creamy oil on oil cap, not on dipstick

[haggis0073]

i have a 1997 1.6 a3, just had a 2nd hand engine fitted with 72,000 miles on clock cuz old one had piston damage, after a month of it fitted i got a creamy oil on the oil cap but not on the dipstick, i was told by the mechanic who fitted the engine that it could be due to condensation as the engine had probably been sat around for a while, buts its been 6 weeks now and still the creamy oil keeps coming back and i keep losing water(there are no leaks anywhere), could this be the head gasket on its way, also i have no water coming out of the exhaust either

[Al_UK]

A lot of short journeys will cause mayonnaise under the filler cap, as the engine doesn't really get warm enough for long enough to burn off any residual condensation. But as you are losing coolant it could well be finding its way into the combustion chamber... A decent garage will be able to carry out a leak test to confirm this, or will be able to check for the presence of combustion gasses in the coolant tank, also indicating a leak.
Are you 100% sure there are no external coolant leaks, maybe the water pump for example. Try putting some clean paper under the car when you park it up after a drive, any slight leaks will show up clearly that way.

[haggis0073]

thanks for reply, will put paper down tonight and if no leaks will book into garage, yea most of my journeys are little 2 mile journeys and thats it, hopefully will find out soon

[oilman]

Yep, sounds like condensation to me from many short trips.

Cheers

Guy