That's condensation mostly caused by lack of a vented oil fill... What's happening is blowby(that has some moisture content) is collecting in the valve cover and without a fresh air supply, mixes with oil and condensates in the cooler valve cover... No doubt it's more pronounced because of cold weather, 99.9% has nothing to do with the over heating issue... The upper region of the valve cover will likely have the goo from end to end(yeah I'm saying pull it and clean it out)... In cold weather there is almost always some condensation in the valve cover but not generally enough to cause issue, first time the engine is fully heated it evaporates and is drawn away by the PCV system(that requires a fresh air supply)...
So I gotta pull the Valve cover and clean it out. Also need to clean the rocker assembly too i assume? Can I reuse the gaskets if they've only been used once?
That engine looks nice Comet Fever! I'll have to grab a push in breather too as soon as I can. I don't when I can do the valve cover and rocker assembly clean-up work. I don't have a garage I can pull it into, so I'm gonna need to do it in the driveway. It is too cold right now. Winter sucks lol. I forgot I need to remove so much hardware just to get to the valve cover. Ugh.
Likely the goo will just be in the valve cover and maybe not too bad assuming it's only run a few times, rockers will probably be OK.... If the cover comes off without damaging the gasket I'd reuse it... I'd retorque the cover after a couple heat cool cycles but I doubt it would leak...
It's only been run twice since installation. Both times were under a half hour each with stops and engine off in between.
Well you may pull the VC and find it wasn't worth the effort, no doubt a tough one to call... If it doesn't look bad in what you can see down in the VC, a working PCV should take care of it...
Krazy: Could I run it (in the driveway only) with the oil fill cap off. I thought I could maybe put it in ramps and start getting the air out of the cooling system for now. I don't have a breather fill cap yet (as you know) but even if I did, I could risk ruining the new filter with the goo until it's gone. Maybe I can tape some mesh to the open oil fill hole to keep debris out for now. Is this a good or bad idea? I figure is be allowing airflow for now at least while I'm burping the air out of the cooling system.
I for one am curious about the "burping" of the coolant system. I have had to burp newer systems that came out prior to the bleeder type systems. On older systems such as ours, a hole in the T stat works. I have also watched the coolant cycle with the cap off and filled as it flowed when the T stat opened. This in itself is a burp..
I'll be sure to fill you in after I am able to try it. I can't do it til the weather lets up a little. Plus in still debating whether to pull the VC or not. I'm not sure yet
All those generally work but absolute best(at least in my opinion) is fill system through the heater hose that connects nearest the thermostat... This will allow coolant to enter the heater core, water pump, exit into block and radiator, then fill the head(s) before starting to spill out of the heater hose connection on head(I6) or intake(V8)... Has never failed for me and usually only need to add a pint or two afterward...
There are variants of the method... Can fill through radiator with same heater hose mentioned loose, but that usually traps air in the heater core... Mainly you want to get the coolant into the block & head as even with a bleed hole in the thermostat, most systems will air lock and not be anywhere nearly full... With the heater hose loose on the back side of the thermostat, the system will vent allowing coolant into the block and head... You can bet I'll use this method when I finally get the engine ready to start in my Comet...
