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I have been having a burning smell and smoke from around the number 1 cylinder. At first I thought that the problem was from the timing belt cover but then I saw oil on the underside of the valve cover. I replaced the rear valve cover gasket and no oil leak from there anymore. I cleaned the lower areas as best I could but I can see that it is still wet looking around the exhaust manifold. I am not sure if gasket is bad or the manifold cracked.
Searched through the forum but not a lot on replacing the rear exhaust manifold or gasket. It looks like a pain to get to so I am hoping that someone can tell me how they did the repair. Did you try from underneath or remove the valve cover (Etc.Etc.) and were able to reach from the top. Any advice?
Bad valve cover gasket Wet around exhaust manifold
I have been having a burning smell and smoke from around the number 1 cylinder. At first I thought that the problem was from the timing belt cover but then I saw oil on the underside of the valve cover. I replaced the rear valve cover gasket and no oil leak from there anymore. I cleaned the lower areas as best I could but I can see that it is still wet looking around the exhaust manifold. I am not sure if gasket is bad or the manifold cracked.
Searched through the forum but not a lot on replacing the rear exhaust manifold or gasket. It looks like a pain to get to so I am hoping that someone can tell me how they did the repair. Did you try from underneath or remove the valve cover (Etc.Etc.) and were able to reach from the top. Any advice?
Remove intake manifold, remove strut bar. spray penetrating oil on suspect hardware. Remove heat shield, loosen 5 manifold bolts with a 12mm socket. unbolt lower pipe from upper log section with long extension, spray studs & loosen with breaker bar if needed. slide away from head & out from top.
GL
619rcr, thanks I thought that would be the best way but didn't know if anyone had any other way (other than pulling the engine) or any other cautions or advice. Thank you for the response.
Hey Jon, it looks like there is a leak, have you tried removing just the heat shield, cleaning up that area and then running the engine to get a better idea where the oil is coming from?
I see a lot of people have problems with aftermarket valve cover gaskets as well as forgetting to clean off the mating surface on the cylinder head.
If you're certain of those; you may want to look at the cam thrust cover, I know the front cam thrust cover leaks downward and onto the water passageway / EGR mounting; perhaps the rear may be leaking down and around the back of the rear head.
I haven't removed the heat shield. I had replaced the valve cover gasket with a new one from FEL-Pro. I always clean and check at the surfaces. I haven't put more than a 5 miles on it, although I have let the car heat up at idle. I sprayed the area around the exhaust with degreaser and then with soapy water.
I am going to drive it around some more before I decide to take everything off again. I didn't see any oil leaking except for under the area where the previous gasket was was damaged. I don't see any oil leaking now but the area around the exhaust manifold still appears wet. Not sure if there was any old oil left under the shield of if there is an exhaust leak keeping the area wet looking.
yeah...perhaps that's some remaining oil from before; just hard to get out due to the tight space and heat shield preventing you from really getting in there.
I have taken that upper intake manifold apart so many times it isn't funny. Just don't want to play with the exhaust manifold if I don't have a real problem there. If it was easy to get to it is one thing but anything up against the firewall or the passenger quarter panel is always a pain. I'll let you know what I find after I drive it for a while.
09-25-2022, 10:03 PM
