JT76

I was driving on the thruway yesterday and gave it some gas to get around a truck, i look in my rearview and i see white smoke everywhere. I pulled into a rest stop and i look under the car. Oil was dripping from my passenger side onto my longtubes and that was the source of the smoke. I popped the hood and there was oil leaking on the passenger side on the back of the valve cover. I cant tell if its comming out of the valve cover, from under it or from where the valve cover bolt is, it was all covered in oil. I checked the dip stick and i had lost about a 1/2 to a quart in about a 5 min time. The car was making no noises, running fine and if it wasnt for the smoke, i would have never known about it, it was only smoking like asteam train at WOT.I left the car at my friends house who is a mechanic. He said that it was likely that the valve cover gasket went. What do you guys think?

contentsunderpressur

Is your engine stock?

72MachOne99GT

Yea, he's got a stock 4.6 *edit* (stock 4.6 block) *edit* with no more than some bolt ons. I'm about 99% certain he has no heads/cams work done to it at all.

That's scary man, cause w/o smoke you would have ran that thing straight out of oil.

Keep this thread updated if you get any information. Sorry I'm not any help personally.

contentsunderpressur

Ok, get it on a lift and check those plugs in the back of your heads. I've never heard of a valve cover suddenly gushing oil like that. I had one of those plugs in the back of one of my heads leak oil that bad right after I started it up. I don't see how one of those plugs could just start leaking like that either. Hope it's not a blown head gasket.

Dan04COBRA

White smoke? I've never seen oil burn white. [&:]

96GT226410

Ha ha..... My car is leaking oil out of my valve cover, too. But only because I'm an idiot. The driver side valve cover was a little damp in the back corner under the master cylinder after I did my PI swap so I went to just tighten the bolt up. Well, I snapped it instead. A little too much torque I guess [&:]... Oh well, I hope it's not going to be too much of a pain in the a$$ to fix. []

JT76

yeah the car just has the usual bolt ons, nothing radical........36k miles...... went WOT and something let go, i didnt have a chance to go look at it today, its sitting at my friends house 40 miles away...i will try to get out there tomarrow and have a look see....from what i remember tho the leak was on the top of the valve cover toward the back by the last bolt on the passenger side, i didnt see any "plug"

TheBob98GT

the plug you would be looking for should be in the back of the head not in the valve cover. i hope its nothin serious tho bro. good luck

contentsunderpressur

+1 You would have to get under the car to see the plugs in the back of the head. Hopefully you just blew the **** out of a valve cover gasket though.

2000GT4.6

sounds like a valve cover gasket to me.