22 replies to this topic

[mini danny]

Hiya i suspected my head gasket had gone due to the white mayo gunk in the rocker so wipped head off and head it perfectly straight and gasket is fine what else could it be? ??

Danny

[greensilver mini]

it will when you do short distance driving so dosnt always mean headgasket has gone

[mab01uk]

Yes. don't worry very common on Mini's that rarely do long trips in winter because engine is not hot for long enough to keep water vapour and condensation in rocker cover away. Such Mini's also rot out exhaust boxes for the same reason.

[freshairmini]

Yeah its not a problem, Mine did that a while back when we had snow, its just where it was sat for a while.

Just clean it out.

[Frisco]

Its common on all cars that only do short trips or sip up for a while. Water vapor gets into the oil and normally evaporates when the oil gets up to temp but if you drive for less than 10 minutes at a time that doesn't happen.

[mini danny]

I haven't veena doing short journeys tho that's the thing I've changed it now and there was steam coming out of rocker cover but has now stopped


Danny

[Chance]

I had this but it was about a week after we had changed the head gasket..was still running fine soo cleaned it out..retorqued the head and its been fine ever since

[jaydee]

When you see mayo and its not the head gasket then two options:
- oil is too old or too thick for your application, a flush is needed
- you're doing too short trips and oil has been running under 60° too long, so too much water condesation and fuel residues in your oil. You need a long drive to get all the nasty residues burnt off, that will also restore the ZDDP coating that the oil will build up over 75° on your cam-followers-big ends (thats the stuff that will keep your engine safe on cold starts).

[Bungle]

before guessing it's the head gasket a compression test will show if it's really gone and would save a lot of unnecessary work

[Frisco]

Compression test wont tell you if its gone between an oil and coolant gallery

[mini danny]

Well oil is only 2 weeks old and is 20w 50

Danny

[jaydee]

20w50 takes a bit of time to warm up properly in winter.
At a guess you just need to warm up your engine for a bit, ie a good long ride, 10 minutes is really not enough.

[R1minimagic]

20w50 takes a bit of time to warm up properly in winter.
At a guess you just need to warm up your engine for a bit, ie a good long ride, 10 minutes is really not enough.

What does the viscosity grade have to do with how long it takes to warm up?!!!!

[Bungle]

doesn't thicker take longer to go runny that thin oil ?

i thought that was why manufactures specified different grades for different ambient temperatures

[R1minimagic]

The viscosity of an oil is nothing to do with it's heat capacity!!

If you put 10W40 and 20W50 in 2 beakers and warm them up, the 20W50 isn't going to take longer to get to a certain temperature!

The 20W50 will always be thicker at any given temperature, but thats a different matter altogether!