Alex 400

ok so every once and a while i have smelled this buring smell coming from the truck, usually after wheeling or freeway drives. i thought this was from mud splashing up or falling down on the the exhaust. today i drove to school and i had opened the hood and noticed a little plume of smoke coming from the drivings side #5 sparkplug area. i thought maybe the sparkplug boot was burning on the exhaust manifold, so i grab and pulled it off, and no sign of melting or burning. and there was still smoke. i could not see flame but i could see the smoke, and it sub sided after 5 minutes of so.

what i think could be wrong:

a) valve cover gasket has been weeping a little but it hasn't been enough to burn ( i thought, no drips on the ground or anything)

b) head gasket squirting a little oil

I am going to call the toyota dealership and have them look up my truck and see if has had the headgasket recall done. the previous owner didn't say if had been done or not, he just said that the timing belt had been done at 120,xxx (now at 156,xxx) but nothing about the headgasket, or the relay rod for that matter.

so, my last question is, If it is the headgasket, are they still honoring the recall on even though it is 14 years old?

thanks for your help!

needsomecam

my truck is 19 and they toyota dealer says they will still replace my pitman arm off the recall no problem

Bubba Wilks

they will still honor the recall if you need it..i would call ASAP

i wouldn't worry about the smoke though, mine does it every now and then and I just finished a big tune up and engine checks and mine is running fine. i did tighten my valve covers down a little more, and got rid of a ground leak.

Alex 400

Awesome! i am calling them today after school.

yeah it runs fine. Thank god the valve cover that is leaking is the driver's side cover, the easy one. i will try that. I might pull it this weekend and put a new gasket on it when i do my oil change.

Alex 400

called toyota and they said that both the relay rod and head gaskets have been done. the head gasket was done in 1998 and the rod was done in 2005. i am going to tighten down the valve cover and see if that helps. thanks for the replys!

abecedarian

double check the pcv valve also- a little extra crankcase pressure could be pushing some oil out the covers

Alex 400

ok, thought about this a little, regardless if it runs good, what is burning? i mean it runs good and doesn't leak anymore, what is burning then?

that is true, i will check that, too. thanks!

i am familiar with crankcase pressure problems as my dad's f-250 motor blew about 5 years ago, motor was crap from the beginning, IMO it was lucky lemon. anyway, unknown to us at the time, a couple compression rings had blown out and it started losing power, the tell tale sign was the oil pan gasket blew-out because the compressed fuel and air was being blown into the crankcase. dad took it to the dealership, said the oil pan gasket is shot and blown out and needs to be replaced, they said sure. not a week after the new gasket was in it blew out again. dad called and said what the hell, my gasket blew again, and this was the reply word for word, "Sir, you have a blown engine. We know you love your truck, but how about you suck it up and buy a new truck." My dad's said, forget it, hung up. we found a 97 5.8 non-emissions comercial motor that came off the assembly line damaged coil and dropped it in. more power and a fraction of the cost of a new truck or rebuild. we had done our own oil changes too. more often than they said and always with the same oil.

sorry for the story, but anyway, i will check that PCV valve and make sure it is flowing good. thanks guys

904_runner

My thought on the issue, replace both valve cover gaskets/ pcv valve. Clean all the spilled oil around them, then drive it. Hopefully that will solve the problem


BTW my valve covers were leaking oil around the back of the engine, just enough to spill on the exhaust and burn. New valve cover gaskets fixed the problem!

Good luck

Alex 400

alright, well the one on the underside of the intake manifold is not leaking, but the drivers side one is. I checked the passenger when i replaced the fuel damper and it wasn't leakin'. I will check the gasket tonight.

thanks for the tip!

Bubba Wilks

mine was at the same cylinder too

i'm not sure what was burning, maybe the little bit of oil that was leaking out, i was going to do the valve cover gasket, but it dissapeared(i hope) after tune up and tightening the bolts (just barely tightened them).

let me know how it goes, good luck

dieselloco427

I just replaced my Valve Cover Gaskets a couple of months ago (after +100K miles on the old ones from the previous owner). They were leaking like mad!! Of course they were leaking - I pulled the covers off and the gaskets were as hard as fruit cake. Now that they are replaced, I am getting better oil pressure and no "smokey smell" coming from the exhaust manifold. Valve cover gaskets are worth a try. Although you might as well do both and pull the plenum/intake manifold/throttle body off as well and do a good cleaning. I probably should have waited to do mine - because now I have to do the cylinder head gaskets now (carbon build up - resulting in pinging: yuck!!).

Alex 400

update: i changed my oil and filter, and made sure the valve cover gaskets were tight and they were. I haven't noticed it as much since i changed the oil. so i don't know now. but it still needs to be done at some point.