It probably aint head gasket if its running ok,

Even if it is, its pretty easy on these engines. Loads of room to work in aswell :)

I had this in my 1.2 8v it is down to air getting in to the engine some where on mine it was down to a craked sump so check for oil leaks under the car.

its a 1.2 8v looks simple nothing covered up etc

theres no smoke out of the exhaust, and the engine doesnt feel to be running rough. ill get a compression test done cheers

FFS how can any of you determine thats head gasket failure :rolleyes: could well be condensation forming in the sump and mixing with the oil. Unless the engine is running rough, heaps of white smoke when engine is warm from exhaust, or the coolant is contaminated, you cannot tell if its head gasket just be creamy gunk!!
it MIGHT be head gasket, but it might not be. best thing would be to get a compression test done. water jacket on cylinder 3 has probably ruptured. common-ish on 14XE

What engine is it?

If its an X14XE or something like that its abit of bitch getting the head off, you gotta take loads of bits off, when its off though its easy, just peel off old head gasket, clean up the faces on the block and head, put new gasket on block, put head back on, tighten up bolts, put everything back together, connect all connectors and vacuum pipes, change oil and water, fire her up!!

the cars a 97 as said done a few miles now ive done 50000 since i had it 2 years ago

if it is the headgasket are they easy to do yourself or not. im quite mechanically minded i do most of my own service but im realy not clued up about engines

Yeah sounds like an early indication of head gasket failure.

Another common problem with a head gasket failure is water not moving round the engine properly. You may notice the heater not being hot, if this is the case, it is definatly head gasket failure.

If not it could be water vapour coming through into the engine some how, perhaps the seal around the dipstick is not in good order.

Just keep an eye on oil levels and water levels.

What year is your car :boggle:

Head gasket by the sound of it

My oil seems to have built up a really thick texture mainly around the filler cap its quite a smooth texture but it comes of in really sticky light brown/white lumps. ive heard before this could be a sign of a headgasket problem but im not exactly clued up on engines. can anyone help? the car seems to run ok it does about 80 miles to a tenner and makes tapping noises until its warm but other than that it runs well, is the oil thing a problem or is that just normal old age?

Cheers Guys