creamy oil on cap, under rocker cover

[andy523]

i just finished restoring my 325i after 2 years in the making including a full body resto and paint, all new suspension brakes etc it has its mot on wednesday so i thought i would take it up the road for a blast to make sure everything was okay.
it seemed to be off a cylinder so when i came back home i let her cool down then took out which i thought was the offending plug, it was blackand very oily. i took off the oil cap and it was covered in mayo, took off the rocker cover and it was the same, took out dipstick and some on it to.
i presume this is a head gasket or would it be a lot of condensation from sitting so long

[Daryll]

Sounds like the head gasket mate. Very common. What's the temperature gauge doing?

[Alex]

It could be just condensation but if its running on 5 then could be a loss of compression on a cylinder, caused by the head gasket giving up

[andy523]

temperature was only a quarter way up, the rest of the plugs are fine, with the car not running for a while would condensation have built up and mixed with the oil, how exactly would i know

[smithysmith]

Firstly see if you can get it running on all six, if so give it an oil change and get the mot, then give it a good drive over a few days. If the mayo comes back its probably the head gasket.

[andy523]

yes i will do, its only on four tonight, number 2 cylinder is the culprit with the plugs

[smithysmith]

Oh dear, do you have a compression tester or can borrow one?