Mayo, NOT HGF

Hi all, I've had my F for about 4 years now and love it to bits but having got my dream TVR recently im looking at reluctantly selling. But, my car has the dreaded mayo on the dipstick....

Some backstory, it had HGF shortly after buying, it had the head skimmed, new pipework and relocated thermostat, new updates head gasket and me being very anal and careful to check the fans work yearly.

For 2 years no mayo, happy days, then slowly but surely I started to get mayo up the dipstick, not chocolaty gloop at the bottom but white stuff up the dipstick from the max mark up.
I loose no coolant
It doesn't ever overheat
Its temp guage sits happy at one mark under half
No oil in water, or oil down block.
Work is over an hour away so it gets a good drive.
I've had Russel out who said it looks like condensation and pressure tested the coolant and it passed and to run it without the dipstick in and itle burn it off. It does, but returns seemingly next time it rains, but not 100% sure of the correlation (England being so..... Not dry)
I've chainged the oil twice and done a flush. New kn oil filter....

It has me beat, as it's never caused trouble I've left it, but when coming to sell, noone in their right mind will believe me.

So, what else can cause this?, I've heard of some pads behind the breather hoses, do they exist? Do they block? I've picked through and checked the hoses and holes are clear.


Many thanks

If Russell thinks its condensation, my guess is that it is indeed condensation!

If you are absolutely sure you don't lose coolant, than it has to be normal water.
Perhaps the dipstick pipe is broken, or leaks somewhere where it can pickup water from the road when driving in the rain.
Other possiblity could be the oil filler cap gasket.
I have had 2 new head gaskets, until a specalist MG garage mounted a enforced version (also used in a landrover), and also mounted an enforced rail at the lower part of the engine block, this took removing of the oil pan.
So, if these enforcements were not done after your first HGF, by bet would still be on a second HGF.

Anyone tried insulating the dip stick housing? If you think about it its quite close to the open grilles on the boot lid.

Thanks for the replies, it definatly looses no water, and with the dry weather recently it's all but disappeared, so, where can water from rain get in? I have already got a new dipstick filler neck and lower pipe and gasket. Could the cold air feed be a cause, cold aluminium tubing moving the filter to just behind the passenger seat belt mount.

UPDATE

Up to now, given it gives me little to no bother, i have just left it like this, and ran the car as is. But recently it overheated - cold heaters, steam out back, temp gauge suddenly at top - so i stopped and let it cool down, but the water level never got beneath a quarter on the tank. i assumed the cap to be at fault and got a new one, its been fine for about 150 miles, not lost a drop of coolant, then today again the same thing, after about an hour and a half of spirited driving in the country mixed with slower town driving, only this time heaters went cold, temp gauge went up to 3/4, so pulled in and turned off, the expansion tank was full (it was half full at the start of the journey) and no steaming. After 15 mins or so ive driven 5 miles home, its then on half way again (and drove home perfect, red hot heaters, one notch under half way on the gauge etc).

Very confused, how can i temporarily gain coolant, why suddenly is it doing this on 2 different caps, surely i dont have this badder luck with caps, any ideas? or is this a nod at me being in denial about hgf?

Thanks, James

It sounds like you are not achieving pressure in the coolant system, hence the boiling coolant and steam out of the back.
Get your system pressure tested and look for small leaks of coolant. If it is a leak, then once sorted, flush the coolant and run up until the fans kick in and make sure they are running.
Other possibilities are blockages or airlocks in the coolant system. When cold run with the expansion tank cap off and make sure you have a good return flow on the return pipe, its the one at the top of the tank and you should see a steady stream of coolant returning to the tank. If not you may have a faulty pump.
Last check, look at the small tee piece that is close to the expansion tank, it can fail. It may be worth putting a roll of old wallpaper under the car overnight to see if there are any small coolant leaks that are hard to detect inside the engine bay or under the bonnet.

Sundance

Aah, ok that makes sense, I did uch up my jubilee clip on some hoses at the back of the engine shortly before the steaming incidents, as they were very only just on, I wonder if one is leaking or kicked now. I will take off the engine cover and have a look this weekend or after work this week.

So frustrating as it's driving the best it has in a very long time and 99% of the drive has no trouble....

Thanks

Just to conclude the thread.... Oh dear.

Started loosing lots of water suddenly. Took it to mg rover mobile mechanics in derby. Sunken liners, pitted soft head, and bad hgf.

£1030 later.... Mayo is gone

She had new liners, new shells, shimmed new liners, new MLS gasket, new used skimmed head, new uprated oil rail, new cap, belts, tensioner, water pump, and thermostat for good measure.

Hopefully it won't go again, 12 month warranty for price of mind.