Engine problems, stumped

[EvoFire]

As of right now, I may be the next guy to be dropped from the Gen 3 world.

I've been having problems with the car, the major one is smoke from the engine. So far we have no clue whatsoever as to what is happening and haven't been able to recreate the problem reliably. Before, I would occasionally get a burning smell from the car after prolonged use on the highway. Then one day I was just driving normally in the city and gray/black smoke started to come out from the engine bay. Not much, just a little bit and smells bad, came between the rear bank cylinders and the firewall.

Fast forward to today. I had to drive to school and pay my deposit for classes. My school is on top of a stupid mountain(great place to put a school, some 200 students got stuck up there during a snowstorm last year). Right when I parked the car, I realized the car was smoking bad. Smoke was coming out from every possible vent, hole whatever from the engine bay. it was coming out of the front grille, wheel wells, the shut lines of the hood.

My mechanic has no idea what it can be, he said he's heard about white smoke, but not gray/black at that scale and the car would still drive. Yeah the car drives, no weird noises, fluids are all ok, no lost of power. I tried to replicate the problem at home(kind of) revving the engine for 5mins, nothing came from it but a lot of heat. Anyone have any idea what problem can it possibly be?

Oh right, its a Gen 3, 3VZ and I just hit 180k kms 2 days ago.

[bigbird]

well if its smoke then somthing is burning obviously. the best thing to do is just to get in there and try to find where its concenterated. look the the seals and gaskets to see if there area any signs of smoke residue.

[Venom_5]

could be burning oil ... slow leak, maybe?

[92ES5sp]

I think your rear valve cover is pissing. The 3vz is sitting at a huge angle to begin with and you said you were parked at an incline so..

The oil will leak all over the rear exhaust manifold and smoke everywhere.. (dash vents, etc etc) Common with that engine.

If thats what it is, thats not a huge deal

[skewe]

I had the same problem with my gen 3.
it was white some and evey time i stop, smoke came out from everywehre.

the mechanic said that it was the rear main seal. got it fixed and that was the last of it.
It was like 500$ to get that fixed.

[EvoFire]

my mechanic said I was leaking stuff on the back.... so I dunno, he told me I should bring the car in next week to take a thorough look.

[DFBonnett]

Tell him to look at the back valve cover first, as 92ES5sp noted. It's a common problem on that engine.