07 Honda Rancher: foamy white oil in oil pan?

I just received this bike from servicing. I ran it about a half mile, the hot oil temp would come on, I looked at the dipstick and the oil was white and foamy. What does this mean?07 Honda Rancher: foamy white oil in oil pan?
Yes, white foamy oil is usually a leaking head gasket. Fact of the matter is that all of these opinions are correct - SOMETHING is inside the oil that shouldn't. Do not run the engine anymore. Park it and get it fixed. Once the oil gets foamy, nasty, or diluted and messed up it will not do it's job in lubricating your parts and can essentially cause overheating and damage to the engine which will cost far more than the gasket itself.





While it is rare for something that new to have that kind of issue, it's not impossible. Take it to a shop and have it inspected, they will be able to identify it for sure so you can get it fixed. Either way park it and don't ride it till it's fixed, it will not be good on the engine.





The white foam is caused usually by the coolant getting so hot that it boils and foams up in the oil, it mixes and causes what you see. As the oil itself gets diluted by it, when it lubricates the parts, it's sparsed out, so your engine heats up and eventually overheats if you run it long enough that way.





You will also usually be able to smell antifreeze in your exhaust as well if it is leaking badly enough on your head gasket. Don't run it for long enough other than to run it, take a brief sample of the exhaust smell and turn it off, it'll have sort of an odd sweet exhaust smell to it like coolant if it is leaking there. It is possible to leak coolant and not have the smell depending on where it is leaking.





Another possibility is that the bike COULD HAVE been overfilled. Check the actual oil level after letting it sit for a while. If oil is overfilled on an engine it can cause the oil to whip into a froth (depending on the oil COULD be white) and essentially cause the same thing, lack of lubrication. Check your oil level as well.





Get it checked out asap, bring it back to whoever did your service and call them out on it, they need to take care of that, it is NOT NORMAL.07 Honda Rancher: foamy white oil in oil pan?
If it were a car, it usually means coolant is mixing with the oil. That means your head gasket is leaking internally. Either that or someone made very serious error in service, such as putting wrong fluid into the wrong port....
obviously something is mixing with the oil that is not supposed to be there, on my car, I had the same problem because coolant got in the oil. good luck
Uh oh.


Sounds like coolant is mixing with the oil. You may have a leaking head gasket. Auto parts stores sell additives which claim to seal leaking head gaskets, so it wouldn't hurt to try one of them.
If it is a water-cooled engine, you got problems with coolant entering the crankcase.
it means water is in the oil.