LS Still Smoking

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pghpete22

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So, I had both valve cover gaskets replaced two weeks ago on my 2000 LS V8. For the first 10 days or so, I still smelled oil burning, and was assured that it was just excess oiling burning off. By last Friday, I could still smell that smell in the garage, but I couldn't smell it with the hood open and my head down in there. On Saturday, while at a light, smoke - more smoke than when the VCGs were leaking before they were replaced, was coming up from the rear driver's side VCG area. Today I took it to the place (local garage) that did the job. They just called and said that the rear of the VCGs was dry and that they were going to run dye through it to pinpoint the leak.

My spider sense is now tingling. I was very surprised when they told me the VCGs were dry. I thought for sure they would find that they pinched the VCG on installation - or something like that. Anyway, can anyone offer any advice as to what they're going to tell me tomorrow?

This 8 year old car has never been run rough (hi revs), and only has 45k miles on it. I have never had any trouble with it since it was new. I'm really dreading what they're going to tell me tomorrow.
 
Could be the head gasket(that's bad, or maybe an intake gasket, not so bad. Or could just be leftover oil buring off the manifolds, just takes time to burn off.

Often intake bolts will loosen and cause various kinds of leaks. When I get serious under the hood, I often will take a wrench to all the intake bolts I can get and and give them a snug. Haven't tried this with the LS due to the "user friendly nature" of this engine, but I have found more than a few loose bolts over the many years. Sometimes just tightening up an intake bolt will fix your leak. The fix is free so why not try it?

To replace the head gasket means you have to remove the intake and most of the top of the engine so that is not going to be cheap. While the head is off, might be a good time to do a valve job if you got a lot of miles. At this point the majority of the "take off" stuff is done so might as well do the valves.


The dye should help pinpoint it and then we will see what it costs you.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson
 
I doubt they pinched the VCG, if the V8's are similar to the v6's they shouldn't have. There's a grove in the valve cover that the gasket slips into, would be really hard to pinch it.
 
I really, really doubt it's a head gasket, unless you drove the car for some time while it over heated.

I'd get the car on jack stands and have a look under the car and see if you can spot a leak.
 
It doesn't have to overheat for a head gasket to start leaking oil. Sometimes an improper installation can cause leaks, such as over-torquing the head bolts, or it could just be a bad gasket. But like I said, get a second opinion if they do say that its a head gasket, because that's not common on engines with low miles. They might be trying to rip you off to cover up for a mistake they may have made before.
 
I would bet it is still the valve cover gasket. It is near impossible to properly torque the bolts on the lower firewall side on the driver's side cover. The brake booster is in the way and it is tucked up under the cowl.

Lots of people have had to go back and remove, reinstall and re-torque the driver's side to stop a post gasket swap leak.

It only takes a bit of oil to really smoke and smell - so make sure that you have cleaned up any oil that may be from the first leak - it can pool into odd spots and trickle out over time.
 
97stscaddy said:
It doesn't have to overheat for a head gasket to start leaking oil. Sometimes an improper installation can cause leaks, such as over-torquing the head bolts, or it could just be a bad gasket. But like I said, get a second opinion if they do say that its a head gasket, because that's not common on engines with low miles. They might be trying to rip you off to cover up for a mistake they may have made before.
Click to expand...

If a head gasket goes and it's letting oil into the coolant, then it's also pressurizing the cooling system. I know first hand, as that's exactly what happened with my '87 last year while at the track. :( If that were the case, the oil wouldn't be leaknig outside the engine causing the smoking he's described. But there are test kits out there to detect exhaust gases in the cooling system.

But with a babied car with 45k that isn't beat on, I can't see it being a head gasket if valve cover gaskets were changed. Unless the monkey who did the work thought he needed to loosen some head bolts as well. :lol:

My bet's on the valve cover gasket being pinched. I know of someone else personally who just went through this exact same thing with his '02 V8 LS.
 
Quick Ls is right... I have the same problem with my 01 V8... and it's not as easy as "Just giving it a little torque"... so you should try taking all the proper steps it takes to get the valve cover on the driver side snugged up. with such low mileage i assure you it isn't anything serious... might cause a few premature oil changes in the long run... but jus get that checked on
 
LS Still Smoking - UPDATE

Thanks everyone for your thoughts concerning my LS. As it turns out, the dye test divulged a leak in the VCG- rear driver's side. The shop replaced both gaskets and apologized profusely. They couldn't find anything wrong with the VCGs they installed, nor did they admit to improperly installing them in the first place. Rather than placing blame on who did or didn't do what, I was just happy that they stood by their work and fixed the problem. Thanks guys.
 
If a head gasket goes and it's letting oil into the coolant,
Click to expand...
Just because a head gasket goes bad does not mean it will leak oil into the cooling system and vise versa. There are 4 different systems that need to be sealed by a head gasket: oil feed, coolant, crank case, and combustion chamber. Any one of them can leak. The most common leaks are coolant into combustion chamber, and coolant into crank case. But the head gaskets also seal the oil feed and return ports into and out of the cylinder head. The oil drain/return ports are usually in the corners of the cylinder head, and even though there is not nearly as much pressure inside the crank case as in the combustion chambers or oil feed system, that doesn't mean that the gaskets can't go bad and leak.
My sisters old car, Toyota Camry, had that problem with just over 145k miles on the ticker. It just started leaking oil out of the head gasket on the right rear corner of the engine. It started out slow and over about 3 months it grew into leak so big, it dumped so much oil on the road in front of her house that it has now seeped up through the fresh asphalt that was laid 6 months ago. And she got rid of that car about a year ago.
 
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