Honda Car Forum

Here is the issue:
Couple of days back the upper radiator hose in my 99 Accord (4 cyl,
2.3 L, 110K mi) cracked while driving and sprayed a lot of coolant
into the engine compartment. I changed the hose and topped off the
coolant and the ran the engine while in park - to make sure the
coolant spray on the engine burnt off. While doing all this, i also
noticed that the engine oil level was low (not sure why). I topped
that off as well with about 4 quarts of oil.

Now, when the engine is hot i see smoke coming from under the shield
covering the engine exhaust manifold. Not sure if it is the smoke from
the coolant burning off or due to a oil leak.

Any ideas? Could this smoke have something to do with an oil leak?

Thanks in advance for your help...

if your oil was that low i'd say valve cover you can tell by the smell
as oil smell is way different than coolant smell....


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Four quarts is a lot in a 4 cyl. automobile engine. You can hose off the
engine with a garden hose to get most of the oil and coolant off. This is
better than "burning it off". Just stay away from the distributor or put a
plastic bag over it. If you drove for a long distance with the engine hot
you could have blown a head gasket. Valve cover is also a possibility, and
with that mileage the valves need to be adjusted if they haven't been
already.

Cheers,

Earle

<vasani.amit@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1179676564.978772.257990@u30g2000hsc.googlegr oups.com...
> Here is the issue:
> Couple of days back the upper radiator hose in my 99 Accord (4 cyl,
> 2.3 L, 110K mi) cracked while driving and sprayed a lot of coolant
> into the engine compartment. I changed the hose and topped off the
> coolant and the ran the engine while in park - to make sure the
> coolant spray on the engine burnt off. While doing all this, i also
> noticed that the engine oil level was low (not sure why). I topped
> that off as well with about 4 quarts of oil.
>
> Now, when the engine is hot i see smoke coming from under the shield
> covering the engine exhaust manifold. Not sure if it is the smoke from
> the coolant burning off or due to a oil leak.
>
> Any ideas? Could this smoke have something to do with an oil leak?
>
> Thanks in advance for your help...
>

vasani.amit@gmail.com wrote:
> Here is the issue:
> Couple of days back the upper radiator hose in my 99 Accord (4 cyl,
> 2.3 L, 110K mi) cracked while driving and sprayed a lot of coolant
> into the engine compartment. I changed the hose and topped off the
> coolant and the ran the engine while in park - to make sure the
> coolant spray on the engine burnt off. While doing all this, i also
> noticed that the engine oil level was low (not sure why). I topped
> that off as well with about 4 quarts of oil.

Er... did it actually take 4 quarts to bring the oil up to the mark on
the dipstick, or did you just dump a whole 4 quarts in there? I dunno
about YOUR Accord, but my 2.0l '87 only takes 3.5l of oil after an oil
change - if I had to put 4 quarts in it, it would have been running dry.
If you overfilled your oil, you could be inviting other problems.

According to Autozone, capacity on your engine is 4.5 quarts... you're
either overfilled now, or you were running severely low before, and I
think you'd better look into that before you worry about some smoke
coming off the outside of the engine...

Thanks all.

The oil level did not even show on the dip stick before i refilled it.
Topped it off up to the upper hole on the dip stick.

Not sure why the oil level was so low. No oil puddle under the car.
The low oil pressure light (on the dash) never came on.

On 5/20/07 9:28 PM, in article
1179714535.565463.102740@n15g2000prd.googlegroups. com,
"vasani.amit@gmail.com" <vasani.amit@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks all.
>
> The oil level did not even show on the dip stick before i refilled it.
> Topped it off up to the upper hole on the dip stick.
>
> Not sure why the oil level was so low. No oil puddle under the car.
> The low oil pressure light (on the dash) never came on.
>

How long since you last changed the oil? How long since you last checked
the dipstick? If recent and there's no oil puddle, then you've probably got
a blown head gasket, or something else internal has opened up. A blown head
gasket would also account for increased pressure in the cooling system
adequate to blow a weak hose. Look for milkiness in the oil and/or an oil
slick in the coolant for evidence of a blown gasket.