Need some help about smoking from engine. I have a 3.4 v6. I cant really pin point where exactly the smoke is coming from, but its the back of the engine, towards the bottom on the driver side. The heat shield is blocking the manifold when im under scoping it out so cant really tell. Any suggestions. Rides fine and dont think it's burning oil. But i can smell and see the smoke when the engine is hot. Color of the smoke like steam but smells like burning oil or rubber like.
Engine smoking somewhere
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JohnsD90
New member
make sure the cap is on all of the engine fluids.
shawnstcyr
New member
Sounds like leaky valve cover gaskets.
longhaul747
New member
As already mentioned above most likely the valve cover gaskets. Mine leaked and sometimes I could smell something burning. Never seen smoke under the hood but I am sure it did at times. Normally its not difficult but you have to remove the throttle body and replace a gasket for that. So I had the dealer replace mine to the tune of $400. At the least they steamed cleaned the engine as well ;-)
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Header/Downpipe smoke
My 2001 SR5 had become our 3rd vehicle about 5 months ago. I've been starting/driving it once a week since then to keep it running. Over the past 2 weeks I've noticed, that once the engine gets up to temp, I'll smell something burning.
A quick inspection with the hood up showed that where the header meets the downpipe, there was a small stream of white smoke rising through the engine bay. This only happens when the car is up to temp and only smokes in that spot.
Any ideas what this could be? It doesn't really smell like oil, if anything it almost smelled electrical. Not saying that it is, but it doesn't smell like an exhaust leak either.
My photo didn't turn out, but this photo of a Tacoma engine bay is pretty close to the area I'm talking about:
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In the photo, it'd be under and to the left of the ABS module (top-right - has the white reservoir and black cap).
My 2001 SR5 had become our 3rd vehicle about 5 months ago. I've been starting/driving it once a week since then to keep it running. Over the past 2 weeks I've noticed, that once the engine gets up to temp, I'll smell something burning.
A quick inspection with the hood up showed that where the header meets the downpipe, there was a small stream of white smoke rising through the engine bay. This only happens when the car is up to temp and only smokes in that spot.
Any ideas what this could be? It doesn't really smell like oil, if anything it almost smelled electrical. Not saying that it is, but it doesn't smell like an exhaust leak either.
My photo didn't turn out, but this photo of a Tacoma engine bay is pretty close to the area I'm talking about:
In the photo, it'd be under and to the left of the ABS module (top-right - has the white reservoir and black cap).
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thezentree
Senior Member
I'm no expert on these engines but white smoke is usually indicative of burning coolant. I hope I'm not leading you down the wrong path but it's worth investigating.
thegipper
New member
Use a mirror and a flashlight and see if you can get a better look at where the leak is coming from. Checking your coolant level and oil level is a good start too.
It could be as simple as the valve cover gaskets are leaking. Mine have been for quite a while now and it smells more like burning rubber than oil. They leak pretty bad on mine but I still don't need to add any oil between changes.
Super common for the 3.4 V6 to have leaking valve cover gaskets (cam seals/half moons).
It could be as simple as the valve cover gaskets are leaking. Mine have been for quite a while now and it smells more like burning rubber than oil. They leak pretty bad on mine but I still don't need to add any oil between changes.
Super common for the 3.4 V6 to have leaking valve cover gaskets (cam seals/half moons).
Scramble
New member
My 2001 SR5 had become our 3rd vehicle about 5 months ago. I've been starting/driving it once a week since then to keep it running. Over the past 2 weeks I've noticed, that once the engine gets up to temp, I'll smell something burning.
A quick inspection with the hood up showed that where the header meets the downpipe, there was a small stream of white smoke rising through the engine bay. This only happens when the car is up to temp and only smokes in that spot.
Any ideas what this could be? It doesn't really smell like oil, if anything it almost smelled electrical. Not saying that it is, but it doesn't smell like an exhaust leak either.
My photo didn't turn out, but this photo of a Tacoma engine bay is pretty close to the area I'm talking about:.
In the photo, it'd be under and to the left of the ABS module (top-right - has the white reservoir and black cap).
I agree with thegipper, valve cover gaskets. The oil drips down onto the exhaust when the truck is sitting & then burns off when up to temp. Smells like burning plastic or rubber. When I'm DD her I dont get the smell or smoke at all, only after sitting for a week.
I can see that it's coming right off of the flange where the header meets the pipe. It's just a think stream of white smoke and I don't see anything dripping on it that would be burning. It's pretty rusty too. Could that mixed with the car not being used as much making it start to go? Use it or lose it?
Thanks for the reply gipper.
OK that makes me feel much better. I was worried that if something was smoking like that I shouldn't be driving it. Where there's smoke there's fire.
Thanks for the reply Scramble.
Scramble
New member
Well please make sure that's it! LOL
Thehopping1
New member
Mine is doing the same thing, the valve cover was changed 3 times by the previous owner and he thought it must be the rear main seal so I replaced that and it still does it. There are little half circles in the heads and they seam to be my problem. If you change your gasket you should probably seal those off too.
Oh of course! Definitely haha. All I'm saying is that what you guys are saying does make sense.
I read another few threads about changing the gaskets and saw a couple mentions of checking the bolts on the valve covers to see if they're tight.
Some even said that this is not uncommon and they've seen it on multiple 4Runners. In some cases it was bad enough to loosen bolts by hand.
I plan to start there.
Link12
New member
While the half circles have to be resealed when you do the gaskets a lot of people don't change out the rear cam seals. That is where most are leaking from.
Thehopping1
New member
Thanks for the heads up, I will add that to the list when I finally get mine done.