something strange with oil filler cap

[96 SSEi]

hello, just 3 miniues ago, I went out to my car to smoke- cant smoke in bar

check fluids- all is good: oil colour is a bit dirty but smells fine.I pull the oil filler cap and there is a bit of yellow residue on the cap: pull the other part of filler and all is good. what the hell is that???? I did use risol/bars stop leak to fix a tiny block heater drip: im going to do oil change early- still have 40% to go from my dic
any guesses as to why I have this residue? am I a victim of attempted sabotage?

thanks............

[J Wikoff]

It's on the inside of the cap? It's water and/or coolant condensate. It could be normal, it could be a sign of coolant leaking into the oil VIA the lower intake manifold gaskets. How much?

[96 SSEi]

not much: about 2.5mm2 area so about less than 1/2inch and there was what looked like a drop of water in the cap

[Luxrain]

mine does something similar but i dont ever have to add coolant and the oil has no water in it, so just keep an eye on oil vs coolant and if neither seem odd you should be ok

[Goostoff]

Just condensation. If you let the car warm up in the winter time you will see this more than you will in the summer.

[96 SSEi]

ok thanks, is there a test i can perform to check manifold gaskets without a tear-down?

if there is a leak, would it not affect oil colour?

[96 SSEi]

oh man!!! Now i'm paranoid

like it says on my camping beer coolie: only the paranoid survive....lol

its getting dark so tomorrow I pull the front rocker cover for a better look.

[garagerog]

Easiest non-invasive way to determine if you have coolant or water in your oil is to do an oil analysis at your next oil change. I've used Blackstone Labs in Indiana but there may be labs in Canada that do this also. For $28 US they will give you a comprehensive analysis and for another $10 you can get a test on the additive package that will help you determine whether to rely on the OLM for oil change intervals. Blackstone supplies the kit for free, you only pay when you mail the sample back in and I usually get results back in about a week, I've been very pleased with their results and service.

[96 SSEi]

ok, thanks for the info garagerog

I went for a 50 klm drive last night and pressure in the rad hoses is good and level in overflow is steady.
I didn't see any thing bad on the rockers and the yellow stuff is now gone from cap but I'm gonna do oil change despite the good news

thanks for help all.....