milky oil

[scoutonwater]

As we go through life we eventually come upon something we have never encountered. That happened to me this weekend. Please bear with me as I try my best to explain my problem.

I bought my 1800sr back in November 2006 and it's a 2000 model year. I've never had any problems with the boat, only bad gas on the first tank. Every year I change all the fluids (engine oil, outdrive, etc.). Run it on muffs to make sure everything is okay every time. She has been a great boat with a lot of trouble free enjoyment. But she hasn't seen much use in the last 4 years due to family work conflicts and the like. Prior to this past weekend the last time she was sitting on the water was May 2012. I pulled her 2400 miles across the country in February looking forward to finally being able to enjoy her like she should with such a variety of lakes here in Kentucky.

I changed the oil and outdrive fluid in CA last October simply because it had been in the engine for so long. So on saturday I started my preparations for getting her on the water. Along with all my other processes, I hooked her up to the muffs and ran her for about 20 minutes to make sure everything was good. No leaks, everything working correctly, no overheating, all systems were normal. When I shut her off, the oil was clean, no milkyness at all.

Fast forward to the lake. We spent about 3 hours driving around, seeing the sites, enjoying the day. After about 3 hours on the lake a storm blew in and caught us by surprise. Even got some hail. The engine died while I had the sunpad up trying to get the bimini out and up to prevent everything from getting soaked. She didn't want to start so i pulled the engine shroud off and saw milky residue coming from the valve cover breather tubes right onto the flame arrestor. Not good!!

This is the thing I've never experienced before, or even knew someone who had the same problem. I'm totally in the dark when it comes to having water get into the oil. I'm in the process of changing the oil for the second time trying to get all the funk out, and here's my question:

How long does it take for water in the oil to foam it up into a milky paste? Could it be that water got into it during the rain storm while I had the sunpad up? Or is it something far worse? Like overheating and causing an intake gasket leak? I've never known anyone where this has happened so I don't know the science behind it. I don't know how long the process takes or anything. I know there's questions to be answered so if I haven't given you enough details just ask away and I'll answer them all. Thanks in advance for any insight.