Water in the oil trap
 

1998 S40, 260 000km no turbo.

Any ideas on this one?

I gave over my weekend to a PCV service. On disconnecting the "out" hose from the oil trap, I found water contamination :shocked:
https://user.fm/files/v2-250fc713dc4...6/IMAG0314.jpg


After I got the oil trap out, the only other point of contamination was the bottom inlet:
https://user.fm/files/v2-b320dd1a7f8...1/IMAG0315.jpg

https://user.fm/files/v2-51ff8a0b239...7/IMAG0316.jpg

Ive never had water in my oil before, so trying not to panic.
There's no sign of water contamination anywhere else - not on the dipstick, nothing showed up on the last oil change, maybe 4000km ago.
Although the second photo shows a fair bit of muck where the bottom oil trap inlet connects, once I cleaned up the front of the hole, it didnt extend back into the block. So the contamination appears to be confined to the oil trap.

And does this sound like a likely cause:
Just over a year ago, my radiator broke, at the point where the top radiator hose connects - so coolant went all over the front of the engine. As there are no hose clamps on the bottom oil trap inlet, I'm wondering if enough coolant got in there to cause this. In which case I dont have to panic about the head gasket. (And frankly I haven't seen any other symptoms of a blown head gasket.) Or is that just wishful thinking?

I'm planning to clean out the sump straight after the PCV job, so I'll be on the look out for any sign of contamination around the oil cooler.

In the meantime, any other wisdom would be welcome, thanks.

Do you see the same muck on the oil fill cap?

Lots of recent quite short trips and a lack of good highway speed running with engine at correct hot running temperature can result in buildups of that muck.
Especially under the cap and on the oil dipstick above the full mark on the dipstick.
It often disappears after a long trip or 2.