Sludge in oil cap

[windydubber]

Hi, just been away in the van. Dipped the oil this morning to find two things. One.hardly any oil in her. Two. White sludge in the oil filler cap. Any ideas what this means? I've topped up the oil so will check the level when I get home. Cheers.

[Ralf85]

How often do you check your oil? Did you check the oil level before you set off on your trip? Have you got any oil leaks? I assume you are using the correct oil for an air-cooled,

[windydubber]

Yes I check regularly. I checked before we left behave find about 350 miles. Not to worried about having a leak. I'm Sure I can find that and sort. More concerned about the sludge really?

[Ralf85]

Ok. If your using the correct oil and the level was on max, before you went on a 350 mile round trip and it's not leaking then it sounds as if your engine is on it's way out and is burning oil. I had an air-cooled that eventually went from max to min about every 500 miles. Yours sounds worse than that. Do you have lots of little oil spots on the back of your van?
How much did you have to add to top it up to max again? Sludge is a consequence of what's left of the oil left in the sump being overworked. Someone will probably on soon to offer another scenario!

[lloydy]

White sludge/froth normally water in oil, may well just be condensation from lots of short drives. Oil loss, all you can do is monitor it and see what occurs

[windydubber]

I'm using 15w 40 mineral oil.
Just got back the last 100 miles. Didn't seem to use any. I'll have to keep my eye on it.

[California Dreamin]

Did I hear someone say this was an 'Aircooled' engine? if so you have no worries with the normal culprit, which is head garket/liner seals. A build up of 'bailey's' froth is normally just condensation inside the crankcase mixing with a small amount of residue, however, I would have expected a good run to have vaporized this away.
Is the oil itself discoloured in any way? or just black?

As for oil consumption, if you initially checked the level on the slant (even with two wheels on the pavement and two on the road) that can be enough to give an inaccurate reading and catch you out later. What you need to do is an accurate oil consumption test...perfectly flat, run the engine for 30 seconds, stop for 30 seconds, dip the oil (set just below the max level) do exactly the same at 100 mile intervals.

Martin

[CovKid]

As above - usually the result of too many short journeys where the engine never really gets hot enough to vent off any moisture in crankcase.

[windydubber]

Thanks Martin and CovKid, Thats put my mind at rest! It is an Aircooled. I'm just going to monitor the oil very closely for the next few weeks. That should sort it!

[CovKid]

It does seem to be less of a problem during the Summer months. Just put it down to Winter blues