Strange leak..

[EbidaDragon]

For the past..I'd say week and a half, there's been a strange excess of smoke coming from under the hood of my '88 LX

Early last Monday, I returned home from work, and noticed wisps of smoke hanging around my headlights, and went right to lifting the hood to check out where the smoke was centered from, and there was oddly a spot of noticeable moisture right where my exhaust curled, exactly where the smoke has been wisping from.

The major problem for me in this is, well, for one, I don't want my engine to catch fire, haha, but the second is that...I can't find any oil leaks that could cause this..even changed my valve cover gasket, which I thought had to be the cause :\

Can't post pictures of the exhaust now, seeing as I'm on my phone at work, but something is leaking on the -outside- of my exhaust pipe, right after it curls out of the block, and my engine oil level is still right smack on perfect from my oil change ~2000 miles ago, when I bought the car. It's been three months, now, and this issue just popped up.

Any suggestions on what in the world it might be would be much appreciated

[EbidaDragon]

I have been searching about this around here, and some other signs point to a possible leak of my P/S hose, which does indeed run right over the affected area.

[2oodoor]

Better check that then because ps fluid has a relatively low flash point. Somewhere around 350 degrees, which is easy found on an exhaust manifold.

[Oldblueaccord]

grab it with your hand if its saturated with oil its leaking on the exhaust.


wp

[derolph]

Do you see evidence of oil still on or around the exhaust manifold? Even if you stopped the leak causing the smell, you might get some continuing burn-off for awhile unless you do some cleaning of the engine on and around the exhaust manifold.

[Buzo]

A leak through the distributor may make you think you have a leak through the head gasket.
If possible check your dist o'ring that must be really brittle at this point of time and use silicon or whatever else to seal that area.

[88Accord-DX]

Put some U.V. dye in the oil & invest in a U.V. light w/ glasses, or start replacing gaskets & o-rings..

[obd0driver]

I have the same issue. I was also thinking it may be the oil filter barket gasket. Because it didnt really start acting up tell I had my oil changed.

[EbidaDragon]

Well, did some(should have been obvious) leak testing, and it was quite obviously a blown P/S hose...right over the affected area on my exhaust.

Got my pressure hose changed out..and hoping that's the last of my woes with Power Steering...(still itching to work on the carb, or at least just have my Accord be as fully reliable and, well, not smoking, as it can be.

As of now, I'm still having burning(smoking) while the newly replaced hose has no leaking and the previously wet areas are perfectly fine now. Have been told by a friend that it's just burnoff of any remaining fluid, but, yeah, I just don't like any smoke from under my hood, even though it's more obviously coming directly from my exhaust pipe (And, annoyingly, my exhaust flex hose to my catalytic converter..don't want to burn some random hole through my car :/ )

Also need to replace my hot air pipe between exhaust and intake since the previous one was getting frayed on the exhaust cover end, and I couldn't get it back on :|

[Oldblueaccord]

You can pitch the pipe if you dont have to pass emissions. Plug the hole with a bolt.

There other leak is the oil pan gasket. Might try loosening all the front bolts and then retorque just to get you buy.


wp