Water in Oil Pan

[joeko23]

Hey guys, 2 years ago when I started my project I bought a pullout LSA from a 2015 Camaro with like 5k miles. Anyway I pulled the oil pan to install the Holley one and to my surprise there was like a milky residue at the bottom of the pan. The engine came to my dry so the oil was drained prior to shipping. I pulled the valve covers and there is absolutely no milky residue in the heads. There is also no milky residue on the connecting rods, crankcase, not even even on the windage tray. The milky residue was only at the base of the stock oil pan. So that means that milky oil was never pumped through the engine. Which means to me there is no problem with the engine like cracked block or broken head gasket right? I’m assuming some water or moisture got into the engine probably from the accident or from the exhaust manifolds and just got sloshed around from being shipped or moved etc.

What do you guys think? How can I test if the engine is ok?

[Snowcatter]

Is it possible the donor vehicle was from a hurricane flood area? I have purchased a few flood victims over the years. I have even resurrected an engine that was fully submerged. Pulled the plugs, cranked the water out, changed the oil, ran it for awhile and changed oil again. That was 30k miles ago and still running perfectly.

[joeko23]

If it was in a flood I think I would see more signs of water elsewhere in the engine. Like I said only sign of water was at the bottom of the pan. The rest of the motor looks nicely lubricated with oil.

[79 Camaro]

If there was any chance your engine was in a flood I would pull the intake/super charger apart and look inside. The bad thing about a flood is most people think its just water. It not, the water is full dirt, sand and all kinds of nasty stuff. I would pull the plugs and scope each cylinder.

[dhutton]

Was it stored in an unheated area? If yes, then maybe just condensation that built up in the motor.

Don

[joeko23]

100% was stored in an ingested building. Also the junkyard where I bought it from is in Canada. I don’t think they stored it outside because there is zero rust on any outside components. So I think I’m just going to install it, fire it up. Let it get to temp enough for the coolant to start circulating then drain the oil and hope for the best.

[2yellow69]

I agree with Don. The 5.3 that came in my daughters Nova had water/oil sludge in the bottom of the pan. The valve train was spotless. The kid we got the car from never ran it for more than a few minutes because he never got the car drive-able and it had open headers. I think it never got hot enough to burn off condensation. We changed the pan and oil (obviously) and have been running it. It is strong running and runs very well. It almost has 500 miles on it since we got it on the road so I'm going to do the oil and filter again to see if there is anything in the pan.

[badazz81z28]

Since an engine swap isn't exactly a 5 minute job, I would look it over. You can easily look up into the cylinders and make sure they are clean and not rusty or anything. The oil pan is dry so you really can't make much assumptions about how much water. Its also not uncommon for a recycler to pressure wash an engine and some water got in. I would inspect what you can, and if nothing looks crazy, install it and run it.

[joeko23]

Thanks for your suggestions. Yes the the cylinders are clean, crank is clean, and all rockers, springs etc are very clean and have normal looking oil on them. You might be right they probably did power wash the engine at some point.

[Btamayo23]

I bought a motor that was "in storage" to do my ls swap. I never bothered to check the oil until I had installed it. When I pulled the drain plug to my surprise water poured out for a couple of seconds before oil came out. I decided to continue with oil change. I fired it up and it has been running like a champ ever since.

[joeko23]

Wow I’d be scared ****less if that was the case. But I guess since it’s already installed might as well run it at that point. No sense in tearing it apart if nothings wrong. This makes me feel much better about the situation. Thanks!