Funky Yellow Stuff

so i was just messin around today on my 99 2.4L and the cap under the intake manifold coming off the crankcase is full of this yellow gel stuff. no clue what it is but i know that it pry shouldnt be there.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii226/kallenbach05/DSC03019.jpg

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii226/kallenbach05/DSC03024.jpg

umm, cheese! :D

just kidding, that wuold be from moisture(water).
Do you drive short trips ?

yeh, pretty much all the time. kinda what i was thinking on the moisture. we were just learning about this in class. oil doesnt get hot enough to burn off all the moisture and results in sludge after ahile, im good about changing oil 3,000 miles or 3 months and i havent noticed any sludge. maybe i should take the oil pan off and see what that looks like?

Since you havn't seen any when you change the oil, the oil pan is probably clean. That stuff usually builds up where oil vapors are, not liquid oil. It is very common to find it in the inside of the oil cap. If I were you I would drive it long enough to get it hot at least once a week, that will prevent buildup in the future. Once it's in that gel, it stays in place and doesn't really do any damage to anything... of course getting it all out wouldn't hurt anything.

Also, what is the purpose of that passage? I have only seen a few 2.4l's (and yes, I do have one myself) but I don't recall seeing that before. It's too damn cold to go outside and start taking parts off right now :)