I have just bought a 1992 1.05 Polo (to do the Plymouth Dakar Challenge at the end of this year). Drove it home and it ran really well (50 miles or so). The car now need some work for the MOT, so it has not been driven for the last three weeks, apart from moving it a few feet several times.

I have just looked at the oil filler cap though, and there appears to be emulsified oil on it

.

The rest of the oil (dipstick) is clean and looks fairly new, and the filler cap was clean when I bought the car.

At any rate - took off the rocker cover and the emulsified oil is just at the right hand end (as in the photos below)

With water appearing in the oil, my immediate thought is that the head gasket has gone, but before starting a major repair job, I thought that I would ask what others think first?

It might have just came up when you moved it just that few feet the few times, condensation build up and not burnt off.

Wipe all the 'mayo' off and take it on a long run and watch the temp gauge like a hawk. If the 'mayo' doesn't reappear than you will be fine.

if you need to depend on it...might be worth doing the gasket anyway, its a common prob on polos

when my head gasket went the rocker cover looked just like yours, full of emulsified oil. best to get it compression checked...

ditto, plus temperature issues, best take it on a long run and watch for overheating issues. if you get back and its still mayo'd just get the hg changed should be fiiiine

I've just fixed my head gasket an it loooked similiar to what yours does. maybe on the cap, rocker cover covered in a light coloured coffee.

White exhaust smoke

Thermostat broke.

I fixed my head gasket, cost around 33 pound but had engine flush an anti freeze etc so around £48.

Not to hard of a job if you have relatives that know what there doing.

What Steveo said. You dont set out on a journey like that without giving the car one hell of a service first.

I bought an engine from a scrappy like that

whipped the head off, it was fine... just condensation i reckon

are you having to top the coolant up? If not then the water isn't coming out of the cooling system so it'll just be condensation. There's really no reason to just go and replace the HG because of that.

If it runs well once in its fine... if not it only takes about an hour to change a headgasket

Take it to a local garage and ask em to test it and they will tell you straight away if you head gaskets gone.

takes more than a hour. you will have scraped/sanded all the crap off the metal. cleaning all the water mixture oil, draining... refilling with engine flush.. draining... refilling with oil... and its a 2 man job tryin to put the head gasket in place. Draining radiator aswell dont forget :p

Plus undoing all the bolts without braking them, you need a torque wrench aswell. Had to set the timing aswell.

But that was just my experiance and i did it last weekend.

True, suppose its down to the person... its a pretty simple job though.

Thanks everyone for your input. I guess I will get it compression tested first, and based on that, decide whether to change the HG or not.