Something burning
 

When i drive my car and stop somewhere i notice that i smell something like a burnt cluctch but my car is an auto and i looked in the engine bay and everything looked fine except there oil(i think) on that little part behind the manifold where the oil goes into where the valve cover is.. What could it be


I had my oil changed recently do i need more??

Yeah. I have the same problem. After I replaced my oil pan gasket, there was considerably less oil spots under my car when I parked the car.
I went out when I put it all back together, and tested for leaks. There was one little spot on the ground. I looked up from underneath the car, and it was dripping from the under-side of the exhaust manifold.

Is there a build up of dirt/sludge on the face of the head where the spark plugs are? There is on my from the oil leaking from the valve cover gasket. I'm planning to fix it this Sunday. If you do it, even though you have the SOHC and it's a flat surface on the head, use some Ultra Grey from permatex. It'll seal it up nice and good, better than you could do alone with that rubber gasket that you get from the parts store.
Oh. The guys at the parts stores will prolly tell you not to use any silicone, but it would make sure no oil leak develops down the road when you do use silicone. I did it without silicone once, and it held up nicely for a number of months. A leak started to show up after a while.
Trust me. Pop for the Ultra Grey. That stuff is the good shit! :) :bt:

Re: Something burning
 

I forgot to comment on this...

The leaking valve cover gasket may have caused a bit of oil loss, but you should always check your oil level. With these BP engines, they tend to burn oil a bit. I generally have to put in a quart every week or two weeks, depending how high and often I rev my engine.

If you wonder why they burn oil, Jesse directed me to the information regarding this matter. The BP engines have oil squirters to cool the pistons. The pistons are one of the few parts that direct contact with the flame during the combustion process. They are rather hot. So, if you think about it, the higher and longer you rev your engine, the hotter those pistons will become, and the easier it will be for the oil to burn upon contact with the pistons. It really doesn't botter me. Though, I switched back to Valvoline's VR1 20-50 as it is cheaper than Mobil 1 Syntetic to be putting in a quart every week or two. That, and it has an added protectant for those rare occasions when metal-to-metal contact happens, but that's a debate for another thread.

Re: Re: Something burning
 

The burning smell is likely because oil drained from the filter onto the flex pipe when it was changed. It should go away in a 1000 miles or so.

Not all BPs burn oil. In 178k miles, the only reason I've had to add oil is due to leaks. It just doesn't burn oil between changes (it might be up to 1/2qt.). I've had it since new, and always run synthetic, with 3-4k oil changes. And raced since new, with literally hours spent about 6k rpms. In fact, racing is all it does now.