water in oil

[tnich0000]

After my bike has been sitting in the garage after about 3 weeks of snow on the ground, I was checking the oil in my '79 750K and found white oil at the bottom of the dipstick. Can't really figure out how water could be getting into the crankcase. Any ideas? Thanks.

[sgtslag]

Check the blow-by catch bottle, beneath the seat.  It has a drain tube, with a plug, hanging down.  Drain that first.  If that is not the source of your problem, take a look at the carbs, and see if they are full of oil and gunk (if so, they need to be pulled, disassembled, and cleaned).

Water will boil off of the oil if it reaches 212 F, but it has to reach 212 F, or higher, not 180 F.  If you are concerned about it, of course, you can simply change it.  As to other possible sources, it could be caused by taking short trips which never fully warm up the oil:  water is a normal byproduct of combustion, which is why short trips can be quite hard on engines.  Good luck.

[tnich0000]

Thanks for the reply so quickly. I will check the bottle when I change the oil next week. Funny you should mention short trips, as I have mostly been riding to work and back, less than 3 miles each way. If I find this as the probable cause ,I guess I'll have to change the oil more often, say @ every 2k mi.. Thanks.

[Re-run]

Every 2k? I know oil is better but back when the bikes were built, change time was every 1000 miles. So if using conventional oil, 2k is stretching it anyways. If synthetic, you can go longer but maybe at least every couple weeks, a good 30+ minute ride on the highway would take care of the moisture.

[tnich0000]

Ya' know, it's amazing what you forget not riding for almost 20 yrs, but thanks for the reminder! I got this '79 CBK last August, hadn't had a bike since '92. Lots of other things are coming back to memory too, like, how well these old bikes can reset your mind after another difficult day at work. Especially now that I'm having to work 2 jobs just to feed the family. I could tell as soon as she warmed up at the test ride she had a lot of ride left in her, even at 45K mi.. I almost took a trailer to bring it home, but since he said it had valid tags I thought I'd ride it home if I decided to buy it, and I'm glad I did. Runs STRONG. And smooth, after warm up... guess it's just her nature. Anyway looking forward to getting her looking nice again.

Do you think synthetic would have any benefit in a higher mileage engine?