Weird burning smell!

[MEEPER278]

Hello everyone, around christmas, i got an '89 hatch with a dual cam swap. I've had no issues with it until recently, i have smelled something burning and and sometimes smoking. Before you comment "head gasket" it's not that. There is light smoke that comes out of the engine bay for only about 5 seconds, my coolant isn't mixed with my oil, and there is no smoke from my exhaust. The car runs fine. The smell isn't coolant or oil and definitely not rubber. I have no clue what it is.As of right now my oil pan is leaking but it happens on cold start or when it's hot, so i don't think it's oil but i could be wrong. Please reply with anything you think it might be. Thank you!

[mechanicalmoron]

Any oil that gets on your exhaust will smoke.

if there's a dramatically different sound that goes away after a few seconds, you have an exhaust leak, or a clogged/messed up pair valve, egr or egr delete, etc.

If there's a lot of wet leaks and the car drips, you probably need to do an intake manifold/pcv job (if that's the case, I strongly recommend pulling the motor). If you just check for suction on the valve cover breather like the manual says, you'd be golden on a car with larger simple PCV hoses, but the KA has awful tiny complex hoses and passages that need to be manually replaced/reamed, it can turn into volvo-level disaster.

No, it's not a head gasket.

[MEEPER278]

Originally Posted by mechanicalmoron

Any oil that gets on your exhaust will smoke.

if there's a dramatically different sound that goes away after a few seconds, you have an exhaust leak, or a clogged/messed up pair valve, egr or egr delete, etc.

If there's a lot of wet leaks and the car drips, you probably need to do an intake manifold/pcv job (if that's the case, I strongly recommend pulling the motor). If you just check for suction on the valve cover breather like the manual says, you'd be golden on a car with larger simple PCV hoses, but the KA has awful tiny complex hoses and passages that need to be manually replaced/reamed, it can turn into volvo-level disaster.

No, it's not a head gasket.

Thank you for replying! There isn't any sound so i don't think it's anything in the first paragraph. The thing is though, it doesn't smell like oil burning and it even does it sometimes on a cold start so i don't think it's oil dripping onto my headers/exhaust. I also forgot to mention it smokes out of the left side of the engine bay.

[MEEPER278]

Originally Posted by mechanicalmoron

Any oil that gets on your exhaust will smoke.

if there's a dramatically different sound that goes away after a few seconds, you have an exhaust leak, or a clogged/messed up pair valve, egr or egr delete, etc.

If there's a lot of wet leaks and the car drips, you probably need to do an intake manifold/pcv job (if that's the case, I strongly recommend pulling the motor). If you just check for suction on the valve cover breather like the manual says, you'd be golden on a car with larger simple PCV hoses, but the KA has awful tiny complex hoses and passages that need to be manually replaced/reamed, it can turn into volvo-level disaster.

No, it's not a head gasket.

Well i don't think it would be leaking on to the exhaust and burning since it happens on a cold start too. There isn't any different sound either.