smoke around head when sitting

[jw 325ic]

Hey, so my m20 just started doing this recently, once then engine gets a little warm or has been running for a few minutes, and if i'm sitting at idle - hood popped, you see a small amount of smoke/steam coming out of the engine from under the intake mani and kind of by the exhaust mani.

my immediate guess is head gasket. sound right?

i do have a bad exhaust leak right at the down pipes where it bolts to the exhaust mani, but it even does this for a minute after i shut it off. i do have a bad oil leak, about a qt a week, but i kept thinking it was the oil pan gasket.

any help is much appreciated. thanks!

[JrCamacho]

Get those leaks situated first! sounds like you already diagnosed your problem.

[jw 325ic]

So you think its the head gasket too? Its definitely burning oil :/

[JrCamacho]

if not the gasket, the other cause for oil burning would be bad rings, are you noticing alot of oil blowby in the intake manifold/throttle body?

have you done any recent work to the engine?

[ttrousdell]

if not the gasket, the other cause for oil burning would be bad rings, are you noticing alot of oil blowby in the intake manifold/throttle body?

have you done any recent work to the engine?

don't forget leaking valve guides too. Im going to guess that the engine has lot of miles or its been a while since the head gasket was changed?

[JrCamacho]

don't forget leaking valve guides too. Im going to guess that the engine has lot of miles or its been a while since the head gasket was changed?

ahh i was going to add this in, but you beat me to it! im going back and fourth between work and r3v, probably not the best idea

[jw 325ic]

Yea...about 160k and never changed the head gasket. Do you really think it could be the guides? The engine runs great but dont know if that means anything...?
Btw thanks for the quick responses

[JrCamacho]

What I would do is administer a leak-down test to see how well your seals are working for you in the engine, that way you can pin-point the cause of the leaks.

My m20 has hit 151k and I'm sure it hasn't had any head work done yet. I have excess blow-by in my intake manifold, I'm guessing that my rings and/or my valve guides may be worn. When i did my waterpump/t-belt i noticed that the PO had used nothing but water as coolant, when i was installing the new waterpump, I noticed a little bit of rust in the block, i can only imagine how the head looks...

All in all, im due for a swap.

[Evan12]

Does it smell bad too? My engine did this and I finally got tired of replacing things here and there to try and make it better. I was also losing lots of oil. So I took it to a mechanic and found out the following: head gasket was practically blown and the car was running on 5 cylinders at times. The steam was coming from the head as well as an oil leak dripping onto the block, resulting in a terrible smell.

[jw 325ic]

yea it smells like burning oil lol. and it leaks like crazy, under my parking spot here at my apartment...theres a huuuuuge oil spill under my car. i've always thought it was the oil gasket as it was leaking pretty bad before this also. But i replaced the rear main seal when i did my tranny...or well...my friend did that part for me (the deal that is...i know...i shouldn't have let him do that) but i wasn't sure if it was still leaking. so i have an oil pan gasket sitting on my bar here just waiting for my lazy ass to put it in. was going to pull the intake mani also to replace that crank breather tube and the intake gaskets. i dunno, if its the head gasket...all i have to say is fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[Evan12]

You might as well do it dude. Sound like we had the same problem.

[Blackangusinc]

I have a similar issue. If you can see smoke and smell burning oil, it's pretty certain that oil is dripping/blowing onto your exhaust.

[jw 325ic]

yea...i know...ugh. might try and do it while i have the timing belt off.

[jw 325ic]

did you guys have your head resurfaced while it was off too or just the gasket?

[JrCamacho]

if your going to do the headgasket, you should check the head for warpage, and get it cleaned/machined.. You're already taking it off might as well get it done!

do it right.. or do it twice...