Anyone got some good reference web sites or suggest a good repair manual for this job?? She's leakin' like a sieve and I suspect the puff of smoke I am getting out of the exhaust after sitting at a red light could possibly be oil leaking from valve cover gasket into exhaust manifold..... thx, mike

 

if your valve cover gasket is leaking oil....it would leak onto the exhaust manifold. causing smoke in the engnie bay...the valve cover is the metal plate that sits on top of the motor...so if its leaking...no oil is getting IN the exhaust, but ON the exhaust, if you know what im saying.
Its a good idea to replace the seal anyways.
What color is the smoke coming from the exhaust? is it blue? white? black?
do you only get the "puff" of smoke after car is idling and sitting for a few secs, or do you see a lil bit of colored smoke while cruising? accelerating?

 

It's a great idea to take some time and read through the Stickys. Full of information like this.

 

The smoke is mostly blue, and it does not seem to be consistent as to quantity vs. how long the car idles. I pulled all the spark plugs and they look good, except for 1 that had a lot of oil on the threads, but I'm guessing that was from the leaking valve cover gasket (actual electrode still looked great). At this point, I plan to replace the valve cover gaskets and see what happens, hoping this is the source of the problem. Perhaps the exhaust manifold is just slightly loose and oil is getting in that way - I'm sorta at my wit's end at this point. If it is an oil or compression ring, then I guess it is time for me to start thinking about upgrading, even though the car runs perfectly (if you can ignore the VTC chatter) and still gets 24 mpg in town.....

 

are you sure you don't mean leaking HEAD gasket? 24mpg in town is really good btw

 

Yeah go buy yourself a manual and fix that, It's a quick fix!

 

Figure if it was a leaking head gasket, I would have oil in the coolant system, which I do not..... Is there any way that oil from a BADLY leaking valve cover could get sucked into the intake??? That certainly would do it......

 

it's possible you have a lot of blow-by in your PCV valve and such and you're burning oil that way.. it's possible, but you never know until you start tearing into it and fixing things.

 

It also depends on how much blue smoke you are seeing. Are you seeing he smoke only on start up? Do you see it if you sit at a light then pull off? How much smoke are you seeing? How about try changing the pcv. Then try an oil change to a thicker oil with some Bardaul no smoke ( looks like thick honey.) See if that makes any change. Hopefully you do not have bad rings though.