Fastbird93

When I went to refill the oil, I found THIS!!! I do all my own oil changes, although it hasn't been changed since last August (don't worry, only about 800-1000 miles at most). When I pulled the cap, I noticed on the inside the whiteish junk, which is OIL!!! Looked under the valve cover, same situation. However, the oil I drained was brownish black and fine, didn't look hardly used. But up top it's this milky white color. The car is NOT blowing white smoke nor burning coolant.

I have been having a problem running extremely rich since August, and the drained oil had a faint gas smell. The inside of the oil cap however has a very noticable smell of fuel. Is this just a by-product of running so rich, or something more.

Thoughts??

95BlackTA

Thats by far the blurriest pic ive ever seen in my entire life. can you not get a better pic?

Ive had sludge at the top of my valve covers...cant tell if it looks the same as yours until you get a better pic though.

joeSS97

Looks like normal condensation to me.Happens in the colder weather,and from short trips.

shoebox

You need a new camera or instruction on how to use it.

ibanez6rg

At first I thought you meant that came out of your drain plug... and I was like damn, how in the hell!?

Doesn't sound like you have any problems.

1msfyter

Somebody spooged in your oil cap

Thats common I had that to cause I drove short distances. Condensation.

z28s

i used to manage an oil change center and we used to see that in about 90% of the cars in the winter time, nothing to worry about

Fastbird93

Yeah, sorry about the camera photo guys. It's only a 1.0 megapixel, and if I took the shot from farther away you wouldn't have been able to see anything. The camera takes good pics, just not up close.

As for the milky looking oil/sludge stuff, I'm actually quite relieved about it being "normal."

However, what about the fuel smell??

z28s

the fuel smell is normal too, as engine oil gets old its starts smelling like gas because there's some in there through combustion, every car burns a bit of oil, its not noticeable because it replaced by deposits/dirt/gas

Fastbird93

Ok, so the overly strong fuel smell IS a by-product of my extremely rich condition. Gotcha.

Now all I need to do is figure out why it's so freakin rich.

z28s

check your o2's, i was running pretty rich before i changed mine
you've probably already done a basic tune up right?

conquest lt1

ok, unless you have a REALLY crappy camera, there is this option called MACRO.

it allows you to get closer to an object and keep it in focus.

the user manual usually contains such tidbits of camera lore. try reading it if you haven't thrown it away.

a pox on people who don't read the manual. if you don't you will be forever doomed to take blurry pictures.

i've never seen that happen to any of my cars, but i live in texas. it was slightly over 60 today (nyah, nyah, nyah). i guess it never gets that cold here. 40 is nut-shrinking cold in these parts.

Fastbird93

Man, you guys are really killing my fiance's Christmas gift to me last (2002) year. It's an HP Photosmart 120, and there's NO macro feature, no close focus feature, nothing. It works for me though, so bugger off! Most of the pictures on my website were taken with it.

As for the basic tune up, I put new plugs and wires in it, and just today put in O2's and a new EGR, and tomorrow the new fuel filter is going in. The problem is that my problem isn't O2's, plugs, ect. They all show fine on datamaster and a scanner. It's something in the system somewhere making the car run extremely rich.

Vader

I live in Canada so short trips and cold weather are common. The sludge you have in that cap is not normal.
I had sludge buildup like that, but as a result of a blown head gasket. The coolant can cause a misfire that results in a percieved lean condition, and the O2 will richen the entire bank causing the stinky exhaust.
Pull a valve cover and check for sludge on the underside. If it is there, then you have a coolant leak.
Sorry it might be bad news. Don't ignore it though, diagnose further.

Fastbird93

Well, the thing is that the car is showing no tell-tale signs of coolant loss I.E. white smoke and/or coolant loss. I'm really hoping that's not the case, but if it is, then I may have a case against the builder of the head/cam package as he installed it and I've NEVER seen the car run right.

But another thing that leads me to believe it's not a head gasket or anything is that my perceived stumble/hesitation/misfire/whateveritis is ONLY present below about 3000 RPM and under FAST DEEP throttle movement. Part throttle driving is wonderful. It's almost like the problem is the computer moving from closed loop into PE mode.