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[dippydave]

indeed that's what i had after coming home from wrk today.

only a three mile trip as well!

thought the smell in the cabin was like burning oil. odd as timbuk did the cam gaskets a wee while ago and everything seemd tight and tickety boo!

howver, got home, popped the bonnet and found the smell to be more like burning rubber. only there was smoke coming from the o/s part of the engine. looked like from under/around the exhaust heat shield (well below the bottom cam cover for certain anyway).

any bright ideas?
/

[FRE07962128]

indeed that's what i had after coming home from wrk today.

only a three mile trip as well!

thought the smell in the cabin was like burning oil. odd as timbuk did the cam gaskets a wee while ago and everything seemd tight and tickety boo!

howver, got home, popped the bonnet and found the smell to be more like burning rubber. only there was smoke coming from the o/s part of the engine. looked like from under/around the exhaust heat shield (well below the bottom cam cover for certain anyway).

any bright ideas?
/

Two possibilities that I can readily think of :-/:

1)  Loose exhaust down pipe joint with manifold

2)  Oil dripping down from o/s cam covers due to leaking gasket; check if plug holes have oil in them, if so this, according to many Omega experts on this site is typical of a leaking cam cover gasket due to oil breathers being blocked, a weakness of the miggy. Oil could then drip down onto the hot exhaust.

When other Omega experts come on line later no doubt they will give you much further advice Dave.

Just another thought; has a piece of rubber blown up off the road / fallen off car and stuck to the red hot exhaust pipe?  Worth a check.  

[JasonH]

Sounds like leaky cam covers to me, although as lizzy said you may have picked up a plastic bag or similar which stuck to your exhaust.

[Elite Pete]

I would suspect cam cover gasket. Where the breathers cleaned at the same time as the gasket replacement?

[dippydave]

yeah. timbuk and his boy did a thorough clean of the breathers when all the cam gaskets were replaced back in march. now it's light i'm gonna check under for random plastic!

thing is it didn't really smell like the burning oil i had in february!

thanks for the other pointers tho... time to get inspecting...

[Elite Pete]

Whip a plug out and see if theres any oil in the well.

[dippydave]

the o/s is never easy to 'whip a plug out' but i'll do it

just had a butchers underneath. .. no plastic bags. just more oil than should be

can see freshish wet stuff on the funny bent pipes near the oil filter housing, and looks like its higher too. run fingers round the cam cover and seems dry.... just my luck if it's a leak right at the back!

this isn't normal only 10weeks and 2400 miles since replacement/cleaning tho is it?

[Elite Pete]

Passenger side is Near Side

[fredthedog]

I had a similar problem with my 2.5, spoke to pox hall, apparently the later models have thicker seals to cure this known problem. However my leak from the cam covers seems to have been caused by the pattern part set supplying the thinner earlier type!!!

Easier way to see if the covers are leaking (if pulling a plug lead is difficult is to wipe around the heads at the join with the cam covers and see what oil there is (I cleaned mine then had a test run....)  
Then re wipe later, if you can feel the oil, you almost certainly have leaky cam cover gaskets!!!

Ooodles of smoke is scary, I was stopping at traffic lights etc and loads of smelly smoke emitted from the engine bay!!!

BTW if you change the cam cover gaskets remember to use some sealant at the front and back!!!

good luck

N

[VXL V6]

I had a similar problem with my 2.5, spoke to pox hall, apparently the later models have thicker seals to cure this known problem. However my leak from the cam covers seems to have been caused by the pattern part set supplying the thinner earlier type!!!

Easier way to see if the covers are leaking (if pulling a plug lead is difficult is to wipe around the heads at the join with the cam covers and see what oil there is (I cleaned mine then had a test run....)  
Then re wipe later, if you can feel the oil, you almost certainly have leaky cam cover gaskets!!!

Ooodles of smoke is scary, I was stopping at traffic lights etc and loads of smelly smoke emitted from the engine bay!!!

BTW if you change the cam cover gaskets remember to use some sealant at the front and back!!!

good luck

N

Another example of stealers making up a pack of lies!
Different seals only exist on the Vectra and Saturn versions (ie those with metal cam covers) of the V6

[dippydave]

Passenger side is Near Side

woops.  my bad. it's definitely the passenger  side. lol.

and the worrying thing is we did use plenty of the right sealant in the right places with a proper Vx set of o rings and gaskets  :-/

got to get to work now, but will get hands dirty tomorrow! gonna try that wipe thing at least!

[Pete Elite]

  Hi Dave,
             If it's not the oil that's burning and you say it smells more like rubber, have you checked to see if any pipes have fell onto something hot .

[amba]

Hi Dave..your possible problem would also now seem to be mine.
Last week I replaced the cam cover gaskets /o rings and sealant after my camshaft upgrade.I used genuine GM parts and was almost clinical in how the work was done,all sealed corrcetly,all breathers cleaned and thoroughly checked.
I have since driven over 800 miles and have today had the nasty smell of burning oil.Upon checking I have the telltale traces of oil laying on the top ridge of the sump and on closer inspection seem to have a minute leak on drivers side at the back left corner which is dripping onto the manifold.
It seems almost pot luck if these really ever seal after a replacement,so like you I will be pulling them all apart again,trouble is I dont think I could have done a better job than I did last time so does anybody think GM have changed the gasket pattern slightly or is it just wishfull thinking.
Would it be of any benefit if I aplied the black sealant all along the gaskets as then the compression of the cover would surely seal properly and just cut away the excess.
Best of luck with yours,Dave,trouble is it starts getting expensive and  very time consuming.

[dippydave]

 

i got me an you guys an update and it's a case of a little good, some not-so-bad and lots of bad news really.

Good news is, no pipes are burning or split or anything. Not-so-bad news is there's precious little oil in the plug wells.  

bad news is, the beast has been drinking coolant and dripping some oil. The oil's coming out from the right side camcover gasket and both burning off by the exhaust and dripping down the engine

Went to a mechanic today and within seconds said " that smell is burning oil........it's coming from the rocker gasket.....there might be steam coming from the front of the engine.......might be water pump, maybe head gasket."

took off filler cap, oodles of mayo. and with engine running, steam too!

visual and verbal verdict.
head gasket gone on right hand side. maybe not on other. waaaah!
excess pressure from water in the cylinders causing oil to force out through newish rocker gasket and bad running (ie not all cylinders starting up straightaway.) i confirmed that it has been a bit lumpy sometimes!

havent had time to price up/investigate head gasket costs but is it even worth it on an 85k 9 year old motor?!

ho hum. best not drive it any more eh?!

[psychnurse]

? oil cooler... there is a flow chart here somewhere to do a selfdiagnostic orry Im not much help.