ssbowtie1

Looks pretty bad



Its not on the bottom of extension but it was on the cap and on the top of the extension as you can see. I looked inside the valvecovers and they look fine. I'm assuming this is a symptom of a blown headgasket?

Angelis83LT

more likely a symptom of it being winter time. Pretty common to have condensation in the winter doing that to oil on the oilcaps and such. if you had water from a blown headgasket ALL of your oil would look like that

speed_demon24

This isn't true.

SS RRR

I think it depends on the climate. Real humid areas that are prone to go from one extreme temperature to another are more likely to have that happen. The tops of my valve covers and oil fill cap looked like that while living in DFW and VA. Just make sure to check the rest of the oil in the pan to see if it looks like that or not.

wrd1972

I have seen it before, I think its harmless.

JasonK94Z

Just condensation. make a lot of short trips in your car?

shock6906

Had that on my oil filler cap too. My dad said it was just condensation and nothing to worry about.

ssbowtie1

I've recently done alot of work on the car which includes an opti, wp, and fuel pump swap. The car has also been off the road for about 2-3 months. So I've been turning the car on and off for short spurts many times over the last few months.

Down here in San Diego, CA there are also pretty extreme temp changes. Day temps generally reach 70-80deg, and night temps are around 40deg.

Thanks alot for the replies guys. I'm going to change the oil and send a sample out to get analyzed that way I get a definite answer.

Injuneer

With short starts, its completely normal to have condensation and the resulting oil/water emulsion buildup in the extremes of the engine. You might want to check the PCV system, since a plugged PCV valve would exacerbate the situation.

ulakovic22

Had the same issue. Work was 2 miles away and the engine wasn't able to warm up completely and burn off the condensation.

ssbowtie1

Are you familiar with the PCV setup for a 96 car? I noticed there was a PCV valve setup on the passenger side head, however it was just a piece of plastic. There wasn't anything inside it. Is this how the setup is supposed to be?

Injuneer

The PCV valve is on the DRIVER's side of the intake manifold, pushed into a grommet. The vacuum source is a tube that runs to the front of the intake manifold, under the throttle body.

Courtesy of Shoebox:

http://shbox.com/1/pcv.jpg

http://shbox.com/1/pcv_pipe.jpg

What you see on the passenger side is a rubber hose that runs from the side of the throttle body, to the plastic elbow in the passenger side valve cover. That is a line that supplies filtered, MAF measured air to the valve cover, so the closed PCV vacuum will pull the air through the crankcase and lifter valley to purge harmful blowby vapor.

Try2Catchme

San Diego is know for the climate changes as well as condensation. Usually harmless never hurts to change the oil!

Pontiac_97

i noticed this on my cap also about 2 weeks ago. condensation and stuff. i looked down in the hole and all my rockers look perfectly clean. im sure its nothing

Spllouder

I change alot of oil at are shop and yje dodges are the worst . yes its condensation , and is from not leting the car warm up fully and short trips .

i seen so much is a new 05 dodge ram 1500 it looked like puke . and when it wiped it up it turned into mostly water .