I'm seeing a little oily foam on the end of the dip stick as well as some water droplets higher up on the stick. When I change the oil, no foam drains out, and I'm not loosing any antifreeze to speak of. Am I on the slipery slope to a head gasket replacement? If so do I have any time at all before it should get done, or am I causing damage by driving the car with this condition?

 

would it be like bownish at the tip? i think during cold weather, starting up your car and not letting it warm up would build condinsation inside the motor and would cause that. I think thats what it is, I kinda had the same problem, but noticed it during cold weather. I would also see that my oil dip stick would rust at the top of my dip stick while i have tanish brown stuff on the end of the dip stick.

 

Mine has just done the same thing after a rebuild 2 weeks ago. It scared me until I drained the oil and no water came out at all and the oil looked perfect. Also there was no foamy/milky oil on the oil cap or any looking inside the oil cap hole. I wiped the dipstick off a couple times and the foamy/milk has not returned.

 

Usually a long drive , maybe on the highway helps for me when it starts to do that.

 

Sounds like your breather system might be clogged (PCV)

 

Or your using Quaker State oil that is long past the point where it should have been changed.

 

What he said^

Pull your dipstick while the car is running and see if you get any smoke puffing out.

 

This is very common during cold weather specially if you drive short trips and if you happen to be in those northern states. I am in Ontario,Canada and see this happening every winter if I only do commute to my work (less then 1 mile oneway) and disappears if I take the baby out on freeway for about 30 minutes run once in a week. Looks that that doing this burns any water condensation and helps keeping the engine clean and healthy.

 

Concur 100% with above. We see that here in PA with all makes of cars. When driving short distances in cold weather, the condensation doesn't have enough time to burn off. Some longer drives once in a while will help. If you let it go too long it will build up and will need cleaned out by other methods.

 

Mine got to the point where the pressure in the head was killing the car. I gimped it to a buddy's garage and replaced the whole PCV system. Not as easy job, but finally got it done. It was clogged, badly, with chunks of deposits. I basically wasn't functioning.

 

Well when the end place of a clogged PCV system is a blown rear main seal...(very expensive to replace).. I would recomend having it checked out OR just replacing it all together. Parts arent that expensive to buy, and it might take you a few hrs. to do... Good Luck

 

Here's the info I followed to do mine: http://www.lakesidedp.com/uploadpics/pcv/index.html

My tips are:

1. Attack the manifold bolt and the dipstick bolt from the top if needed but have a short 12mm wrench.

2. Make sure you have extra vacuum line and clamps.

3. Get some extra fuel hose as suggested in the writeup. I'd go with the larger size. You'll probably have to cut that fuel line as noted in the instructions. It would have been 100% impossible to salvage mine.

4. There's a large brasslike tube behind the right side of the intake. This will have to be unbolted if you want to move the manifold over. I don't know what it does (it's under the throttle body) but without disconnecting it there's no way I could have moved mine. Wouldn't hurt to have some teflon tape for this. Remember to line the fitting back up before bolting the intake back down.

5. As per the instructions, DON'T remove the bottom row of bolts from the intake. You don't need to take them out, just loosen them.

6. Don't even attempt this without a telescoping magnet.

7. You will need that swivel adapter for the socket wrench.

8. This would not be a bad time to use scotch tape to mark which items go back where. Most of them are obvious, but just in case.

9. Be sure to clean the PCT, mine was clogged shut.

That's off the top of my head, lol

 

Or the engine could simply have a lot of blowby from worn out or gummed up rings, as mine appears to have. Bought it recently used with a shady history. I have blowby and thought the breather was plugged. But it didn't seem to have any pressure building up.

So I made a simple manometer. using clear hose and water. Just use 3/8 clear tube and put in dipstick. First put water in the tube so you can have a U shape of at least 6" or so with water. Normally the water level is equal of course on both sides. The pressure in the crankcase will push the water to give you a reading of the difference in height, or inches of water. Mine was only about 1/2" under load, which is fine. If you are going to damage the rear main I would expect to see upwards of 5-10" H20. I don't know bad it can get.

So I was on a roll and also did this for my furnace filter to see how plugged it was getting. It seemed plugged and so I was measuring about 1.5" H20 which is about all the blower can pull so it was pretty plugged. The new one brought it down to 1/4" or so. I just put a small hole with a piece of elec tape over it (also with a hole) and press down a brass fitting over it (ground flat).