funny smell when car is running

[oshwass1969]

ok latley iv been smelling this wierd .....hmm..burning smell from my exhaust, my friends say it smells like oil burning but im not dripping any oil or burning off oil. Very light white misty smoke comes from the exhaust, any help would be appriciated

[Briano1234]

If it is sweet smelling, then that is usually Af as in blown head gasket. But when you first start the car there will be excessive moisture coming out.

White is usually water or antifreeze.
Black is oil or grease.

You can do the glove test.. Cold engine, remove the cap off the water res, and tie a latex glove tightly to the screw threads, make it air tight.

Start the car and rev the engine to 3000 rpm, if the glove inflates in 30 seconds or less and gives you the finger, then you have a bad head gasket.

After 30 seconds that test is usually useless.

2nd test hot car, are your hoses ballooned and you can't press them in the slightest? Bad head Gasket.
Now last.

Is there antifreeze in your engine oil? Or is your oil really milky looking?....

Is there oily goo in your a/f res? bad head gasket..... or the Oil cooler is intermixing it.


Usually if it goes away after a few minutes, then that is residual moisture... I wouldn't be too worried unless it was constant and other issues appear (swollen hoses).....

[Calimus]

Yup, looks like Brian is on top of this and as always, I can't fault anything he's mentioned.

[oshwass1969]

If it is sweet smelling, then that is usually Af as in blown head gasket. But when you first start the car there will be excessive moisture coming out.

White is usually water or antifreeze.
Black is oil or grease.

You can do the glove test.. Cold engine, remove the cap off the water res, and tie a latex glove tightly to the screw threads, make it air tight.

Start the car and rev the engine to 3000 rpm, if the glove inflates in 30 seconds or less and gives you the finger, then you have a bad head gasket.

After 30 seconds that test is usually useless. thanks brian i will try that as far as any milky looking oil or funny a/f all looks normal and my oil is clean and clear (20/50w) but still alot of misty lite white smoke coming from the exhaust, very embarrasing when i come to a stop light and there is a hot chick in a mercedes next to me...lol.....i forgot to mention that i did remove the catalyic converter and installed 2.5 inch pipe all the way down.

2nd test hot car, are your hoses ballooned and you can't press them in the slightest? Bad head Gasket.
Now last.

Is there antifreeze in your engine oil? Or is your oil really milky looking?....

Is there oily goo in your a/f res? bad head gasket..... or the Oil cooler is intermixing it.


Usually if it goes away after a few minutes, then that is residual moisture... I wouldn't be too worried unless it was constant and other issues appear (swollen hoses).....

[eric4321]

You will want to check the head gasket but 2 other things that come to mind are valve stem seals and valve cover gasket. Valve cover gasket won't cause weird exhaust at the tail pipe but will cause oil to drip on the exhaust manifold and the way these engines are tilted back it is fairly normal. Valve stem seals will cause oil to burn out the tail pipe and they can be changed with the head in the car but I would rather remove it. But I also droped my engine and trans to replace the clutch and all the seals just because of a leaky drive axel seal so I am prone to slight overkill. :-/