I saw some milkshake looking brown goo on the end of my dipstick the other day when checking the oil on my 1996 960. Got very worried about a head gasket needing to be replaced. I am going to be keeping a much closer eye on the water level but it has not been losing any. It has been running really well and not blowing out any more exhaust smoke than other cars around me are. I am in Raleigh, North Carolina and the typical weather now is between 30 and 40 degrees and rainy. I did a compression test and these are the results I saw:

1 - 215
2 - 200
3 - 218
4 - 215
5 - 210
6 - 215

Is the rule of thumb for each cylinder to be within 10% of each other? If so it looks like cylinder 2 might just get under the wire on that. I am really, really hoping that I jumped to the blown head gasket conclusion too soon and that the milkshakey stuff I saw on the tip of my dipstick can be written off to winter time condensation.

What other tests might a real mechanic do to see if my head gasket needs replacement?

Thanks very much,
Jim