Engine smell when flogging it

[powershift]

I smelt a little bit of the scent, but it was from a 0-90 MPH WOT run in sport mode. 68F ambient. I'm starting to think reproducing the strong smell is heat related, like when temps are over 100F or whatever the magic number threshold is.

 

[timc930]

100k miles and/or ten years.

I still flog/track my 37yr old 930 with 150k miles. Original internals never been apart. I’d say it’s elderly. I hammer it several times a week.

 

[ktm525]

I bet it doesn't have plastic crossovers lol.

 

[ftillier]

the beauty of air-cooled engines...

 

[timc930]

No water leaks!

 

[powershift]

For everyone that thought it was an oil leak, that is what the smell came from. I was flogging it again today on the freeway driving faster than ever while holding gear way high in the RPM range for several miles. There was a black lowered mustang that was checking out the LR4 in the fast lane. He slowed up and had glass packs for his exhaust mufflers. He dropped down a gear and took off. It sounded so good, it looked really good too.

When I got to the light at the end of the offramp, in traffic, I started to see smoke coming out the front drivers tire area. It was blue, seemed to get worse and I started to panic because the last time I had smoke in that area was in my '98 Dakota V8 5sp manual 4X4 and it was a fire lol. But the blue smoke cleared out. I wasn't smelling it though, probably because it was exiting to the left. The weather is tranquel, I'm thinking the leak is on the drivers side.

Another clue of an oil leak was that a couple months ago I flogged it hard and lost 1/2 quart of oil. I wouldn't have realized that had a mechanic skipped checking it. It hasn't dropped since I last added it but tomorrow I'm going to check it and see if its down. I didn't suspect a leak at that time because engines can use a lot of oil and still be fine. My Corvettes would lose a quart in one track day and get about 3 MPG.

 

[ktm525]

Still flogging eh?

 

[powershift]

I can quit at any time, ha-ha.

 

[LR4Slavo]

I live in Denver, flogging it is sometimes not a choice when driving up a steep mountain pass but I haven't smelled anything weird when doing so. Might be a manifold leak as someone else has pointed out. Do you know if the manifold gaskets were replaced when the timing chains were done? Another possibility would be the valve cover gaskets, old valve cover gaskets being dry and brittle being more prone to allowing oil to seep through, probably even more so under higher RPM, dripping directly on the exhaust causing the visible smoke.

 

[powershift]

I have an appointment on the 27th to do the chains since its overdue and making noise. I did the intake manifold gaskets while doing the rear cross-over pipe, those are about 2 months old. I think you are right about the valve cover gaskets. The oil is probably leaking out from the valve covers and onto the exhaust manifold on the drivers side. Those are probably factory gaskets and the smoke is worse when in the upper RPM range.