dipstick covered in chicken soup/milkshake + fans take a while to cool back to normal

[Chris_Von_Bron]

Hi all,
The car has been sat in the garage and not been started for two months. I was just checking the coolant and the oil before reconnecting the battery to take it for a run. It had new fluids/filters etc back in August and had only done around 2000 miles on the oil currently in the sump.

I’d thought I check the oil level before starting the engine and found the strangest ‘gloop’ mixed in with the new oil. I noticed after I dipped, cleaned and re-dipped the dip stick that the strange gloop was starting to lessen off. It is as if something has collected on top of the oil and dip stick as this gloop was all the way up dip stick.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Chris_Von_Bron/UIJ%20197/IMAG0944.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Chris_Von_Bron/UIJ%20197/IMAG0943.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Chris_Von_Bron/UIJ%20197/IMAG0932.jpg

I took the car for a run and all seemed fine. I drove it up to normal operating temperature and then let it sit to see if the otterstat kicked the new DPNW fans in at the temperature below they did

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Chris_Von_Bron/UIJ%20197/IMAG0945.jpg

What concerns me is that the fans were running for what seemed to be around 7 minutes before the needle slowly returned to the normal quarter mark.

What could cause the cooling back to normal temperature to be such a slow process?

After 24 hours I went back to check the oil level and found that the oil had gone back to its normal light brown colour except for the smallest trace of the same gloop at the very tip:-

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Chris_Von_Bron/UIJ%20197/IMAG0951.jpg

Could this be simply the affects of condensation based on the temperature changes over the last two months or have I got more to worry about?

More background info:-
Mid last year my original Bosch fans packed up (the propeller fell off one and the other died not long afterwards) which resulted in the car reaching 220-230F on one occasion but the engine was turned off before being allow to get hotter. No symptoms afterwards. It was a few months afterwards that the oil was changed and checked and nothing like the gloop in the photos was seen until now.

[DMCMW Dave]

Keep driving it. If it goes away it is just condensation. My daily driver looks like this in the winter since I live so close to the shop. This is why I generally don't recommend running the car in place during the winter. You can't get it hot enough just idling.

If it comes back/gets worse, it's head gasket time. If it is a head gasket you will eventually start having an overheat issue as well. If it is the lower cylinder seals, it won't overheat but you'll have coolant in the oil.

The other test for cylinder seals is take it for a good long drive and then park it overnight. Then back off the oil drain plug an catch about the first cup of oil. If it is coolant rather than oil, you have a problem. . . . .(coolant goes to the bottom of the engine)

[tgraham]

Are you losing any coolant? Check your oil the next time you change it... see if it's also a brown milky color (not a good sign).

I've had the same problem you're having. In my case, it was the worst-case scenario...

Travis

[dmc6960]

I also had the worse case scenario. I could not however see the milky substance on my dipstick. I DID see it however ALL OVER the metal mesh in the crankcase vent/oil cap. The method Dave mentioned of cracking the oil drain plug resulted in about a half gallon of coolant draining out. I had just changed the oil two days prior and drove ~100 miles in that time. I was REALLY REALLY hoping for just a "condensation" issue, but alas it was not. So I cancelled the trip to DCS '08, parked the car for the whole year, then rebuilt the engine in '09.

[Chris_Von_Bron]

Thanks for the all of the input guys, much appreciated!

When posting this I was dreading the possibility of HGF particularly because of the time it took to cool back to the first quarter mark.

It'll be a few more weeks before I'm able to move the car again so I'll try out your suggestions and confirm the outcome.

Cheers guys! :D