2006 M45 Sport - burnt oil smell

[DH3]

Folks,

I just came back from a 15 min drift drive in the fresh snow here in Chicago.

I have 18" Michelin Alpin snow tires.

I drove the card hard in high rpms in manumatic 2nd and 3rd gears.

When I got back to my garage there was a strong smell of burn oil and light smoke coming out of the engine bay. By the time I got the plastic engine cover off the smoke was gone. The smoke was definitely not coming from the tires.

I fully inspected the engine from the too and there isn't a single liquid of any kind including oil showing.

This smell has faintly appeared over the past month but never with smoke.

There are no drips of any kind on the garage floor. I just checked the oil which is maybe 2500k miles old but it was definitely darker than usual. Going to to get oil changed ASAP.

It's not my every day driver but I do drive it hard when I drive it.

Anybody else experienced this or have a hypothesis as to what might be causing it? Car has 119,000 miles.

Thanks!

Deric

[EdBwoy]

It might be your valve cover gasket(s). If they seep through, nothing liquid would make it to the floor. The oil most times runs down the side of the cylinder head and burns off at the exhaust manifold.

Get a paper towel and run it along the sides of the engines engine where the black plastic valve covers meet the metal and you should be able to tell if those edges are dry like its supposed to be.

[cfrankling]

I have the same problem and the technician at my local dealership says I have to replace the cover and gasket, the valve cover itself its around $250+labor, I asked why he is suggesting replacement and he said that with time and heat it becomes brittle; so I was wondering if this is really true?

Is is really necessary to replace the cover or just the gasket, any suggestions?

2006 M35, 155k

[EdBwoy]

Typically, the common reason to replace the entire valve cover is when the spark plug tube seals leak. I know that was common in the early VQ35 engines, at least in the 5.5 gen maximas.
In the olden days of metal valve covers all you had to do was pop off the seals and replace each one. However, the "plastic" ones like we all have don't have replaceable spark plug tube seals, only the larger perimeter gasket.

Brittle? I haven't seen it, but someone in the FX forum said the mechanic recommended replacing the valve covers due to them warping.
Depends on what you can see, but I've seen some old (high mileage) valve covers still in good shape.

[Sstupid]

I agree that the OP's issue is valve cover gaskets.

Frankling, they are trying to rip you off. You don't need a new valve cover, you just need a new gasket. What an ***hole, trying to gouge you like that. Go somewhere else if you don't do it yourself. There is a write-up on here on how to do it yourself.

[cfrankling]

Thanks Ss, yes agreed what an ***hole, will look into the write-up to see If I can do it myself.