I have an 88 trans am 305 TPI that has just started smoking out of both valve covers but mostly the passenger side. I can see oil coating the entire underbody of the car including all over the catylactic converter. I don't know where the leak is coming from and ive noticed the hose keeps popping out of the passenger valve cover. Any help would really be appreciated.

 

Seems like you have a ton of blow-by. Bad rings?

 

sounds like u have a ton of blow by. for now get some 50 weight oil to slow the leak down

 

what is blow by? Is it a serious problem or an easy fix?

 

blowby is when the oil from your pan "blows by" your rings into the combustion chamber and then gets burned with the fuel.

It's pretty serious and at the LEAST requires re-ringing the pistons, and more often a full rebuild including re-boring the cylinders and getting larger pistons to fit.

 

How long could I get away with driving it the way it is? Or would I be causing more damage?

 

My bad I was backwards, blowby is when combustion gasses get into your oil pan, not the other way around, and it causes alot of pressure in your valve covers pushing oil out from the seals.

No clue how much potential damage it could cause.

 

is it possible that this is just a simple oil leak? it seems to be running from the engine down over the under floor,exhaust, and converter. The smoke coming from the hose on top of the valve covers has me wondering though.

 

The fact that you are blowing the hose out the PS valvecover points to excessive pressure in that area.

 

An engine rebuild is the only solution?

 

yeah pretty much but like i said a temporary solution would be to put 50 weight oil in.

 

buy a good used motor and put it in

 

^^yeah thats your best option its not worth the time/$$$ to rebuilt a 305 tpi, you could pick up a cheap carb'd 350 and drop that in and be haulin ***. check craigslist.