possible explaination of smoking under the hood
 

im not exactly sure but my guess is that my oil is somehow getting onto the lower parts of my car such as; cat converter, downpipe, exhaust manifold. and something is causing large amounts of smoke to come out of the hood, out the sides of my car, and osme is even coming inside! is it an oil leak or is something maybe getting to hot like the cats or what?

thanks ,

I'd say check for a coolant leak first.

Well, is your car losing oil or coolant? Check.

I'd guess coolant leak.

WEll a tell-tail sign is when you have a very dirty engine with lots of dirty oil on it. Wash thourghly under the hood and it will show you were the leak is if you can't localize it after you drive it some and you'll see more dirt and grime in a certain area after a bit.

fire.

Make sure your exhaust is tight. I had the same thing after messing around with my exhaust. I just hadn't gotten it tight again when I put it back together.

BrianHeston

If it's an automatic, check the vacuum modulator on the tranny. It pumps excess ATF into the engine for burn off.

Did you spill anything in your engine bay?

I recently installed a new intake - after I was done, it was smoking up a damn storm in my engine bay. I assumed I didn't seal the intake o-rings properly, so I pulled it all apart and did it again. BUT - turned out it was just wd-40, coolant and what not I had spilled doing the job (aftermarket carb install) that had ran onto and under the header. It burned off in 15 mins...

the lazy way:

blue smoke = oil

white, sweet smelling smoke = coolant

if its comin inside it may be the heater core. but i really doubt it if it noticeable form the hood. does it smoek alot more after you turn the car off?

Check the fittings on the oil injectors.
Mine were leaking and oil was getting onto the exhaust manifold and smoking like crazy and a few times it caught on fire. Kinda scary.
I replaced the iol lines and all is good.

You may also want to check the starter motor. Before, my starter motor started to warm up and I could smell smoke. Although it was not a lot, this may be where your problem is.