Foamy Engine Oil in Forklift.

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1998 Toyota Forklift with 4Y engine running on propane. The oil on the dipstick is creamy in colour and texture. I changed the oil about six months ago and poured in 15W40 Rotella. The oil has about 80 hours running time on it. The level on the dipstick seems to have risen. I changed the coolant last year and used Detroit Diesel PowerCool Plus, which I believe is the same as Peak Final Charge, a non 2-eha OAT coolant. The coolant is red but I don't see any red colour in the oil.

There is a hose running from the rad to the overflow bottle and I took the end of the hose from the overflow bottle and inserted it into a bottle filled with water. No bubbles or coolant coming from the hose.

I could pressurise the cooling system and see if it holds pressure. Any other tests I could do before I yank the head off the engine?
 
Maybe condensation but the forklift is always inside the warehouse and not subjected to temperature extremes.

I think I will just change the oil out for now so that the forklift can be used. It is the only one we have and it is needed every day. In the mean time I will get the UOA done and that should be able to distinguish between condensation and coolant.
 
I drained the oil today and dropped off a sample at the lab, should get the UOA results in a day or two.






The oil has the colour of fudge but the good news is that I found no particles at all inside the oil filter. No particles in the oil drain pan either. Is that an indication that the engine did not suffer damage?

After the UOA comes in I will probably be pulling the head off.

BTW the Toyota filter looks to be well made from a visual inspection.
 
Does this forklift have a propane or Diesel engine. If its propane that what it does to the oil.
There's no carbon in propane so oil never goes black. I had a propane powered chev van for work for a few years and one of my cube vans is propane/gas split.
 
Well, propane burns more completely than gasoline but there is plenty of carbon in C3H8
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Originally Posted By: Clevy
Does this forklift have a propane or Diesel engine. If its propane that what it does to the oil.
There's no carbon in propane so oil never goes black. I had a propane powered chev van for work for a few years and one of my cube vans is propane/gas split.
 
Originally Posted By: Clevy
Does this forklift have a propane or Diesel engine. If its propane that what it does to the oil.
There's no carbon in propane so oil never goes black. I had a propane powered chev van for work for a few years and one of my cube vans is propane/gas split.


The forklift is propane powered but the brown colour is from water in the oil.

I had a 1982 Mazda B2000 truck which I converted to propane and ran it on propane for ten years, so I am familiar with propane.

I got the UOA results yesterday and it showed water but no glycol - very strange since coolant is the only source for that much water. I don't think condensation would produce this much water.

I am pouring in fresh oil tomorrow.
 
I bought a new toyota 4y engine last month, with the carburetor supplied with it.. The float chamber keeps on draining fuel overnight. No obvious leakages are observed. Can someone please tell me what is the probelm??
 
After eight months of changing the oil in the forklift engine every month to prevent damage from foamy oil I finally found the source of the water in the oil - The propane regulator had gone bad and was feeding the engine an excessively rich propane/air mixture and this was causing the condensation. I rebuilt the regulator in December and in the ensuing two months the oil has stayed clear.

I did a lot of checking on the various components on that engine - compression, leakdown, ignition system health and timing, PCV system etc. It sure was a relief to finally nail down the problem.
 
Glad you found the problem. Yes the regulator can go wrong. I worked at a place that fixed forklifts and that usually was the root of the cause. Sometimes they can be filled with this brown goo because of the diaphragm goes bad and you just get a new regulator and the engine runs good as new.
 
Originally Posted By: LX289
Glad you found the problem. Yes the regulator can go wrong. I worked at a place that fixed forklifts and that usually was the root of the cause. Sometimes they can be filled with this brown goo because of the diaphragm goes bad and you just get a new regulator and the engine runs good as new.


This brown goo you are referring to - is that residue in the regulator or is that the appearance of the engine oil?
 
Originally Posted By: George7941
Originally Posted By: LX289
Glad you found the problem. Yes the regulator can go wrong. I worked at a place that fixed forklifts and that usually was the root of the cause. Sometimes they can be filled with this brown goo because of the diaphragm goes bad and you just get a new regulator and the engine runs good as new.


This brown goo you are referring to - is that residue in the regulator or is that the appearance of the engine oil?

It has the appearance of used engine oil. It actually is from the Propane. If you smell the goo it smells just like propane. It builds up after a while. You either can clean it out and put a rebuild kit in but we just used to buy a whole new regulator because it was so much easier. Google "brown goo in propane regulator" and you wil get results as to what i am talking about. There is a little oil in Propane and it is made from the same raw material as Gasoline and Diesel.
 
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Yes, the regulator had the brown goo in it. The engine started running rough immediately after we had the propane cylinder refilled at a propane station. I suspect that fill had a lot of contaminants and that propane station's maintenance procedures on their equipment left a lot to be desired. The contaminants took out the regulator which was pretty old anyway and that is when the moisture started accumulating in the engine oil.
 
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