Head gasket gone bad?

[Air Randy]

Matt,

Does you heater/engine have trouble getting warm? If your thermostat is bad and your engine isn't warming up properly, it will certainly magnify the milkshake on the cap stuff since it's not getting hot enough to evaporate the moisture out of the crankcase.

 

[DaveInDenver]

try to source up a cooling system pressure tester

FWIW, I have a cooling system pressure testing kit. Matt, you are welcome to borrow it anytime.

 

[subzali]

I haven't been driving the truck because I thought I would drive it home today and park it and start my power steering conversion. Well I ended up driving it today to get around in the snow. I checked the cap after it had been warm for a while and it was dry, and the dipstick showed no signs of the foamy stuff.

I'll keep checking it. I'm not real sure if my temp. gauge is off or what; it hasn't reached the "normal operating" range on the needle for quite some time, and this is after I've put several thermostats in it and tried my best to figure it out. I took a temp gun and shot the top of the radiator and thermostat housing in several places and it looked like 180F (or whatever the t-stat is rated for) at the t-stat housing, but the radiator had a weird temp pattern across it. Anyway I'll continue to keep an eye on it and see what happens.

 

[PabloCruise]

Keep us posted Matt, it sounds frustrating.

But I'm glad you don't have a blown head gasket!!!

 

[Rzeppa]

I checked the cap after it had been warm for a while and it was dry, and the dipstick showed no signs of the foamy stuff.

Matt, I have had the same observation in my 71. Every once in a while I'll see milkshake on the underside of the oil fill cap (never on the dipstick, or when changing oil). My guess is condensation, as it always goes away and I have no other indications of anything wrong.