White smoke from engine. 1984 Buick LeSabre.
i have a 1984 buick lesabre limited 4.1 v6 and it recently started to get sluggish until it stalls all white smoke comes from both sides of the engine near the valve covers, and melted two of my spark plug wires, i just replaced vaccum hoses today, and the spark plug wires again and the car starts up, in neutral it idles fine put when put in drive the rpms drop and it starts to shut down again, after about five mins at a stand still idle white smoke starts to come out around the valve covers again and at this point starts to come out of my air cleaner, and out of where the hose from the pass. side valve cover to the air cleaner, and has a burnt smell to it. If you could help me try to figure out why this is happening, I would gladly appreciate the help..
Answers
i'm guessing the white smoke is vaporizing/burning coolant, -very hot coolant/water vapor - and that multiple gaskets on the both engine & valvecover require replacement.
seems like valve cover gaskets and/or other gaskets are leaking.
valve covers could be warped and valvetrain damaged especially if it overheated. burning smell could be chunks of broken gasket migrating around the engine and burning. is coolant getting low? is there evidence of low/missing coolant and/or coolant mixing with oil - does the oil lookslike a tubes/vats of milk chocolate like from charlie & the chocolate factory's augustus gloop scene?