Did I damage my valves?

[divil]

Did you clean up the engine from any oil leaks? I usually clean off oily areas with brake cleaner, but make sure the engine is not hot or running, as some brake cleaners are flammable. If it still has a smell, then check for oil leaking. No I didn't really clean it up much. I cleaned the areas I had to - gasket surfaces, timing belt covers etc. But the valve covers and engine block have years of oily crud build up on them. I had great plans to clean all this up as I was doing the job but I had no idea how long it was all going to take, so in the end I just didn't have time. That will have to come later. But this smell is new - it's not a burning oil smell. I used to occasionally get the burning oil smell while driving but this is different. Given where it was coming from (it was actually both valve covers, but the passenger side was a little worse) and the fact that everything else is normal, I was assuming that it's excess gasket sealant which I may have been a little messy with. I also used cloths, q-tips, scotch pads, carb cleaner etc. when cleaning these areas and there could be trace amounts of cleaning materials hanging around. Anyway I'll be watching out for oil leaks in case I somehow messed up the gasket installation.

[jseklund]

Did you replace any cam seals, valve cover seals, cam adjuster seals, cam plugs?

There's a lot that could be left leaking here - one being a plug or seal in the back of the head that is leaking oil. This could happen, even if you did not replace the seals, if you loosened any of the end cam caps. Or, it could just be a leaky valve cover seal that you never noticed before. Or it could be coolant that splashed somewhere it shouldn't have. I would look with a flashlight for coolant or oil leaks.

One thing that I learned on my mom's car - if you let a leak go - it will get EVERYWHERE. It becomes hard to tell where a leak is and what was old, new, etc. I made sure to clean the engine bay as well as I could (I even used a garden hose and sprayed the hell out of the bay). Now, if there's oil, I can tell if it's fresh or not...

[divil]

Did you replace any cam seals, valve cover seals, cam adjuster seals, cam plugs?

Everything.

There's a lot that could be left leaking here - one being a plug or seal in the back of the head that is leaking oil. This could happen, even if you did not replace the seals, if you loosened any of the end cam caps. Or, it could just be a leaky valve cover seal that you never noticed before. Or it could be coolant that splashed somewhere it shouldn't have. I would look with a flashlight for coolant or oil leaks.

Well I noticed that there was a big blob of sealant on the cylinder head between the passenger side exhaust cam cap and the tensioner (there's a bit of exposed surface there that doesn't get covered by anything, but I mistakenly put sealant there before I put the caps back). The smoke seemed to be coming roughly from that area. Last time I looked most of that sealant was gone so I think it's burning away. Whatever it was it didn't smell like oil.

One thing that I learned on my mom's car - if you let a leak go - it will get EVERYWHERE. It becomes hard to tell where a leak is and what was old, new, etc. I made sure to clean the engine bay as well as I could (I even used a garden hose and sprayed the hell out of the bay). Now, if there's oil, I can tell if it's fresh or not...

Yeah this engine is covered in oil and grime from years of leaks. I'll be hosing it down soon enough to make this kind of diagnosis easier.