Early signs of Head Gasket Failure????

[ElwoodUT]

Talking to a mechanic the other day and he said that if you pull off your oil fill cap and it has residual oils on the underside that it is a sign that your head gasket will be going out before too long.

Has anyone ever heard of this???

[sps468]

It is condensation. It sounds like he is just trying to scare you to buy parts if your truck is running right or he has x-ray vision (Just in case he does have x-ray vision watch out if he starts to look at you funny)

[Phil'sFrontier]

Blue oval kidding!

[chadp82]

I asked my wife, she works in an oil lab. Small amounts of water in oil in a gas engine is normal. The moisture inside the oil cap is most likely normal condensation. Gas engines dont get hot enough to burn all residual water and condensation off.

This would be more concerning on a diesel engine.

[baseballfanz]

Originally Posted by chadp82

I asked my wife, she works in an oil lab. Small amounts of water in oil in a gas engine is normal. The moisture inside the oil cap is most likely normal condensation. Gas engines dont get hot enough to burn all residual water and condensation off.

This would be more concerning on a diesel engine.

So do you get free oil analysis?

Sent from my 2005 Red Alert Titan via the Autoguide app on my ASUS Transformer.

[chadp82]

Yes I do. She works for Titan Labs

[baseballfanz]

Originally Posted by chadp82

Yes I do. She works for Titan Labs

That's pretty cool.

[chadp82]

Ya. I have a thread with some test results I have received. Also a few others have posted too.

[Outkast!]

Originally Posted by sps468

It is condensation. It sounds like he is just trying to scare you to buy parts if your truck is running right or he has x-ray vision (Just in case he does have x-ray vision watch out if he starts to look at you funny)

I hate techs like that, makes guys like me look bad.

[firetruck41]

If the oil/condensation collected on the oil cap looks milky I would start to worry, but otherwise it should be normal.

[techwill64]

Sounds like a load of poop to me . I have it on mine . My pcv was clogged . Its normal . Worked for ford as a tech for many years . My wife focus has 15kmiles her cap has a white film on it too

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[4mula1fan]

Originally Posted by ElwoodUT

Talking to a mechanic the other day and he said that if you pull off your oil fill cap and it has residual oils on the underside that it is a sign that your head gasket will be going out before too long.

Has anyone ever heard of this???

Sounds like a struggling shop trying to generate revenue...

[jbawden]

Or every time he changes a head gasket he notices the condensation on the cap and erroneously concludes it from the head gasket failure. People make these cause and effect errors every day and message boards are where they prove it. "I changed my oil to brand x, my engine blew up 1,000 miles later, don't use brand x oil it will make your engine blow up".

[Shane06fl]

He said Residual oil on the underside of the cap, I see no mention of water or anything other than oil. Did I miss something?

[jbawden]

We've all looked under the cap, we knew what he was talking about.