Thread: Smoke from rear of engine compartment - oil?

My car has been sitting most of the summer, and when I start it now I'm getting a lot of smoke from the engine bay by the firewall. I'm guessing this is the rear valve cover and oil / needs gasket? I believe this was replaced previously in a recall. I don't think it's coolant / LIM? I'm not sure this is a new issue, but this is the first time I've seen it smoke so much, maybe it slowly dripped while sitting? Is this a big safety concern or will it just burn off an be like it was before?

Some pictures

It doesn't appear as thought the rear cover has ever been taken off the engine.
Best thing to do at this point is to get gaskets and change them.

Originally Posted by QUICKSILVER462

It doesn't appear as thought the rear cover has ever been taken off the engine.
Best thing to do at this point is to get gaskets and change them.

Ok, thanks. Looked through the previous owner's paperwork and it does and found the recall, but that was in 2008 and 80K miles ago. I wonder if they messed it up or actually did, the other cover has no issues.

Take a rag and wipe the area where the cover meets the head, above the spark plugs and see if it wet, if so, gaskets are in order.

The recall only covered the front valve cover IIRC. I'd get a new set of gaskets for both valve covers and bolt grommets from FelPro and call it done.

I recently did my gaskets and found that the insides of the valve covers (plastic) had some cracks and chips. Just an fyi, something to look for if/when you do yours. It made for a good reason to order the shiny metal ones from ZZP