hi, I recently bought a 2011 kia forte koup with the 2.0 engine. I bought the car with a knock and when I pulled the engine and took off the valve cover I found that my camshafts where rusting in a few places, what look to be like a misting of water on the cams and thick milky oil built up in some spots. when I drained the oil out after pulling the engine and right before I took the valve cover off the oil look to be completely fine not milky. on closer inspection it looked like the moisture had been getting carried up by the timing chain. I'm going to pull apart the engine more when I have more time, but I have never seen this happen before and was wondering if anyone else has ever had a similar problem. anything would help thanks.
moisture in valve cover
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Pics pics pics pics pics. Flood your post with pics.
Usually milky oil indicates a blown head gasket, cracked head or a crack in the engine block somewhere allowing oil and coolant to mix together. Makes absolutely no sense that you say the oil looks milky in one place but not another. Before you go tearing that engine down, you need to rent a pressure tester and test the cooling system for leaks. And check that radiator cap too along with the radiator. If you see ANY coolant leaks, then you should consider what to do about it. Well, shit, I see you've already pulled the engine, but you can still pressure test it and the radiator for leaks, as long as you didn't drain the block. If so, just tear the engine down and rebuild it.
2021 Forte GT w/GT2, Currant Red, Wagner-Tuning Intercooler, Evilla Exhaust, Takeda S1 Intake
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When my daughter's 2006 Spectra 2.0 had a bad head gasket it did the same thing: moisture and milky white oil on the top of the cylinder head (could see it through the oil fill hole), but the dipstick was normal. Fixed under warranty.
Ok thats all helps i will look into getting a pressure tester. I also added some pictures of the cams, the rust spots, the sludge build up, the underside of the valve cover and a build up of oil on the outside of the engine if that helps.
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Interesting. Looks like a lot of moisture in there and it hasn’t been run in a long time
Wow! That's a hell of a lot of rust on the cams. Do you do a lot of short trip driving? Does the car sit a lot? There's something very strange going on there. I've been working on my own cars for 50 years and have never seen anything like that in an engine that is used at least weekly. The rust really has me puzzled. The milky white isn't good. You definitely want to look for a blown head gasket. Hopefully it's nothing more serious.
2021 Forte GT w/GT2, Currant Red, Wagner-Tuning Intercooler, Evilla Exhaust, Takeda S1 Intake
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That's something I see in engines that have been sitting in a junkyard for a long time - not in an operating vehicle.
I have only had the car for about 2 months now. Im not sure what the previous owner did with it but since i got it it has ran at least once a week just ussually i would start it up and let it idle for 10 min it never ran for very long or did alot of driving because the engine was knocking
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