Milk on the dipstick, not in the pan?

[DeckSetter]

I'm not sure what to make of this...

My dipstick ALWAYS has a lot of milk on it. I got this van maybe 5000 miles ago, changed the oil when I saw it was milky, but coming out the drain plug there's no milk, just oil. I suspected head gasket, but good oil in the pan didn't make sense to me.

Then I had it all apart to put the 555 in, turned out the head was leaking pressure (good ol' TM head cracks!) so I got another one, it had a complete valve job, I know the head is good. Everything back together, dipstick still looks milky, drain the oil and it doesn't look bad.

Is my block cracked? Am I worrying over nothing?

My turbo is leaking oil (a quart in about 400 miles...) so I'm going to have to pull the head off again soon to at very least put another turbo on or get mine rebuilt, and I don't want to just keep running this combo if the block is cracked.

[puppet]

Sounds like you have moisture getting into the oil ... how is what you need to figure out.

[MiniMopar]

Could be a PCV issue not pulling vapors out correctly and causing condensation. Does it happen more in the winter?

[tryingbe]

What are you doing for the PCV system?

[DeckSetter]

I just have a breather filter on the valve cover nipple, maybe that's what's causing it? I don't know about winter, I didn't drive it all winter because of other issues.

[turbovanman²]

You have just the breather filter, no PCV valve? if no valve, thats why your getting milk on the dipstick as that is where the engine is breathing.

[MiniMopar]

+1...you want a PCV.

[Turbodave]

Also, the type of driving you do can contribute to this problem. If you only do short trips with it where the engine barely warms up it's pretty common to see condensation build up in the oil and make things milky.

[Birddog]

+1 to driving style and PCV...

We have a couple "shop trucks" that see maybe 10 miles a day sometimes less than 10 per week and they're always milky.. I wind up changing the oil every 2 months because they don't want to pay someone to drive em for an hour or two every week...

[DeckSetter]

shouldn't be the driving style, I don't drive any short distances, I live in the middle of nowhere. Everywhere I go is at least 25 minutes away, usually more.

[Dodgeglht]

Then it's prolly the lack of a pcv valve.