Hai guys.

Today at the auction house I saw a '10 model 250cc Ninja. Looking over it the body is perfect. Checking the oil sight glass the oil is milky. Engine starts and runs fine, with no ticking noise and it idles smoothly. I've checked the coolant level and it's still topped up so I don't think it's an internal leak (unless such a small tiny leak could cause the full contents of the sump to go milky).
Externally the bike looks like it hasn't been submerged because I looked under all the fairings for signs of submersion and can't seem to fault it. It's in a salvage auction and the bike is on the WOVR so something has something obviously happened.

Looking at grabbing this bike as a project, just to learn about engines as it's small and easy to tuck into a corner or leave on the bench. Graduall when's it's all back together it'll be replacing my R1.

My question, how much water is needed to make oil go milky, and if it isn't an internal leak where could the water have come from? The engine holds 2.3L of oil.

it's a Kawasaki, it'll be right! Could be internal, rad could easily be topped up, same goes for signs of submersion, an almost new bike is easy to detail up. But only needs water to the crank breather or airbox to get in. Just get it cheap. Might pay to find out why it's on the register, they will want something in particular fixed or replaced if you want to get it off the register. Could be a repo and the owner put water in, so the lenders wrote it off. you might get lucky.
Either way, you will get to learn about motors

The previous owner really has gone to town doing it up, yoshi's, KN filters, fender removal kits, flush mount indicators, and awesome looking rear tail lights that have the indicators built in. I'll give it a go. Was going to ride it home but I think I'd be better off strapping it to a trailer.

A lot of bikes can suffer from milky oil due to a lot of short trips, not getting hot enough to burn the moisture out of the crankcase.
I have 3 bikes and they will all do this even the air cooled one. Take it out for a good hour ride on a warm day and the oil will return to its normal colour .
Air cooled bike, new oil, 5 short trips to work and I get milky oil same with my water cooled machines.
Take it for a RIDE

Yeah I've thought about riding it around a bit, but I'm afraid of hydrolocking it. If I win it at the auctions, Im goning to ride it up to the servo up the road and pump up the tyres and drop the oil and replace it with some cheap stuff. If I don't win it there's a few dirt bikes there I could have some fun with.

had someone i no accidently drive into a creek with their bike a few weeks back.. he rod it home... dropped the 100km old, full synthetic, oil straight away... looked exactly as you described.. new oil filter, new oil, ran it for 5mins, dumped oil.. times 4... oil is perfectly clean.. washed the bike.. ud never no its been totally submerged in water.. if this bike was insured full comp. it'd now be a repairable write off

couldnt be any more obvious whats happened to this bike your looking at.. exact same as my mates bike.. i say go for it if it sell cheap enough.. flush the oil a few times, should be fine..

Being submerged shouldnt hurt it that much.

My bike is always submerged out in the bush and just so long as I keep my servicing up she is fine. I've only seen white oil once...Even if it does require extensive work wont cost much and theyre easy to work on. Just got my whole engine rebuilt for under $1k

Just a bit of an update. After the bike was withdrawn from the past two auctions I finally got my hands on it for $2k. Bike started fine at home. Dropped the oil and changed the filter and topped back up with cheapy savings brand oil from coles. After letting it idle in the garage for two hours the oil was clear and took it for a few laps around the block. Bit rough at first but now runs smoothly. Nice loud yoshi exhaust. Coolant level didn't drop and theres still no milky oil. I think I bought a winner. Just for piece of mind I'll be taking all the fairings off and giving the engine a once over.

Lucky bugger good pickup

2k and how much on oil filter and oil

now just give it a good long ride to clear the cobwebs out so to speak

Wow man, thats a steal!! Good find!!