Oil Problem
 

hey guys,

This morning I fired up my '97 850 and as I let it warm up, I checked the oil. I'm concerned about what I found on the dipstick: gunk. I couldn't see my oil level, just a bit of this light brown goo. I know early this week my oil level was OK, but is it normal to find gunk like this. I should point out that I checked the oil on a cold morning (5 F) right after starting the car up. Also at first I noticed very faint white smoke, which seemed to go away after a few minutes. From what I've read, this may be a PCV maintenance issue, but how much smoke would there really be?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Well if the goo you saw was on the upper part of the stick that stays inside the tube that takes it to the engine, then that is normal specially for the cars driven more for short trips. This is from the moisture condensation out of the oil. The correct procedure fro checking the oil level demands the engine to be in OFF state.
For the PCV part, remove the dip stick when the engine is warm to the normal operating temperature and see if you get a white smoky blow-by from there. If not, play with the throttle a bit and see if you notice that cloud of smoke from there.
My guess is that if you see no blow-by at idling and a little puff when you give it a sudden throttle, then this is normal and should not have any bad effect on the engine.

+1 on the goo. We get it from time to time on ours