Head gasket gone or not?

[Motown Junk]

Car still running fine (nothing interesting, just my daily hack Merc 190), oil froth/deposits in header tank, but no 'mayo' showing on bottom of oil cap.

Can oil get in elsewhere or am I just 'lucky' and the water's not gone the other way (yet)?

[GreenV8S]

Condensation will put water into the oil, and boiling will take it out again when the engine is hot, so it's hard to draw any strong conclusions from the presence or absence of water in the oil.

Oil in the coolant is a different matter, there are very few ways for it to get there. HGF is the most likely, but if you have an oil / water cooler for the engine or transmission oil it's just possible that you have a simple leak in the heat exchanger.

If you suspect HGF then it would be a good idea to get the coolant tested for HC contamination, or test it yourself. Also get a cylinder leakdown test done.

[Motown Junk]

Oh well, gives me something to do I suppose

Ta.

[SplatSpeed]

i got a head gasket sniffer on ebay

20 quid or less