was changing my oil today and noticed on my oil cap and the tube down into the valve cover a white gewy substance i havent seen before...looked like snot and was kind of a yellowish white substance....i change my oil routinely (this one was 300mi before it needed it)....is this sludge or what? i use recomended 5w20 and motorcraft filter...i wiped the gew off that i could see and continued my oil change....examined the dirty oil and it looked normal...

my truck is an 04 5.4 with 53k...thanks in advance!

 

Hi there;
Wheon you use your truck on short trips (bringing children at school or some shopping) your engine stays to cold. I don't know in what kind of weather conditions you live, but here in the Netherlands a lot of citycars do have sludge; otherwise you do have a blown gasket

greetzzz Ton

 

dont take many short trips...the oil i drained out of the truck plus the antifreeze looked good so i dont believe it was blown head gasket

 

its not really engine sludge, its just milky oil residue that is a result of condensation from frequent short trips where the motor never stays hot long enough to burn off the condensation. its pretty normal especially if you live in a cooler climate. now if your oil in the crank case starts looking like that than that would indicate a blown head gasket but if its just in the cap its just from condensation. no need to worry

 

thanks for the info! i didnt think it was annything too bad bc the oil looked pretty good...i dont make many short trips though which is odd...hmmm

 

I'd keep a close eye on the dipstick. Look closely for droplets of water every few days. If it's water in the oil, it'll show up on that dipstick.

 

if you changed it and didnt notice anything weird you are probably good... ... you might want to check and make sure your dipstick and oil cap are looking good....no cracks and sleas are good