What is this white crap in my engine.

[Anonymous]

The first two are the oil fill cap on the valve cover and and the second two are inside the hole of the oil fill hole. :roll:

also the coolant smells like fish but im nt sure if that is related. I was told that it may be water that is entering the oil which makes that white foam stuff. it is also gunked up in the pcv valve which was just replaced. i was also told that it is coolant and oil mixed. there is an oil ring around my head gasket and i think that may be the problem, i think it may be rotted or cracked. i recently had the head tapped out because the exhaust manifold bolts broke off in it so im not sure if they tapped it with the head in the car or out of the car,. maybe they messed up the gasket????? so i guess my question is what is wrong with my car and where is this white foam crap coming from?

 

[Bort62]

That, My friend, Is water in your oil.

Most likely from your coolant system (unless you live in a rainforest)

The most likely candidate is a blown headgasket.

Second is a crack in the block/head somewhere.

 

[simon]

I don't know how much of that creme-coloured slime is sitting under your valve cover, so I'm tossing in this tiny bit of hope: there might be a little chance that this emulsified oil sitting on the filler cap and in the valve cover is just caused by condensed water (humid and cold weather and short operation cycles/ insufficient engiine temperature aggravate the problem)

in any case, drain your oil and check it. You might want to pop your valve cover and check the rocker valley for emulsion, too.
Just don't operate the engine anymore until you have found the cause.

I hope all goes well.

 

[Anonymous]

What Bort62 said...

Looks like they tapped a little too deep!

 

[falcondave63]

i do agree with the above, however, if the car is left outside and there is a lot of moisture and a bad seal on the oil fill cap, you will get condensation in the engine bay and it can weep through the bad seal and cause what you see. to be certain, i'd run a compression test, check the oil for coolant and the coolant for oil just to rule out a head gasket leak.

 

[lyonsy]

pull the head and inspect theres just to much for it to be moister from the air i get it occansionaly and it never turns off white.

 

[falcondave63]

i would perform a compression test before pulling the head

 

[JackFish]

This is a pretty common sight up here where you get very cool temperatures and your engine doesn't get hot enough to evaporate the condensation.
That gunk will probably be limited to the area where incoming cold pcv meets the warm oil vapours, IMHO.

 

[fordconvert]

Im with JackFish..... looks normal for short runs/trips in a cold/damp climate. Do an oil change, make sure your PCV or CV system is in good working order and try to get her fully warmed up at least 1 time a week.

If the car has been sitting a lot or you have been working on and running the engine but not driving that looks normal to me.

Good Luck and keep us posted!

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for all your imput, i really appreciate the responses. I just had my oil changed 200 miles ago. but i did notice that yesterday when i checked my oil, the very tippy top part of the dipstick has the same yellow gunk in it.the oil looks fine. i checked the coolant, it at the normal level, but i noticed that the inside wall looks a little pale white, might not be the same stuff but its got a road salt kinda look to it. also, the most noticable thing is that it smells like fish which cant be good. as far as i can remember, coolant doesn't smell like fish. also about my pcv valve. that was also changed when i got my oil changed, i checked it again yesterday and there was no white gunk after i cleaned it up real good. my other thought as to the source of the water is the little white filter thinhg in the air cleaner. i was told that it needed to be changed when i got my oil changed but i didn't want to spend 7 dollars. i took it out yesterday and it was drenched with black gunk. i patted it dry with a paper towel and it still looks like crap. the little groove where it sets in has the white residue in there a little as well. thanks again for any imput

 

[ASMART]

I had a similar problem before. Once I had a bad head gasket and the next was a cracked block. On both occassions you could see bubbles in the coolant as compression was leaking into the coolant. The oil level was constantly rising. Once I figured the block was cracked I kept driving it for a while. I would have to drain the oil water mix and replace with oil. I ran it like that for a few months before Ifound alternate transportation.

Good luck.

 

[fordconvert]

How often do you drive that car and when you do how far do you drive and what type of speeds?

The white thing in the air cleaner is the intake for the PCV system. In theory this should not have any oil on it, the fact that its full of oil and stuff means there are some miles on the motor.

If you pull the PCV valve out while the engine is running there should be a steady pull on it, enough to suck your finger to the valve and it should take a bit of force to remove it.

 

[Anonymous]

How often do you drive that car and when you do how far do you drive and what type of speeds?

The white thing in the air cleaner is the intake for the PCV system. In theory this should not have any oil on it, the fact that its full of oil and stuff means there are some miles on the motor.

If you pull the PCV valve out while the engine is running there should be a steady pull on it, enough to suck your finger to the valve and it should take a bit of force to remove it.

the motor has 25,000 miles on it should i change the filter? the car is my daily driver and it drive a few miles per trip all day and i tend to drive a tad bit aggressively :roll:

 

[fordconvert]

If you drive 10 minutes and let the car sit for 30 then drive another 10 minutes that could easily cause the sludge in your climate. If you get a chance try and take it out for a nice 1/2 hour cruise where you dont have to stop very often and see if it burns all or most of that crap out. 25,000 miles I would not expect much blow by. Try changing that filter and keep an eye on it to see how fast it gets messed up. If that filer is restricting the flow the PCV system will not be able to remove as much moisture and stuff as it should. Does the valve suck your finger tight? The valve is not in upside down or something is it?

 

[Anonymous]

the valvbe suc ks in my finger tightly. the one thing i think could of done it is the fact that i took off the heat shield that draws heat from the block into the intake. im sure that wasn't very smart on my part but im not surte how big of a difference that would make.

 

[fordconvert]

Do you mean the pipe/hose that goes into the air cleaner? That shouldnt make much differnce with this problem.

 

[Anonymous]

Do you mean the pipe/hose that goes into the air cleaner? That shouldnt make much differnce with this problem.

yes i do mean that pipe, i thought maybe if it wasn't able to draw in heart than the moisture wouldn't burn off....

 

[Lazy JW]

Do you mean the pipe/hose that goes into the air cleaner? That shouldnt make much differnce with this problem.

yes i do mean that pipe, i thought maybe if it wasn't able to draw in heart than the moisture wouldn't burn off....

That pipe was put there because it does indeed make a difference. Especially on short trips. And cool climates. And YES change the PCV filter!
Joe

 

[mugsy]

If its a big leak from the coolant into the oil pan it would look like a chocolate milk shake. Don't ask me why I know! Anyway, it does look like water in the oil. As the air in the crank case heats up it expands, when it cools down it draws in fresh air. And the fresh air has water vapor in it. If the block gets below the dew point the water will condense inside the engine. It all very normal. Just go for a good, long ride and make sure that the oil and engine are up to temp. The heat should drive the water out. Then check for the white milky stuff; it should be gone. The short trips you make do not evaporate the water out in my opinion.