Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Recently got the car running after head gasket replacement, oil cooler seals and a lot of other stuff.

I ran it up for the second time today since re-assembling everything and other than a belt whining, it starts easily and runs smoothly.

But when I checked the oil filler cap it looked like it had condensation on the inside and a small amount of suspiciously mayo looking stuff! I also noticed a very small amount of coolant had been let out of the expansion tank through the overflow.

I know these are not good signs but how do I tell if this is the head gasket or oil cooler seals (or something else???)

Is there any chance escaping coolant might be due to air (it was a pig to bleed) and the mayo due to oil cooler seals and not the head gasket?

I'd really appreciate any advice,

Cheers Dave

fingers crossed its probably nothing - take the car for a good run then have another look when its cooled down. When you changed the various seals gaskets etc you may have got a bit of water in the oil system. I recently drained and refilled my cooling system and found the level went down quite a bit within a few days. Topped up and bled it again and its been fine ever since.

I am hoping you might be right. Trouble is I can't drive it yet as no MOT and needs fuel lines (next job)

Having looked into it a bit, I've read that others have had the same issue with condensation where cars haven't been run fully up to temp - which would makes sense as I have only started it twice although had to stop it first time due to the leaking fuel line.

Now thinking the coolant issue could be because I may have topped it up to max when cold.

Thanks for the reply - fingers crossed its all ok

Cheers,

Dave

When its running just squeeze the coolant hose and if it is rock hard you know the H/G has failed, however its more likely overfilling has caused the expelling of excess coolant.
Some coolant might have leaked into the crankcase while doing the job so it will probably stop getting condensation.
The worst happened to me a few years ago when I had a blown H/G on another make of car.
Just after starting it steamed out of the exhaust and took a good 10 miles to stop because the coolant from the failure was in the exhaust system and needed purging.

All makes sense.

Wont get the chance to look at it until the weekend, but am a bit more optimistic now.

I will let you know then

Cheers Dave