chris1mzfe

Hi! I am new to this forum. I just bought my son his first car. It is a 1998 ES300. It is in pretty good shape except for a lot of oil leaks and exhaust leaks. My concern is that I just changed the valve cover gaskets and it took a couple days. The car is put back together and it seems to run fine. However, It smells like coolant burning and it looks like the exhaust is smoking a little. I did spill a lot of coolant when I took the throttle body apart. I did not notice it smoking at all before the job. I am hoping that it is just burning off of the manifold. The weather is around freezing here in northwest indiana and maybe the smoke is just steam. I want to really go over all the vacuum lines and coolant connections to make sure they are connected properly and nothing may have gotten crossed. Is there anything that could cause that problem? Does anyone have any diagrams or good pictures of hose routing that I can confirm my connections? Thank you!

Arsenii

Hello,

Does the smoke come from the exhaust tip, from under the hood, or both? If it is coming from the exhaust tip, are you sure that it is not just a steam?

I don't think that you may cause the coolant to enter a combustion chamber just by replacing the valve cover gaskets, it is only possible if your cylinder head is warped (excessive heat), or your head gasket is blown. But in either of those cases, your car would have ran extremely rough, I mean you would notice it.

If you car runs stable (no misfiring, vibration, stuff like that), my best guess is to just start up the car and go for a little ride, close to home. Pay really close attention to the temperature gauge and coolant level. If it is just a leftover, it will just burn out and quit smoking. Just be careful, use common sense.
After some while of driving, you can check the coolant level and the oil for signs of coolant. If nothing would change, then you are perfectly fine!

Also, here is a diagram of all the hoses in the engine compartment (see page 2).

Hope this helps and best of luck!

chris1mzfe

so far so good! Thanks!

Moisture

You should be able to smell if its coolant

Arsenii

Glad it went alright for you!
But just in case, keep an eye on the coolant level for a few days, and after some while you can also check the oil for signs of coolant.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

chris1mzfe

The car has not run much since the job completed. My son does not have his license yet and I just put insurance on it today. I hope it is all well and I will keep an eye on the oil and coolant. Thanks everyone again for the helpful advice and tips!