Birken Vogt
Charter Member
This morning had one of the most mysterious jobs ever.
It was to be a normal annual service on (air cooled 1.75 qts oil) generator. Arrived to find it had most recently locked itself out with a low oil pressure fault of which the customer was not aware. It had run 200 hours without anybody looking at it so this is not unusual at this point.
Pulled the dipstick and found no oil on stick but a little bit of tar-like substance that took some effort to wipe clean. Added oil with about 50% of system capacity and it showed good enough on the stick to start. This is unusual because normally they have to get a lot lower than that to shut down on LOP.
Engine cranked very slowly at first. Once it warmed up everything seemed normal. Customer did mention that it had been laboring during last major run.
Drained oil and it was pretty black and drained slowly but looked otherwise normal coming out.
The weirdness happened because after setting a while, this black sludge settled out with the oil on top and sludge on the bottom. The sludge resembled fine garden silt in texture. After pouring the oil off the top the sludge remained in the pan and you could draw a finger through it and it would stay clear of the bottom.
After sitting the rest of the day all over the drain pan the rest of the oil had drained away and the sludge resembled chewing gum but not sticky. Peels right off everything. I got some between my fingers and smashed it real thin and washed it in the sink thinking it may have been sugar. But it made no effort to dissolve, it just stuck all over my hands. Reminds me of the thick grease from a Cat that has sat in the woods for 40 years. Or maybe pine tar but not sticky.
Quantity of sludge was roughly 30-40% of drain oil. The longer it sits the more it separates and coagulates.
It was to be a normal annual service on (air cooled 1.75 qts oil) generator. Arrived to find it had most recently locked itself out with a low oil pressure fault of which the customer was not aware. It had run 200 hours without anybody looking at it so this is not unusual at this point.
Pulled the dipstick and found no oil on stick but a little bit of tar-like substance that took some effort to wipe clean. Added oil with about 50% of system capacity and it showed good enough on the stick to start. This is unusual because normally they have to get a lot lower than that to shut down on LOP.
Engine cranked very slowly at first. Once it warmed up everything seemed normal. Customer did mention that it had been laboring during last major run.
Drained oil and it was pretty black and drained slowly but looked otherwise normal coming out.
The weirdness happened because after setting a while, this black sludge settled out with the oil on top and sludge on the bottom. The sludge resembled fine garden silt in texture. After pouring the oil off the top the sludge remained in the pan and you could draw a finger through it and it would stay clear of the bottom.
After sitting the rest of the day all over the drain pan the rest of the oil had drained away and the sludge resembled chewing gum but not sticky. Peels right off everything. I got some between my fingers and smashed it real thin and washed it in the sink thinking it may have been sugar. But it made no effort to dissolve, it just stuck all over my hands. Reminds me of the thick grease from a Cat that has sat in the woods for 40 years. Or maybe pine tar but not sticky.
Quantity of sludge was roughly 30-40% of drain oil. The longer it sits the more it separates and coagulates.