Mayonaise in filler cap

[Dom]

Hi everyone,
I have found a little mayo in the filler cap, otherwise all is good. Slight pinking on the left bank, but the temp is constant at 1/3rd, oil pressure 50-60lb and pulls/sounds fantastic.
I do around 10 mins drive in the morning and 10 mins drive home.
Am I guessing (hoping) that what I may need is a good long blast to clear it all through, or is this early head gasket failure?
I do have a catch tank between the carb and cam breather as there was excessive waste, this was fairly full of water, is it normal to have such condensation causing these issues?
As I say, otherwise all good, 120k with rebuild (PO) at c80k. No smoke or excessive steam at exhaust.
Thanks,
Dom

[iani]

You're not driving it long enough to clear the emulsion, I find it takes a good 10m+ at this time of year to clear this up.

Ian

[71Stag]

Hi Dom
It's more likely caused by condensation mixing with the oil particularly if the car isn't driven much and there's no other symptoms
Cheers
Bruce

[bullstarz]

I'll be bluntly honest, wont beat about the bush or pussyfoot around the answer.





IMPENDING DOOM

[mike@thenook]

Hi everyone,
I have found a little mayo in the filler cap, otherwise all is good. Slight pinking on the left bank, but the temp is constant at 1/3rd, oil pressure 50-60lb and pulls/sounds fantastic.
I do around 10 mins drive in the morning and 10 mins drive home.
Am I guessing (hoping) that what I may need is a good long blast to clear it all through, or is this early head gasket failure?
I do have a catch tank between the carb and cam breather as there was excessive waste, this was fairly full of water, is it normal to have such condensation causing these issues?
As I say, otherwise all good, 120k with rebuild (PO) at c80k. No smoke or excessive steam at exhaust.
Thanks,
Dom

Dom,

I've had a CT on mine since before and after rebuilding the engine and always there will be some water in it - it is bound to happen as there are hot gases coming from the manifold breather then condensing on the walls of the tank. If you have the type that has a small pipe running up the side that is the while reason it is there, so you can see any water build and empty the tank.
I'd say don't panic just yet, give it a good run and see if any water has been lost from your header/overflow bottle - if you have, then maybe i'd satrt to worry more.

Cheers

[richardthestag]

I'll be bluntly honest, wont beat about the bush or pussyfoot around the answer.





IMPENDING DOOM

what he said ^^^

Remove engine immediately and spend 2 plus years engineering a replacement

seriously though I suspect it is just a build up of condensation, take it for a good run, what is the worst that can happen?

My hgf happened and i am still alive. last year the lh head gaskit blew on a drive to devon, i made it there and back again (nearly 400 miles) stopping every other junction to top up the header tank. interesting thing was that there was no water in the oil or under the filler cap at all. the blow was obviously into the water jacket, presurised the cooling system and it went all "old faithful" every 20 miles or so. There was enough of a head of water in the expansion tank i have fitted to keep it ok. temp guage stayed normal etc etc.

fixing the head gasket on mine was an entirely different matter though, 2 months later and an engine rebuild due to seized studs and non hardened crank!! so be sure yours has gone first check compressions, give it a good warm up and you may find that the mayo just goes away.

Mine is sweet again now, with its new crank, bearings, ever so lightly honed bores and new rings. The heads needed another skim and i took the oportunity to clean everything up nicely and reshim the valves. finishing off with new standard chains and guides.

[milothedog]

I would have thought it's unlikely to to be HGF given the few areas where it could leak across. Maybe Water pump O rings ?, the normal HGF is Gases to coolant.

To put your mind at rest, and if you don't have access to a block tester, is pop down to your local MOT tester and ask them if they would put their CO tester in the rad filler neck and check for combustion gases.

As suggested give it an Italian tune up and see what you have then

Ian

[1959terry]

It is more than likely just the short runs which is causing it.

My son had this on his vw golf, my mechanic said that if you only use a car for short runs it doesn't hurt to give it a good run and get the temperature up and when you park it remove the oil filler cap to allow any steam to vent out of the engine before it cools down and condenses again?

Sounds reasonable???

[jleyton]

TV8 HGF seems to be rarely preceded by mayonnaise. I think you'll be ok. Good luck.

Cheers

Julian

[GDPR]

I agree. Engine not getting warm for long enough to boil off the moisture, and poor crankcase breathing/purging by the sounds of it if you have a catch tank - I take it you have a non standard carb?

If you are getting this amount of moisture build up, you might want to think about changing your oil more regularly as acids will build up in the oil and corrode internals as well as affecting oil performance...

[Nambo]

On top of which most engine wear occurs when the engine is cold, so why not fit a Kenlowe engine pre-heater? that way you get the engine hot before you even use it, which will help reduce the mayo, lesson engine wear, and save a heap of money as you wont need the choke on in the mornings.

Pete

[bullstarz]

On the same line ditch the viscose fan and fit a modern electric fan. A fan that is built to cool the engine when it needs it rather than just turn all the time sapping the engine power.