Unknown Engine Fluid

[captpatrick211]

Good day all.  We have a 2007 Vision with a Volvo D40 deisel.  Went out for a sail and had a good two hours healed heavily to the Portside in 16-20 knot wins.  Ran the engine about one hour coming back into marina with no issues.  When I opened the engine compartment to turn off the fresh water intake, I noticed a small pool of buttery covered fluid on the left side of the engine floor.  Our coolant is red/pink so I am not sure what I am seeing. Could you be something from the sail drive? It seems to have come from that direction and collected on the port side of the boat.  Thanks!

[JEN-et-ROSS]

Hi...!!
 Can you clarify, does your saildrive use oil or TQF as the lubricant, and what colour is the fluid in the leak...??    ...Bill.

[captpatrick211]

Hey Bill - We use Rotella 15w40 oil for the saildrive.  The fluid we saw definitely has an oily base. Color is yellowish. Does that help?

[elias]

I have noticed sometimes in our engine compartment that mix of oil and water and heat , creates a yellow thick paste if that helps

[Yngmar]

Did you check engine oil, coolant and saildrive oil levels?

[JEN-et-ROSS]

Hey Bill - We use Rotella 15w40 oil for the saildrive.  The fluid we saw definitely has an oily base. Color is yellowish. Does that help?

Hi... Your description of the fluid having a "buttery" coating sounds like water with an emulsion of oil/water floating on top..
I would think an oil/water emulsion couldn't just occur spontaneously but requires to be 'whipped-up' somehow, either within the engine or saildrive, as you might see inside a radiator cap or oil filler cap on a car with a blown head where some mixing of the oil and coolant has occurred...
Have a look inside the coolant/engine oil/saildrive filler caps and run your finger around under the rim to see if there's any 'mayonnaise' lurking..
If not, I don't think the buttery material came from the engine or saildrive..........Good luck.....Bill.

[IslandAlchemy]

Sounds like a bit of coolant has been spat out, and mixed with a bit of oily sludge in the engine sump.

Clean it out and give the engine bilge a thorough clean, and then see if it happens again.

[captpatrick211]

Thanks everyone - turned out to be oil from the saildrive that somehow mixed with a little water (likely some condensation that was resident at the base of the engine. Two leaky seals that we replaced. Will give it a run to test further but seems to have solved the problem.