Purging milky oil from system

Soundguy · Dec 16, 2011

jmanatee2 said:
Here is a turnkey centrifuge for home use... The claim it can process up to 5 gal per hour.

Simple Centrifuge ...putting a centrifuge in every garage!

It is $1500

iran may be looking for a few..

pat32rf · Dec 16, 2011

We aren't talking about a HST operation here but a simple log splitter.
Just heat the oil to steam/boil off the moisture then dump it back in and try the result. I'm sure that a large pot and some means of fueling the fire are available.......

We are paying over $50 for 20l of cheap hydraulic oil here in central Ontario....THF is even more.
PS- can you tilt the unit a bit so the drain plug is at the very bottom corner of the tank?

Soundguy · Dec 16, 2011

is atf oil any cheaper? or 0w30 / 10w motor oil?

for a log splitter.. any of those would likely work, especially in cold weather.. atf would be my choice for the anti-foam adds..

muddstopper · Dec 21, 2011

I cant comment on the effectiveness of boiling oil to remove moisture, but I do know that there is equipment available that does heat, spin and filter the oil. We use such a machine where i work. When you have several hundred pieces of very large hydraulic using machines, hydraulic oil can be a very big expense. Hydraulic parts expenses can also be very big as a result of dirty oil, or moisture contamination. The machine in question sucks the used oil from the hydraulic tanks, circulates it thru 5micron filters, heats it to remove the moisture and then it is pumped back into the equipments hydraulic tanks. This machine can be equiped with filters so fine it will take the red out of the ATF, but I believe 5micron is as small as they ever use. It also comes with all kinds of electronic testing stuff, ( that I know nothing about how they work), that tests the oil for cleaningness and dryness. Considering this piece of equipment has to be hualed on the back of a 2ton truck and I havent a clue as to what it might cost, ( I bet very expensive), its probably not something one might see on a regular construction site.

bigdeano · Dec 23, 2011

About 10 years ago I got a lot of water in my tractor hydraulic oil. I use ATF which also lubes the rear end gears. Got in the loader and backhoe too. I just used a big stainless cooking pot and an electric hotplate outdoors to boil the water out of the oil. It's easy to see when it's done by the color. It only costs a few cents to run a 1500 watt hotplate for an hour, much cheaper than replacing the oil.

I had to flush everything out several times and reboil the oil before all the water was gone. I put the oil back in and it's been working fine for 10 years. I saved quite a bit of money by reusing it. After cleaning the pot very well it works fine for cooking too.

J_J · Dec 23, 2011

I can allmost bet that the composition of the ATF is not the same as you originally installed.

It would be interesting to see the comparison analysis of new ATF, and ATF that had been cooked many times. There is no way you could have got rid of the new compound generated by the water in the fluid.

Just because it is usable to you, does not necessarily make it a suitable fluid for the parts.

You can probably use just about any kind of mineral or motor oil to work most hydraulics.

My hyd machine used 10W-40 and to me works just fine, and none of the other machines like mine have had trouble with the motor oil as the hyd fluid of choice. I doubt that my fluid has the same additives as when new, and I would only know this by a complete oil analysis.

I believe the motor oil was chosen by the fact of the greater temp range over hyd fluid, and the avaliable of motor just about anywhere.

Redbug · Dec 24, 2011

Hey...Where'd JJ get that pic of Santa Clause?

J_J · Dec 24, 2011

The other day, being in the Christmas spirit, I said HO, HO, HO, to this fine looking woman and she slapped the h**l out of me. I said what did you do that for, and she said you didn't have to say it three times.

wdchyd · Dec 24, 2011

Labrador Coaster said:
There was roughly 10 gals of clear oil in my reservoir of my hydraulic winch.

After hooking up my just built log splitter, The oil changed to something that looks like egg nogg. The water had to be in the cylinder before installation ( 4'' dia. 40 '' long when closed).
I have since drained and replaced the oil three times, used maybe 15 gals to do this.

At present the oil is still white, not egg nogg... but definitely not clear.

So my friends thats a long winded attempt to say that I don't think it takes much to make a mess.

I attached a pic. not great, but you can see the milky oil jar in the bottom of the image

Kinda late in the conversation, but did you test the oil to see if it was indeed water in the oil........especially where this is a recent start-up

I only say this cuz air-entrainment through a vacuum leak at suction hoses/fittings/pump shaft seal ect will make the oil white and foamy like you are showing.........Milky oil (from water) and foamy oil (from whipped up air) will look similar

Just an observation.........

J_J · Dec 25, 2011

I agree with wdchyd on the air entrapment, so wait about 24 hrs and look again, and if the fluid looks normal, then you have a suction leak. If it stays milky looking, it is probably emulsified water and oil, and should be removed ASAP.

