Hi All-

Went to check oil on '88 745Ti (150K) and was sickened by frothy chocolate milkshake on the dipstick. My reaction- head warped or blown gasket. Opened the coolant reseviour to find coolant a nice green color. My parts guy, who I consider to be very knowledgable but sometimes weird, told me "nah, it's just time to change the oil".

My boss at work had the same reaction I did. Buddy of mine I saw last night claimed to see the same type of residue on the dipstick of his Honda CRX when he blew the head. Who's nuts here, me or my parts guy?

Thanks for any input-
Dylan

Hey,

I have the same thing, the wise folks at Jiffy Lube (sorry it was cold) last year said you've got a blown gasket. Freaked out, I went to our Volvo guy and they said "bah": condensation, short trips, chilly weather. Last summer it was a lot better, and its sort of winter again on the east coast and the sludge is back. 16 months and 18,000 miles later, it must not be too big a deal. Of course it has almost 200k, so there's not a lot to worry about at this point.

Gary '86 745T

The EXACT same thing happened to me with my old '83 240 Turbo. Around last August I noticed the oil off the dipstick was like you said "chocolate milk" I was at work at the time, so not wanting to drive it home, I called a tow truck. My garage performed a few tests, flushed the engine and the coolant, and told me the engine was fine. I checked the oil every day after that and it was fine. Then, two weeks later the dipstick is covered in sludge again. Back to the shop, same story. What I found was that there was a lot of moisture inside the dipstick tube. I pulled it off, cleaned it, put a new rubber seal on the dipstick, then drove the car hard from Vancouver to Seattle and back. There was still a little shit on the stick, but after two weeks it went away completely.

C.Wagner. '81 242 GLT, 1997 Honda for back-up.

If you have been driving in short trips in cold weather, it's possible the milkshake is only condensation. I would change the oil and look at what comes out of the crankcase: that's the test. If that is milky, you've almost certainly blown the head gasket.

That's what my plan is the weekend- see how bad the crankcase oil looks. Just in time, as my friend is returning the Audi I lent him while his 245t was in the shop. Yes, Audi, it's an $800 beater.

The 745Ti does 120+ mile trips daily. I was about 30 miles into yesterday's trip when I found the froth. I'm not optomistic, as the motor's not in the best shape- the flame trap is clogged and was to be cleaned once I got the Audi back. Dammit. Now it's going to get cleaned once I get the whole head off, I think...

Thanks for the quick reply-
Dylan