Sucked up sap- bummer

[mapleman3]

So I got home tonight from work and started boiling about 5:45pm... checked the realeaser and vacuum everything was good and it pumped the sap(electric releaser)to the sugarhouse... so everything is cool.... Boiled all night and went and checked the vac pump again to shut it down and drain the pump so sap wouldn't freeze in it(transfer pump)... the outside temp had already shut down the vacuum BUT... BUT I saw a milky oily stuf around the vac pump.... My eyes WIDENED... OH NO THE FLOAT IN THE RELEASER IS ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP AND THE TRANSFER PUMP DIDN'T AND THE FLOAT SWITCH DIDN"T TRIP !!!
so.. the vac pump slugged in some sap, not sure how much since the moisture trap took some of it, but I figure a half gallon at least... dang, so I had to drain the oil reseviour (which was full of white milky oil)and dry the water up... fill back up with pump oil... shes up again but a little noisy(due to also having to put some 5w30 in cuz only had 2 qts sae 20 left) it was climbing slowly and got to almost 18"... I'm hoping if I drain the oil again tomorrow and fill with all sae20 after running for a day.. the moisture left will be heated up and dispersed out the exhaust? what could go wrong in it now? it's a delaval 75 milker.. always could run it at 19" with a fan cooling it.. no problems... did I catch it in time???

[sweetwoodmaple]

You should be alright. Unless it runs a long time, the oil and water mix and you still have some lubrication.

I did the same thing on the first boil this year as it was 60 degrees and sap running everywhere. My releaser couldn't keep up and the pump took a gulp. I now have a moisture trap that helps plus a startup procedure I go though that eases the vacuum up to clear the lines and sap ladders.

My pump is oil flood, so I had to change the oil about 4 times before I got most of the moisture out. Though, I still get some milk on very warm days due to condensation in the lines.

[Russell Lampron]

Jim,

I think you caught it soon enough. As long as the bearings didn't get wiped out you should be able to get the moisture out with a couple of oil changes.

Russ

[davey]

We used to run methanol powered 360 sprint cars and it wasn't that unusual to drain the oil after a race and find the oil a milky white from excess alcohol dumping by on occasion and never had a set of bearings that looked any worse for the wear after teardowns. I think that if a few hours of an oil and water mix is all you had you should be fine, you're not running anywhere near the load those engines did.

[mapleman3]

Well I let it run today, hopefully it worked fine and cleaned up... I will check the oil and see if it needs changing again... ALSO hopefully the float and switch doesn't mess up again !! still not sure why it did that, I lubed the shaft with a bit of food grade silicone and checked it's up and down travel, seemed fine afterwards.... hope it is ok.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Run it...hard

[mapleman3]

Got home and checked... Only running at 10" may be a vane :(

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

post edited

[mapleman3]

So hey Kevin glad to have you back, hope your feeling better :) we all missed you and were worried. Now get boiling LOL !! ;)

Yes actually I did all that last night even dried up the inside of the intake line. The oil today is still clean so I will pull it apart in the spare time. But the sugar content is down back there so I'm not worried about loosing sap just loosing the pump. It hopefully will be ok but just no time to do it right now.