When I pull the dip stick out to check the oil I early this morning I notice white foam contamination at the top of the dipstick and at the very tip with. So when I re-insert the dip stick I get just oil with white contimination at the tip. The oil cap show not signs of contamination. Coolant a little low less than a qt if that. No smoke or steam coming out of tail pipe. Car has about 110K last oil changed 5K ago.

So without jumping to conclusions (head gasket). Please help me diagnostic this.

1. How do I determine to to be a head gasket for sure???

2. Could it be a oil cooler seal issue??? Please correct me here. If it is a oil cooler issue I would get oil in the coolant not the coolant in the oil, right?

3. Could it be a pvc valve, crank case ventilation problem?? I am thinking it is this. Is this wishful thinking??? Also if it is a crank case venation problem what else can I be checking I replaced the PVC valve and crank case plugs 10K ago because it was leaking (common problem on ML350).

What should I do next?

thanks

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Silver Honda Accord, 2006
Silver G500, 2003
Silver SLK-320, 2002
Black ML-320, 2000
Bule Porsche 993 Targa , 1997
Silver Merkur XR4Ti, 1987