Oil leak falling to exhaust

[Imanol Alamillo]

Hi guys, I've been having a problem with my '03 LS V8 with 27k miles. After a lot of reading through the forums I solved the classic misfire of COP by replacing all of them. Also changed the valve cover gaskets due to a small leak to the spark plug wells.
I started the engine and everything seemed fine, the misfire dissapeared completely and the car behaved perfectly mechanically speaking. I noticed some smoke coming from the driver side exhaust manifold at the firewall end after shutting the car off.
The smoke will come intermitently when the engine is running and I can smell burnt oil as it falls onto the exhaust manifold. I already checked and rechecked the valve cover gasket by sliding my fingers at the edge were the valve cover meets the head and its super dry, no leaks at all.
I'm thinking maybe the intake manifold is leaking oil (don't know if that's possible) or the rear main seal or oil pan gasket are responsibles of this leak. I was able to see the transmission bellhousing splashed with oil as I inspectioned it from underneath.
Maybe someone had this problem before and is willing to chime in.

Thanks in advance.

 

[joegr]

I think that it is much more likely that the recently replaced valve cover gasket on the driver's side is leaking. The gasket may have rolled out of the proper place when you put the valve cover back on, maybe all of the old gasket wasn't cleaned off, maybe you didn't get all the bolts to the correct torque (too tight is as bad as too loose), or maybe the new gasket was defective.

 

[mikeyswood]

When I did my VCG I had a small tear in the gasket that I'm pretty sure I created when I was putting the cover back on.

A new gasket and extra care when placing the cover fixed my leak.

 

[Imanol Alamillo]

Thanks for the input guys, I'll check tomorrow for the leaky valve cover gasket. I cleaned all the surfaces throughly but I did struggled to get the valve cover in position.
The torque is 89 in-lbs right?

 

[G-RELL]

correct. best to pull it off again and double check everything

 

[Imanol Alamillo]

So I pulled again the valve cover and inspected everything...the gasket and o-rings seemed to be ok and I installed everything with patience, torqued everything to specs and cranked over the engine.
Smoke still coming from the exhaust ...I checked again with my fingers and a mirror for leaks at the mating surfaces and everything is dry. I'm suspecting maybe transmission oil or a gasket from the intake manifold, but I'm not sure.

 

[oddball]

If oil ever got on the manifolds, it will take a little while to burn off. Wait a couple of days, then check again. You may have fixed it with the new gaskets.