only been driving around the teener for the past 4 days, today while looking for parking at school...white smoke began to rise out of the engine bay...so i took it to the school auto shop, came back an hour later after class let out to check out what was the problem...they say it could be a burnt clutch. But i think it could just be excess oil dripping onto the heat exchangers and burning off. what does burnt oil smell like?

thanks in advance, d.Lo

get a spoon put a drop or two of oil in it and hold it over a lighter and smell. That the best i can do for you. burning oil has undescribable smell. Im sure you have smell it behine another car stuck in trafic. Oh you have a 914 someone behind you has smelled it just kidding

heat exchanger oil should not be white, and it should not be rising from the engine compartment, since it should be sealed from the bottom. i've smelled stressed clutches (they have an organic, phenolic smell, like burning brakes) but never seen clutch smoke (i have seen brake smoke and it wasn't white either...) and clutch smoke probably shouldn't be coming into the engine compartment either, even if that's what it is ...

you own a Toyota and don't know the smell of burning oil :-) ?

i'd think you could feel a highly overstressed clutch in the pedal - do you ride the clutch (or brake...) pedal ? do you believe you have an oil leak that would result in smoke & fumes from the HE's ?

insulation burning / melting off electrical wires can be white or light-colored...

check carefully - i'm gonna need more to go on tho ...

I had the same problem with mine after driving it for 30 minutes or so around town. Smoke would bellow out of the engine lid after I stopped at lights. It would continue for 4 or 5 minutes after I would park and shut it off. Never could figure out where it was coming from even after dye testing it. Finally ended up pulling the motor.

I do believe that you are correct D.Lo.

I have a 74 914 that has not been registered since 89.
When I first got it running, my dumbass left the valve cover off of one of them while I was letting idle, and it dumped alot of oil on my heat exhanger.
When the car is running now, it burnes white smoke which come out the back by the exhaust.

BUT, when the car is in motion, the smoke comes from the engine compartment because of the wind draft that sucks the air from underneath the car and moves it up throught the engine compartment so that it cools the engine.

Maybe I will take it to the D&G swap meet and we could have "oil-smoked polish dogs".

i'm usually in neutral and holding the brake at a stop...but yea this is my first standard tranny car...still in the learning process...

sounds DELICIOUS!!!

Oh, and by the way, if your clutch goes out, it would first make grinding noises when you would try to shift, and you would smell a "burning rubber" type of smell. But it doesnt smoke (from what I know of). Then you just wouldn't have a clutch at all!

Not that I haven't been there before or anything.

shifting into 1st and 2nd is a bit difficult, but im hoping it's just the shift linkage bushings that need to be replaced and not the synchro ring...

I just had this problem.. smokes was coming out of my engine compartment. Turns out the oil cooler had a major leak and was dripping on something hot (HE?) and causing smoke to emit from the engine compartment.

The leak is now fixed.. no more smoke. But I do still get a nasty oil burning smell in my cockpit. My mechanis says it is probably residue from the oil leak since the leak was so huge.

Anyway.. it is possible for an oil leak to cause smoke from the engine compartment..

David

thanks for the info...i'll have to take a look at it later in the week :::reveals hayne's manual::::

My best guess is oil on the HE. After a valve job I didnt get the cover on right and had drips of oil on the HE. I did have blueish/white smoke coming into the engine compartment but mostly in the area of the heater tubes that I had disconnected.