I usually check the oil/water levels on a weekly basis, to my surprise I noticed this



Can anyone identify what is going on? This was not present last week.
Thanks in advance

*See better pics in post #7-10*

 

Hard to tell but it looks like your valve cover gasket is seeping a little. Do you live in Northern Climates? Is that road salt that found its way into your engine bay? A white residue can also be dried coolant.

 

It's definitely not coolant or road salt. It feels rough on the white area and it can't be removed. Could it be excessive heat in the region or heat from the turbo?

 

My aftermarket turbo is not shielded. During a track session, turbo heat melted the valve cover in that same area, but there was no white residue, just oil leakage from a warped valve cover.

You might try removing the "snap-on" harness cover from the valve cover to see if the white residue source is there. Hopefully not, but it's easy enough to do. Valve cover gasket definitely looks bad, causing the oil residue. Also pretty easy to change without special tools.

 

I got some experience in this manner. The gasket blew out or the downpipe came loose. Better get that fixed like right now. Do not run it without those heat shields. It'll melt the cover, wire harness cover and the harness itself. Been down that road.

 

That white stuff is the melted aluminum blowing onto the valve cover. Take a better photo for us.

 

Thanks for the responses.

The car is standard and has never been modded.
It has a misfire/detonating problem though, could it be related?

Here are better pics as requested

 

 

 

 

Why does the corner of the heat shield look mangled or melted ? Pull the top heat shield off. That car has an exhaust leak. It looks like it's been driven at highway speeds with an exhaust leak.
PM'd ya

 

Look on the underside of your hood. The heat shield is probably dropping onto it from above and rattling around there.

 

I dont know if its the heat going around the heat shield ( little add on part ) or the bottom one or the wires under the plastic are arcing or getting hot ( ignition ) . Clip out and pull up that black piece ( when the engine is cooler ). Goes all the way across and hold the ignition wire before the coils. See whats going on with the misfire.


https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ment-help.html

 

Wish I would have kept two of my old valve covers. My downpipe came loose and it blew hot exhaust straight across that corner of the valve cover. It also started to melt a hole in the heat shields. When I get up tomorrow I will post pictures. I still have the last valve cover and the heat shields. That hole is the only place for exhaust to escape when there's a leak.

 

Or that turbo is glowing red hot.