White goo? What's this?

[awesomesteven]

So I was changing out the valve cover gaskets and saw this. What is this? 13122
Its like a white goo. I checked the oil and it seems there is water in the oil. Any ideas on what could be causing this?

351w '86 sunsport

[mr.jrc]

most likely a blown head gasket. Did your impeller pump fail lately? Engine overheat? Block could be cracked or heads warped.

[awesomesteven]

No problem with the impeller (new) and its never overheated.

I did find water in my #1cylinder a while back. I had a cracked exhaust manifold and after I cut the engine off it sucked water back in. I replaced it but haven't touched the boat in a while until today.

[Cusefan78]

You have a crack in the block or a head gasket failure. Look on the block for rust stains. You should see something unless you have a crack in the water jackets. It's not a good sign when you find water in the oil.

[DAFF]

Typically a cracked manifold is conducive with improper winterization. Time to investigate further. Is the oil totally milky too??

[awesomesteven]

I'm going to check the head gasket. Its something I haven't done before. Anyone know of a good DIY process where I could go

Just take off the rocker arms and push rods and pull the head, right? Is there a way to see if the heads are warped without pulling the out?

[Cusefan78]

In all honesty I wouldn't go through all that work. I would have a pcm mechanic look at it. Those guys can diagnose where the leak or crack is in minutes without taking the head off. I'm a do it yourselfer but there is no sense in pulling a head unless you are 100% positive that's the problem.

[wotan2525]

Don't pull the head (then you'll have to replace the head gasket no matter what.) Google leak-down test. This is what you need to be doing to diagnose your problem.

[awesomesteven]

Thanks wotan.

By the look of the valve cover gasket i'm thinking (hoping) that it's the problem. Leak-down test it is!

Now that I have a clue of how it would have happened, any idea what the white gooey stuf is? Is it just condensation of the water mixed with oil? Odd looking stuff. never seen it before...

[mr.jrc]

It is emulsified oil and water. Get a compression gauge and a squirt oil can and you can do the leak down test yourself. Good luck!

[awesomesteven]

well, leakdown test showed everything in the norm. same with the compression test.

[wotan2525]

well, leakdown test showed everything in the norm. same with the compression test.

So how did water get into your crankcase??

[awesomesteven]

I just got off with the mechanic that helps me out once in a while (nice to have one of those). He said that it was probably the crack in the exhaust manifold (I have a new one now tho). When I got water in my #1 cylinder - after I turned the motor off the vacuum leak made it so my cylinder sucked water back in. I just got back from running it again for a bout 30 min and everything went fine.