So I was installing my new air intake and figured I would clean up the area while I was at it, so I took off my "mini air filter", not really sure what its called, its next to the intake.

When I looked inside I saw this:


Zoomed:


I'm not really sure what this could be... my only guess is that the filter was sucking up oil and "whipping" it into this orange foaming crap.


Any Ideas?

coolant? you using dexcool coolant? how about youre oil dip stick does it have the same thing?. How does youre car idle loopy? my guess would be head gasket

The oil looks good. I change with synthetic every 3k. Yes, I run Dexcool, in fact my first thought was a head gasket aswel, but the oil looks fine and no bubble in coolant... runs really well actually.

Idle is a little high I think (idles @~950RPM) but its pretty steady.

The idle does dip a very small amount(~900) every 60-90 sec or so, it's almost unnoticeable if you don't stare at it though.

If it is a head gasket, how would that get in the filter?

very easy. It just takes one of the cooling channel jackets where the cyl head meets the intake or block then theres a coolant leak. Now the trouble shooting begins, Pull each spark plug do a compression test on each cyl. Also see what color the color and condition the spark plugs are. usually thats all need to do to find out the issue.

I already did. Here is a pic of the spark plugs after about a month:


I replaced them again with NGK Ir... they now look about the same.

I agree it seems to be a blown HG... but at the same time it doesn't ANY vapor in exhaust nor foamy oil or bubbles in coolant tank.
Not to mention the fact that it runs really well...

Compression test results:

Cyl 1: 118
Cyl 2: 124
Cyl 3: 130
Cyl 4: 128

Still think its a blown head?

I do, but it just doesn't make sense..

Your compression numbers seem low and I highly doubt that it is your head gasket.

My guess for the low compression is worn rings and for the orange oil, check you PCV system.




its an old concept. time for something new to take the reigns. - Z yaaaa

What should my compression be at? I tried looking it up in my Haynes manual but didn't see anything.

My oil isn't orange, just that crap in the filter(which is more than likely oil). My actual oil looks normal.

I was under the impression that the 2.4 didn't have a PCV valve...

Thanks for the help guys, keep it coming.

Now with seeing the numbers of compression readings. Now you can narrow it down to findal things. How many miles on youre motor? and are you loosing oil? If you got lots of miles on the engine. Then its a common issue I would rebuild the engine or do the cyl head gasket. i would go with an engine rebuild with the compression numbers.

Car has 104k miles.
I purchased the car at 94k miles.
I don't seem to be losing any oil. I try to check every week or so.

Although I do seem to be losing a little bit of coolant I think. (I check all fluid at the same time) I drew a line on the coolant rez with a permanent marker (at cold temp) and now when I checked it last it was about 1cm lower than the line.

Both my plugs and a this stuff in my filter looks like Dexcool..... but if its not getting in the oil where is it coming from?

In the past 6 months I have replaced the following:

Oil Change(syn) @ 94k
Oil Change(syn) @ 97k
Plugs (ACDelco plat + NGK Ir)
Plug Boots
Coil Packs(both)
Coil Pack Housing
O2 Sensor (front)
IAT Sensor
Catalytic Converter
Fuel Filter
Radiator cap
Oil Change(syn) @ 100k
O2 Sensor (back)
Cold Air Intake
Oil Change(syn) @ 103k

Tahua Ravenous wrote:The oil looks good. I change with synthetic every 3k. Yes, I run Dexcool, in fact my first thought was a head gasket aswel, but the oil looks fine and no bubble in coolant... runs really well actually.

Idle is a little high I think (idles @~950RPM) but its pretty steady.

The idle does dip a very small amount(~900) every 60-90 sec or so, it's almost unnoticeable if you don't stare at it though.

If it is a head gasket, how would that get in the filter?

my idle is exactly like that...idles at 950 then will drop to 880-900ish every once in a while...guessing it's normal since every car ive owned done this....

i used to have a problem with random stalling when i go to neutral (press clutch) like idle drops super fast and get very very rough idle and it dies...fires right back up no problems just every once in a while it would stall but that stopped a long time ago outta no where, just a moment the car had haha but it stopped so i dont think about it anymore