Phlegm in My Oil Tank Options

[silver six]

When I went to check the oil level in my oil tank I noticed that there was a white, phlegm like substance coating the fill tube. It looked like the oil became foamy and began coughing up this white creamy subtance. There wasn't a whole lot of it, just some around the mouth and throat of the fill tube. What is this stuff? Should I be concerned?

I recently put a quart of regular oil in. The previous owner may or may not have used synthetic and so I'm not sure what was/is in the tank before I filled with natural 10-40.

Any ideas? Does my Porsche have bronchitis?

Douglas

[krk]

Well, here's my two bits -- it's about operating temperature and duration. The turbo manuals tell you not to hit it hard until the temp is above 178F. Seems to make sense. So I use the same warm up procedure for all P-6's -- a little driveway warm up, followed by civilized driving until the temp hits the appropriate band.

So rule 1: no racing under 180F.

The duration is worth noting only because it (apparently) does take some amount of time for the moisture to be driven out of the oil. People with cars that are essentially collector cars usually have a regime that involves running (not idling) the cars on some interval (weekly or whatever) for some period of time (20 mins to 1 hr) at standard operating temperature.

So rule 2: driving with temp north of 180 for 20 mins weekly.

Other folks who know more will chime in I'm sure. IAMAL, YMMV, are you 18? Etc.

So rule 3: paint your car orange, and get a 3.2. [see "olav"] (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mueba.gif)

love kim.