Ok, so today I drove an 85 vette with a 383 stroker, big solid roller cam, fast burn heads ported to the max, mini ram intake, and everything else upgraded along with it. As soon as I saw the car, I noticed a problem however. There is a small amount of white smoke coming from the engine, looks to be around the valve cover. I had my dad follow to make sure it wasnt coming from the exhaust and it wasnt. Car ran strong, and I mean holy F*****g ..... well like this: . So could this be simply a valve cover gasket issue? Any help appreciated.

 

Could just be something burning off the engine like spilled coolant.
What's it smell like?
Many many possibilities. You have to figure out where it's coming from.

 

It smelled like oil to me. There wasn't a whole lot of smoke, but it was pretty constant. I'm thinking its just a leaky valve cover, but I would hate to spend the money needed to buy this car, then have about a $8000 engine go bad. I guess i'll just buy it and troubleshoot it from there.

 

Get it checked out first. Leaking oil doesn't make white smoke. Leaking coolant does (steam). It could be a bad head gasket or even a cracked head or block. Make sure you're not buying someone else's headache.

 

well, what made me think it wasnt coolant was the engine coolant and engine oil temps never made it over 189 and I drove the car for 25 miles and it just didnt feel like it had any mechanical problems. Of course with that high of power, I guess a problem could easily be covered up. I will check the block for cracks though, that would be a deal breaker, but I'm thinking I'll buy it and take it to be checked out immediatly, because in the end, you couldn't build the engine again for less than I can get the car for, and the engine has only 5000 miles on it in a year and a half.