MMO in Forklift

[sdan27]

We have this forklift with a 4-cylinder LP engine. All the years we've had it it has always had milky looking oil so I added 1 qt. MMO to try and help clean it out. We recently replaced the water pump and head gasket which looked to be leaking. It gets used sparingly so it doesn't get many hours on it. How long should I run it with the MMO in it to get a good cleaning before I change the oil again? Maybe 10 hours?
I figured when I change the oil, I'll add some MMO from the start to clean it out some more.

 

[demarpaint]

I would calculate time = to driving a car about 1000 miles at say 50 mph. So about 20 hours would be a good start. JMO

 

[dwendt44]

LP engines are normally very easy on oil.
The blown gasket seems to be the source of the milky
oil.
10 hours or so should be good enough.
Back in the 70's, we changed the oil on our forklifts and it came out looking almost as good as when it went in.
Common 70s auto oil-Havaline IIRC.

 

[Steve S]

The use is probably the reason it has milky oil . What kind of engine?

 

[George7941]

I am resurrecting this old thread because I have this old Toyota propane powered forklift that for the last eight months has been turning its engine oil really milky, so milky that it looks like milk shake.

I gutted out the insides of the PCV valve and that reduced the milkiness about 80%. With a new intact PCV valve there is 1.5 in water column of vacuum in the crankcase and with this gutted valve there is 9 in WC.

The coolant level stays rock steady and an oil analysis showed no coolant in the oil.

Is the OP still getting milky oil in his forklift?

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: George7941
I am resurrecting this old thread because I have this old Toyota propane powered forklift that for the last eight months has been turning its engine oil really milky, so milky that it looks like milk shake.

I gutted out the insides of the PCV valve and that reduced the milkiness about 80%. With a new intact PCV valve there is 1.5 in water column of vacuum in the crankcase and with this gutted valve there is 9 in WC.

The coolant level stays rock steady and an oil analysis showed no coolant in the oil.

Is the OP still getting milky oil in his forklift?



This thread is from 2010.

Milky to me means water. The oil isn't getting hot enough to evaporate all the condensation out of the oil.
Run it longer or shorten the interval

 

[George7941]

Sure, the forklift engine does not get hot enough because it is usually used for ten minutes at a time, sometimes maybe twenty minutes.

But we have had the forklift for a couple of years now and, under the exact same operating conditions and duty cycle, never had the milkiness before. This started all of a sudden eight months ago and I have had to change the engine oil once a month since then. A month equates to about eight hours of run time.

Here is what I have done so far - new thermostat and the engine is operating at normal coolant temperature when hot as checked with a IR gun. Propane mixture is at 15:1, again normal. New spark plugs. Compression dead even on all cylinders at 187psi (that is right, 187, none of them show any variation on the gauge). The four cylinders leak test between 16 and 24 %. With PCV disabled, blowby does not look excessive, though certainly more than on my 4.3l pickup engine.

 

[CT8]

Probably condensation from short running periods.

 

[MolaKule]

Disabling any PCV means you won't draw off moisture and other vapors.

 

[George7941]

The PCV was disabled temporarily to check the amount of blowby.