creamy brown oil under valve covers

[MotAd]

hey guys. did my valve clearances earlier and to my vague horror found a nice build up of coffee ice cream gunk under one of the sections of the intake valve covers. have attached some pics. checked the oil filler cap and has a light build up of the same residue. didn't get enough time to drop the oil out and check that. what d'yall reckon? seems weird that it's only under one of the valve covers, incidentally it's the one that's upper most when the bike is on it's side stand. it's been very cold here for the past few months so i'm wondering if it's just condensation or if it is indeed, the head gasket

 

[Gav]

Hmmm that's really weird!
Never seen a HG failure on a bike so couldn't comment on whether that's normal or not.

Have you been using the bike recently ? Where's it stored when not in use ?

 

[MotAd]

Hey mate. Used 4 days a week, 2 x 12 mile journeys per day. Stored in a shed in my back garden overnight. Suppose the tail of the tape will be when I drop the oil out but ran out of light today. Will do next weekend. Hopefully it's not the head gasket

 

[Gav]

Do you ever pressure wash the bike ?
It could be water seeped in under the gasket and has sat on top mixing with a bit of oil.

I didn't think head gasket failure on these bikes were a common issue.

As you say you need to do a bit more investigating.

1, Drop the oil and check the condition : might be condensation or water seepage
Put the oil in a plastic bottle and see if there is oil / water seperation
2, Grab a Hyrdrocarbon tester and check the coolant
3, Pressure test the head and check for leakage

Good luck and hope it's nothing too costly!

 

[MotAd]

Don't really pressure wash it but gave it a good clean between the last oil change (about 1200 miles ago) and this service. Dropping the oil will tell me more. If there's any more gunk in it I'll put clean oil in it then change it again a couple of hundred miles later and see what's up. Any more crap and I'll hand it over to a pro! Only other issue is a slight backfire here and there, dunno if it's connected...

 

[DYNOBOB]

London this time of year a 12 mile (15min?) ride may not get hot enough to burn the condensate out of the oil. Every warm/cool is adding a little more.


.

 

[jtemple]

London this time of year a 12 mile (15min?) ride may not get hot enough to burn the condensate out of the oil. Every warm/cool is adding a little more.


.

Was just going to post this.

 

[RDTCU]

Yep, gotta go for a long rip every now and then, heat it up.

Also, what oil are you using?

 

[meijerclassics]

I've had that stuff show up in my oil/engine a few years ago. I have noticed it happened when i used castrol rs4t (or something like that) and when it was wet and cold. I switched to spectro and have not had the gunk since. The spectro is more $, but at least I dont have that gunk any more .

 

[huskybear]

Check and make sure that any crankcase breathers are not plugged(a plugged breather will not allow condensation to get out)

 

[BiG DoM]

Is the oil in the sight glass or sight glass milky? (Sometimes just a flm ontop of the oil in the sight glass). Often then just condensation. Good rip often sorts it out and suggestion of checking the breather a good one ... breathes into the frame if I recall correctly - a small elbow ... may even be getting water ingress there.

 

[ghte]

Yep definately moisture. I doubt id its in the sump and strongly support the condensation theory. Take her for a 2 hour burn and see what happens

 

[MotAd]

thanks for all your replies fellas, nice one.

because of traffic lights etc a 12 mile run is about 30 mins but not much more, and it's been getting down to freezing a lot over the past few months. i'm using motul full synthetic 10-60 so factory spec and that's all it's had since i've owned it (for the past 6000 miles). oil & filter gets changed every 1000 miles but the oil in it at the mo has about 1300 miles on it. the breather hose that goes from the cylinder head to the frame had some foam in there and i cleaned that out. will check the crank case breather, cheers. the oil in the sight glass is absolutely fine and there's just a little bit of cream on the inside of the filler cap.

it's due an oil change so i'll check the crank case breather and then drop the oil out as soon as. will post up some pics if i find more crap in the oil. thanks again guys, your input has made me feel a bit better regards the head gasket. bike has been running fine for what it's worth.

 

[willie]

Not to worry!
Normal to see sludge buildup in liquid cooled engines operating in cold temperatures. The water vapour produced from combustion will mix with oil and condense under the cold valve covers(or any other cold surface)forming sludge. Only a small amount will form and will NOT cause any engine oil lubrication issues.Have not seen this in air cooled engines as I think they warm up much faster and the oil runs at a higher operating temperature thus boiling off the water before sludge gets a chance to form.

 

[MotAd]

ah thanks for posting mate. i will rest easy then

thanks for everyone's input on this, great stuff guys