Smoking engine

[A Dawg Jr]

For the past month or so, or at least from the first time i noticed, if I'm been running my car for a while the engine starts to smoke... my dad said somthing about valves, but I didn't understand what he said, so I forgot most of it... I looked under the hood once and smoke was coming out from somewhere between the gap from the radiator and actual engine.. it's not much smoke, just a enough to notice..

Just wondering what the cause of the smoke could mean..

BTW, there is a small oil leak somewhere

[Jareds 89 LX-i]

It's probably just the valve cover gasket leaking oil onto the hot exhaust manifold. Not uncommon on our 3geez.... mine did that too for awile, everytime I'd hit the brakes a little bit of smoke would come out from under the hood. Just a crack in the front of the gasket, and when I hit the brakes the oil went forward, and out onto the exhaust and smoke.

Try replacing that.... it's cheap and easy, and should be done periodically anyways.

[MrBen]

Could be a valve cover gasket leak... could be splashed oil from when it was filled... could be a number of things. You sure it's smoke? Did you check your radiator cap? If your cap is leaking, radiator fluid could have burst out and fallen on your hot engine. Could be caked on oil and dirt that has finally gotten to the point of burning.

We need more info to narrow it down.

[A20A1]

Check your oil and coolant levels

If you find it still leaks after you changed the valve cover gasket, check the distributor seal... but mark the distributors position before you remove it.

[k-roy]

What color is the smoke?

[A Dawg Jr]

Just white... Checked the radiator cap, and from what I can tell it's fine.. I looked under the engine earlier because it just got done and the top of the exhaust pipe is wet... and appears to be where the smoke is coming from... it's oil.. i touched it to make sure... I know there's a leak, but I don't know what needs to be replaced to fix that. Guessing from your guys' posts it's the valve cover gasket..

I'll probably just take it in to get that done.. as you can probably tell from my posts, I don't know much about cars.

[k-roy]

Yea replace the valve cover gasket, valve cover gromments (thick rubber pieces that go around the bolt holes), and the distributor O ring.
Do some searching, there is some info on howto replace the O ring on this board.

[Mac]

Can you see any oil on the engine by the spark plugs?

If you only see oil on the exhaust pipe, you might want to check you oil pan for leaks ( pan gasket, or oil drain plug).

Are you sure it's oil? Could be power steering fluid. I think the power steering lines hook up right above the exhaust pipe.

[smufguy]

Originally posted by Mac
Can you see any oil on the engine by the spark plugs?

If you only see oil on the exhaust pipe, you might want to check you oil pan for leaks ( pan gasket, or oil drain plug).

Are you sure it's oil? Could be power steering fluid. I think the power steering lines hook up right above the exhaust pipe.

thats a good point, check your oil pan gasket and also check ur distributor gasket, Mine is leakin now cuz i dont have one (((what a dumbbutt am i???)))

[johndej]

ha, mine did that one day and i was like "WTF?" cause the engine was reading cool and everything seemed norm except for a bit of smoke was coming out. i pulled into a servis station and saw that it was just oil that had run down the lower 1/2 of the valve cover and onto either the headers/ heat plate and was burning

[lilphillie78]

trust me if it is as simple as a valve cover gasket do not under any curcimstances take it to get it done it's not worth it.

cost to get it done:$100+
cost to do it yourself: about $15

what you will need:
valve cover gasket
10mm socket or wrench
knowledge of how to turn a wrench or ratchet
knowledge of how to put a rubber thingy (gasket) into place : [putting a condom on is harder than this]

what you will save: at least $75
more important: the first step in takig things into your own hands and having fun getting dirty.

although this may not be the problem, which mine was doing the same thing, just worse and i did that and it was better for like 3 miles, although it was overheating it just got worse.