Random engine question

[Mulletizer]

Got a bit of a problem I was hoping someone might be able to help with. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I have a small scooter (125cc Honda) and have an oil problem. More specifically an oil and water making friends problem. The water pump and the oil pan on the scooter are very close together; the drive to the water pump passes through the oil pan. The only thing keeping water from oil are some seals on the driveshaft to the pump (combination of a rubber one and a mechanical seal I think). If the seals get blown out (say, by the coolant freezing due to record low temps) then the coolant can flow into the water pan. Which is pretty much what has happened.

I am pretty confident about changing the damaged seals (although it is a PITA as poor access necessitates dropping the engine out to do it) but I was hoping for advice about the water in the oil situation. This is obviously a pretty unhealthy state of affairs. What do you think I should do? Just drain the oil and water, leave it to dry and hope the moisture will dry out? Then flush through with clean oil? Or should I be considering something more involved to deal with the moisture?

[fez]

basically you need to keep flushing with oil until it shows no water. dont let it sit open to try and dry it out, just change the oil, run the motor briefly to circulate the oil, check the oil and look for signs of water in the oil. if you see any, repeat.

[irul&ublo]

Tech talk bitch!!!!!!


HA HA

[orlowskij]

What fez said.

[Mulletizer]

Tech talk bitch!!!!!!

I inhabit the padded room these days.

Thanks Fez. Will give that a go.

[irul&ublo]

I inhabit the padded room these days.

Thanks Fez. Will give that a go.

You yurpeans are soooo non conformist

[fez]

oh yeah, and change the filter when you change the oil too.

[Mulletizer]

All sorted, thanks for the advice. Took a while to get the parts and rebuilding the water pump was a royal PITA (pretty much every component was screwed) but the oil advice was spot on. Cheers.

[uglymoney]

All sorted, thanks for the advice. Took a while to get the parts and rebuilding the water pump was a royal PITA (pretty much every component was screwed) but the oil advice was spot on. Cheers.

So I assume you caught this after storage before running it if the motor is still good? Usually by the time the water gets in there and someone notices the bearings are already shot. I speak from experience unfortunately.

[Mulletizer]

Bearings all seem fine - the engine is running super smoothly. I didn't do a full strip down (not worth the cost/time given the value of the engine and cost of a replacement) but the bearings that I did check were fine. The engine was running when the leak occurred but it was on a very short journey so I caught it pretty quickly (within 2 minutes or so) so hope that there wasn't a whole lot of damage. Honda 125cc engines are reputed to take a tonne of abuse (and they are tiny, so the forces on the bearings aren't huge) so I'm hoping to have got away with it.

[P_McPoser]

I ran a honda engine for a good 30 seconds with piston chunks in it without fucking anything up too bad, so I think you are ok with the water!

[uglymoney]

Cool. Probably has a lot to do with how much load you put on the engine as well. Two minutes pulling a hill or something vs two minutes gliding along.

[Moss-Back]

Small-displacement Honda engines are damned near indestructable.
Sounds like you identified and repaired the problem quickly.
Bearings are likely fine. Water/corrosion damage to bearings typically occurs over extended periods of time/storage.

Congrats on the successful repair.

.