Milky white drain after lake

[dlogvine]

I went to the lake today and after some boating, about 2-3 hours of engine running with about 1.5 hour of inflatable towing I drained the water from the drain plug. The drainage was milky with some oily filling. I checked out the oil in the engine, looked clean, no water, level was satisfactory, all the other fluids were good, levels and quality. I wonder what might have caused this drain color? Thank you, cause Im running out of ideas.

 

[fhhuber]

could be something you used for cleaning the boat... spilled sunscreen... almost anything.

 

[Rick Stephens]

With an IO if you have a leaky bellows, water will get in, the u-joint with mix it with the grease, and it will overflow into the bilge through the vent holes above and below the gimbal bearing. Makes for a nasty looking crud in the bottom of the bilge.

 

[dlogvine]

Will check next time when i take the boat to the lake. It was the first time the drainage looked like this, so possibly our friends that came with my family might have spilled something there, they had a lot of junk with a cooler, that they put close to the engine compartment.

 

[airshot]

Do you have any oil leaks in your engine? It only takes a few dribbles of oil to discolor the bilge water. My older engine does have a few minor oil leaks, about 1 quart over the summer but I have the oil absorbing mat laid under the engine to catch any drips so it does not get mixed with the bilge water and discharged into the lake. The mats are white in color and easy to see if you have any oil leaks and they do not absorb water only oil