Can someone help. I have a whitish sludge in my oil filler cap and air filter breather tube. Please tell me it could be something other than the Cylinder Head Gasket ! It's running very rough at idle and the exhaust fumes are very rich. From a previous post, my oil light is flickering on and off at idle. If it is the Head can a thicker than standard gasket be fitted ?

sounds like head gasket. why would you want a thicker gasket?

my car runs rough at idle aswel once its been left for a while tho i dnt hav any gunge in any caps etc i've changed the air filter and the sparks and not much has happened. i had alot of white exhaust fumes but they have gone since changing the sparks! do u think that as i filled the water way past the max line it could hav an ffect on the car????

mine is a mk2 tho :S i dno

Hi Dave, thanks for the reply. I was told a thicker Gasket would be okay instead of possibly needing to skim the head. What do you think ?

no you always skim the head and use new headbolts, skiming is only about £30

if the car only ever does short runs and never gets fully warm then it could be condensation that never has chance to evaporate and has tuned into mayo with the churning of the oil in th engine. If it has has a normal life then the head gasket is probably NFG