Smoking Valve Cover gasket?

[Andrew Liu]

I recently replaced the valve cover gasket, and now whenever the engine is running at normal operating temp, smoke starts coming out of the engine, from the gasket.

It smells like burning rubber, but there are no leaks or anything, it works perfectly.

It smokes a lot after it warms up from a cold start, and it smokes much less after everything warms up.

Is this normal? Or is there something I should do to get rid of the smoke?

[Kep]

It is not normal but darned if I can think why it would be doing this. Was this a stock gasket or did you fabricate from gasket matterial? Did you use any cleaners, paint or solvents? Does it look like the gasket is smoking or smoke is coming from inside the engine past the gasket?

Kep

[Andrew Liu]

it just sorta floats up from around the gasket area. doesn't fully materialize into smoke until about 6 in. above the valve cover.

I did use a rag wetted with simple green to clean the gasket area, but that should've evaporated before i even installed the gasket the next day.

This is a Beck-Arnley gasket.

there is no noticable engine problems, or noise/performance problems. It just looks and smells terrible. no leaks, nothing.

[mtmx46]

Originally Posted by Andrew Liu

it just sorta floats up from around the gasket area. doesn't fully materialize into smoke until about 6 in. above the valve cover.

I did use a rag wetted with simple green to clean the gasket area, but that should've evaporated before i even installed the gasket the next day.

This is a Beck-Arnley gasket.

there is no noticable engine problems, or noise/performance problems. It just looks and smells terrible. no leaks, nothing.

I had the same problem. Your valve cover gasket needs to be torqued properly. If that fails then you need high temp gasket sealant. It's not as bad as it looks. You need a 30mm? socket and go in sequence. It's probably spilling from the back end and once the engine heats up... out comes the smoke!

Matt

[Andrew Liu]

I just did that and it seemed to fix the smoking.

However, there is still the smell, but thats probably just the excess already spilled.