fiesta 1.3 1997, oil air rubber hose split

[stu_iow]

HI all,

I know its a fiesta, its the misses car, but i know you lot are knowledgeable, i am hoping you can help.

Basically, i had to fill the water up the other day, expansion was empty.
I check inside the oil filler and there was all sorts of white/brown colour sludge in it.
As a side note, the temperature gauge in the car rarely moves away from its low point.
Anyway, I straight away thought HG.

But tonight, i put some leak sealer in the expansion and sat there for 15-20 mins for the engine to run when i noticed some hissing.
There is a rubber hose that goes to the oil filler cap and that was sucking air in, 3 or 4 big splits, (looks like it had melted against the engine)
I thought, ahh maybe its sucking in moisture, so i taped up the holes as a temporary measure, starting the car back up and its stalls straight away. Every time now, the car stalls.

I unfixed my fix and exposed the holes again and now its idling fine.

What are your thoughts on this? - had the car 3 Moines or so, just for the misses to get used to driving out on her own, before she gets to use the frontera.

We were going to sell the car as cant afford 3 cars now, but i cant sell it on really with a suspected HG failure, i would like to get my money back i paid for it 3 months ago.

Many thanks,
Stu