On the driver side of the engine, while waiting to take the car into emissions and idling for about 8 minutes or so, my car started to smoke like there was a fire behind the engine. After getting kicked out of line to go fix it because it was a "fire hazard" I found that there was smoke from behind the valve cover on the driver side. Now I have 'er at home idling and she won't smoke!

It was generally odorless, definitely not oil, so I'd assume plastic or some sort of lubricant, and a white color, which actually seemed to be coming out from underneath the car as well. There are indeed a lot of new parts on the car, but wouldn't it smoke relatively quickly? I was sitting for 5+ minutes before it started smoking, what could this mean? The only really thing I could think of is muffler cement that I put on the exhaust system but the smoke wasn't coming off it.

Please, ANY suggestions? Anyone have an idea of what could be behind the motor that could cause smoke?

 

What's the engine setup? What year car, what parts are on it, etc etc?
How's the oil look?

I might guess water coming out at the back of the intake/head surface? Oil/gas/plastic would burn and give off a black type of smoke usually.
Tranny fluid, brake fluid, power steering fluid all don't fit the criteria. I think that's all the fluids...

 

Could oil be leaking from the valve covers? How tight do they need to be?

 

Yeah, I would be more suspicious of the valve covers than anything. The gasket always slips out behind the 7th and 8th cylinders first in my experience. The oil is dripping down onto your headers/manifolds and burning up, creating your smoke.

 

Yeah, any torque measurements? I read 89 inch pounds on another forum, but that seems to be WAY too tight, and will warp my covers, they're like-new M/T's. Any measurements?