter is mounted inline. As fuel enters and fills the separator, any water present, since it is heavier, will separate out, and lay at the bottom of the filter. The filter will continue to separate the water from the fuel in this manner until the filter becomes full of water. At this point, the filter becomes ineffective, and water will pass through with the fuel into the carbs or injection system.
http://www.cartechautoparts.com/diesel-fuel-water-separator/

wow,

driving the car till it is warm is so bad? :)

wait. i forgot what cold is.. cold is bad..

beers :beer:

never seen the supposed problem so why discuss it ...

team.
does it get cold where you live?

yes, unfortunately

Hhhmmm. well i have had the cloudy milky dipstick problem but only since this winter. bought the car last july 31st and no problems with the oil until the cold spell. honestly it has been getting clearer, a.k.a. more like it used to be, since the weather has been warming up. i just assumed it was from the colder weather.

although i will try to get an oil seperator tank this spring, never had pooling oil problems but my intake does have a very thin film of oil on the inside.

i'll also try to completely drain all the oil, coolers and lines and swap from side to side to get the most oil out and do a double flush with some cheaper oil for around 100 miles then swap it out again. maybe this will remove most/all of the condensation from the oil.

you're oil isn't getting hot enough, otherwise any moisture will burn off

I never had to do anything special, but perhaps you need to block one or both oil coolers for winter use

Funny I never had this till my engine went bad. Guess it was due to the lack of oil lub in my back rotor. I still dont know what caused it.

I don't know how the oil can't get hot enough. Isn't there a thermostat in those coolers? Even in cold weather, unless you only have the engine on for 5 minutes, you should still be able to get the oil up to temp.

I am with you RG. This past w/e at Road Atlanta with ambient temps of high 40's to low 50's, my car still ran cool on track---coolant temps never over 180 and oil temps never over 185. Now I have a redline of 7.5K but still---hell its track--run it harder than the street--right?
Fresh and flushed oil change for the event.
Guess what? Friggen white stuff still on the dipstick even after just coming off track.
I have a catch can that is attachted to vacuum. It's has the milky stuff also--very small amount.
I wonder if the 09's have this? Reason i ask is this.
I think maybe the oil pan itself is staying too cool and cooling too fast?
Its a small pan, shallow also. When I taken mine off 99% of this stuff is on the oil drain plug side--the side away from the exhaust header etc.
The 09's have a shield over the oil pan area, blocking air flow exposure and it also has an extension to the exhaust header side for more capacity.
I wonder if that is making any difference?
OD

I did a two hour drive yesterday and it was 91F outside and i still have the milky crap :( I'm gonna check again this morning.

ya, i still get in in texas from time to time too.

I did a two hour drive yesterday and it was 91F outside and i still have the milky crap :( I'm gonna check again this morning.

Okay well I checked it today at lunch and there was no milky substance :dunno: I check my oil constantly when checking my SOHN reservoir so I guess we will see how it goes now that it has warmed up.

I guess it depends on where you live. I mean my head light gasket is shot. So I need to reseal it. About two months ago it had condensation. That was about the time I seen the milky stuff on my dip stick..... Wait. That came out all wrong. Wait. So did that. I'm just going to stop now lol

I used to drive my 8 to work every day, which is a 5 minute trip, and I had the milky oil residue. One time just for the hell of it I added some marvel mystery oil to the crankcase and it went away and never returned. I have no explanation but if it works it would be easier than building a water separator.

PS, commuting 5 minutes daily in a rx-8 eventually equals 3mpg and 30 psi of compression. :(

Keep in mind that I'm not saying to go out and do this. It's just an idea that I'm curious about. What if it separates and water or even fuel from the oil? Maybe it won't but if it did and didn't hurt anything in the process it would only seem to be a good thing. You can get water separators with or without built in filters down to 2 microns.

If I added something like this to the feed line or on the return line from me Fluidyne oil cooler, would it inhibit flow to the oil coolers I wonder.

I only got this when I started using 0-w40. Another symptom could be i cut out the slots in the back of the coolers for more flow.

you should go back to contemplating the rocks between us and the rest of the universe :)

Would that be Uranus?

Mu ha ha... could resist.

It's just a dip stick issue.

do we really have that much condensation form in the RX8 that causes a problem mixing with oil?

You would think that oil getting up near 200*F would boil off any water in it anyways but then again how would it get out? How does it get in is a better question.

It gets out through the crankcase vent which is routed into the intake manifold. There's plenty of water formed by the combustion process and even tiny amounts of blow-by will expose the oil to it.

No froth since the Mazmart oil pressure install and switch to Rotella 5W-40 :dunno:

I get a ton of froth using mobile 0w40. It seems to always collect in my intake tract. In the summer or using 5w20 it was not a problem. During the summer not a problem with the 0w40. I need a better oil cooler thermostat.