it almost smells like it's leaking fuel but the only leak I have is some black watery residue that's dripping from my exhaust and unless it's been running for awhile it's kinda pumping out grey smoke, not a lot but enough to notice, and my driveway has stains from the exhaust leaking. I'm a first time owner and learning this as I go anyone know what this is?

 

Hmm sound like to me the seals in your heads need rebuilt or you need new heads? imo but i could be wrong.

 

thanks maybe new heads but id hope for just the seals would carb/injector cleaner help?

 

If your smoking its seals, a cleaner additive WILL NOT fix a seal leak. New heads or new seals. It happens, my brother spent 5 years building his camaro only to find out the seals in the motor that was rebuilt the year he started building it up were bad in the end. So after 5 years he could have bought new heads or at least seals, but couldnt run the motor yet to find out how the rebuild was...guess it sucked. That or time took over and tweeked the seals, who knows.

 

right i know i was thinking of answering another question when i typed that lol but thanks it is an old all original car that was taken care of but a lot of the weather striiping and tires are dry rotted since heat and uv kills everything down here in vegas. so it probably is the seals. i know it will be expensive and i want to do it myself but im a little afraid i wont put everything back together correctly and i want to take it a step at a time...seals are high maintenance arent they

 

Blue smoke indicates oil burning, which can be due to bad valve guide seals or worn piston rings. Does your car smoke when you first start the engine? Does it consume oil? Pull a spark plug off and see if it is coated with oil. You can also do a compression check to determine if it is valve guide seals or piston rings. You should see an increase in compression pressure after adding a few drops of oil to that cylinder if you have worn piston rings. If you don't, it is coming from your valves.
You can perform a leak down test to see if you have bad valve guides and the valves are not sealing properly.
If valve guide seals is the only problem, (i.e. you are seeing oil consumption on start up but have good compression), you don't need to replace the heads, or even remove them to repair the problem. You can use compressed air to hold the valve closed while removing the old seals and installing the new seals.
Heat and age are the number one killers of valve guide seals, but it is not too big of a deal to replace them.

 

thanks for the info, im gonna try those and see what happens. I do not get blue smoke thank god I know that issue, and it does only do this for a little while until my engine temp is up to about 200 but my oil pressure gauge is registering kinda low but it has mainly been driven around my neighborhood and sitting in idle since i need new tires BADLY and im still researching into tire deals around here in vegas

 

yea right valve guide seals are a pain in the dik to change i just stated mine and the crappy tool broke on the second spring. bro if you do it get the spring compessor that hooks to the bottom of the spring and sits on top and you screw it together some thing like this model number is KD 2078 and the website is http://www.mytoolstore.com/kd/kdengi13.html do not get the leverage one that bolts to the rocker arm it is easy to take it apart with that but when u put the keepers back in since the spring is not straight its not too fun

 

If it smells like fuel - it probably is - unburnt fuel that is, sounds like your car is running rich. Running rich isn't necessary a bad thing - it's better than lean. Rich just fouls plugs, and gives the odor in the exhaust.

The 'water' is just that - water. It's condensation that accumulates within the exhaust system - happens to every car on different days.

The unburnt fuel, with the condesation, will blow a black watery substance from the pipes that will drip and stain the driveway.

You might check plugs - they'll tell you alot about rich vs. lean.

And I'm not implying that you don't need valve seals - if they've never been done I'm sure they're gone. You generally get a blue smoke when you first start the car, and when you take off from a long red light. Again, it's not pretty, but it's not life-threatening to your engine. It just means that oil is leaking past the valve seals and into the combustion chamber where it's getting burned. Think of it as a touch of extra oil (ie lubrication) in your cylinders, and don't panic - get it fixed when you have the time/money to get it done right.