Excerpt:

When these air bubbles go through the filter elements, they create bigger channels, allowing contaminants to pass through without being captured, and dropping filtration performance of the oil filters.

ramzee1 · Dec 28, 2011

wdchyd, Thank You for mentioning that about the air. I have a similar problem with the winch on my dozer. We've been looking for a way for the water to get in but could'nt find it. We have changed the oil a couple times an moved the breather, changed gaskets and still get milky oil. We moved the dozer in the shop and let it set two days and the oil is back to normal color, pull the drain plug and no water. Now we'll begin the task of looking for an air leak. I think we are on the right track now. Thanks, Russ :thumbsup:

wdchyd · Dec 28, 2011

ramzee1 said:
wdchyd, Thank You for mentioning that about the air. I have a similar problem with the winch on my dozer. We've been looking for a way for the water to get in but could'nt find it. We have changed the oil a couple times an moved the breather, changed gaskets and still get milky oil. We moved the dozer in the shop and let it set two days and the oil is back to normal color, pull the drain plug and no water. Now we'll begin the task of looking for an air leak. I think we are on the right track now. Thanks, Russ :thumbsup:

You'll welcome Russ,

This happens more times than you would think....The first thing I do is determine which problem it is.....

A glass jar full off coffe milkshake on a sunny window sill will tell a story.....from there it'll give you a direction.....

Like others have said here many times a suction leak will sneak up on you..... suction hoses, connections, tubing, pump shaft seal all can be culprits...

If the suction leak is in a questionable spot, then pack it with grease, start it up, to see if it keeps the oil clear from an overnight rest.......if the pump shaft seal is exposed, sometimes this is an easy way to rule out bad shaft seal.....glob it right on.....

I had a job where 2 technicians spent 3 days looking for a suction leak on a large press brake at a welding/fabricating shop...air bubbles in oil and knocking sounds.......the hyd pump was above the reservoir and was not leaking oil when it ran......so the other guys said "There's nothing wrong with the pump".......standing on top of the machine I called for a new tube of grease from my helper......2 grown men looked at me like I had 3 eyes.......I emptied a half tube of grease on my hand and smeared it on the exposed shaft coming out of the pump.....

I said "Start it up"....and the pump noise smoothed right out......took about 10 minutes to find the problem.....bad hyd pump shaft seal

If you have trouble finding the issue, grease will be your friend.....:thumbsup:

JimDD · Jan 8, 2012

I too have an older Kubota with a moisture in hydraulic/transmission fluid problem. It is a used tractor that I bought last fall to bushhog six acres. Tractor ran fine as I bushhogged twice during October and then I put it up in covered storage for the winter. All fluids were adequate levels and clean. The week before Christmas, I was down at the place and for some reason I checked fluids again and this time the hydraulic fluid was yellowish and milky. The barn is new and nothing rainwater wise leaked on the tractor. I was going to drain the fluid to replenish with new but wondered if there was something I was missing.

Dakota_male · Jan 8, 2012

JimDD said:
I too have an older Kubota with a moisture in hydraulic/transmission fluid problem. It is a used tractor that I bought last fall to bushhog six acres. Tractor ran fine as I bushhogged twice during October and then I put it up in covered storage for the winter. All fluids were adequate levels and clean. The week before Christmas, I was down at the place and for some reason I checked fluids again and this time the hydraulic fluid was yellowish and milky. The barn is new and nothing rainwater wise leaked on the tractor. I was going to drain the fluid to replenish with new but wondered if there was something I was missing.

My tractor did the same thing because I left it parked outside in the late fall for a few weeks, transmission fluid picked up a small amount of moisture. I wanted to change the fluid anyway to Amsoil and did this along with changing the vent tube. The old vent was an open end inverted rubber pipe end with a 1/8" hole open to the atmosphere. I removed it and ran a 1/4" clear plastic tubing inside the cab. Yesterday it was above freezing the transmission was sweating, but inside the cab was dry, we'll see come spring if it did any good.

joe patterson · Jan 6, 2019

just finished changing transmission, loaderon my new holland tc30 hst tractor.this was 2bd time in two weeks, third time this year. new holland says this is caused by condensation. am planning to install a dessicant filter. had a lot of hydraulic equipment before without this problem. any input, and has anyone else else ever put a dessicant breather on a tc30.

Dakota_male · Jan 6, 2019

joe patterson said:
just finished changing transmission, loaderon my new holland tc30 hst tractor.this was 2bd time in two weeks, third time this year. new holland says this is caused by condensation. am planning to install a dessicant filter. had a lot of hydraulic equipment before without this problem. any input, and has anyone else else ever put a dessicant breather on a tc30.

Well it has been a few years +300 hours on the fluid since I vented it to inside the cab and no moisture since .