Today I was doing some spring work in the yard and I decided to start up my standby generator since it has been a couple of months since I started it and ran it under load. I usually do this every 60 days or so to make sure it is working order in case of a power outage. The last power outage was at the end of December for about 1 day. It had fresh M1 10W-30 at that time and ran for around 12 hours with no problem. I added stabil ran it for 5 mins and checked the oil (right on the mark) before covering it with a heavy tarp for the winter.
When I checked the oil this morning, it was strangely overfull by about 1 quart. So I pulled the starter cord to turn the engine over figuring that perhaps the engine needed to be turned over to check the oil accurately. I checked it again and saw the oil turning milky. So I figured maybe a little condensation from the winter (although I only ran it once for 12 hours). Then I started it and it turned over and then died, I looked at the dipstick and major milky oil. I took the air cleaner off and milky oil all over. So this looks to me that a lot of water somehow got in the engine. Since it was covered with the tarp I am wondering how this happened. The good news is that I have time to fix this before the next outage and it only ran for a few seconds before I recognized the extent of the problem.
Ok, so at this point, what should I do ? I am thinking draining the oil first as best as I can even though it is not hot, fill it back up with some cheap dino, run it for 10 mins or so to temperature and then drain the whole thing out. After that some kind of flush (recommendations) and then a fresh fill of M1 or GC.
When I checked the oil this morning, it was strangely overfull by about 1 quart. So I pulled the starter cord to turn the engine over figuring that perhaps the engine needed to be turned over to check the oil accurately. I checked it again and saw the oil turning milky. So I figured maybe a little condensation from the winter (although I only ran it once for 12 hours). Then I started it and it turned over and then died, I looked at the dipstick and major milky oil. I took the air cleaner off and milky oil all over. So this looks to me that a lot of water somehow got in the engine. Since it was covered with the tarp I am wondering how this happened. The good news is that I have time to fix this before the next outage and it only ran for a few seconds before I recognized the extent of the problem.
Ok, so at this point, what should I do ? I am thinking draining the oil first as best as I can even though it is not hot, fill it back up with some cheap dino, run it for 10 mins or so to temperature and then drain the whole thing out. After that some kind of flush (recommendations) and then a fresh fill of M1 or GC.
