White smoke from underhood. Help!

**Isidro Luna** · 07-25-2012

i have a 2000 gt 3.8L not supercharged.
Wife gets home today and White smoke is coming from under the hood checked the inside car it not reading hot no lights are on. i thought maybe something on the hud might nto be working so i decided to try and add water to the coolant anyways. i opened up the coolant tank and could add maybe less than a half gallon didn't seem to be missing much. i know i do have a small leak on an elbow that was brought to my attention but it was nothing major at the time and i am tight on cash i decided to wait on it. could that leak be causing the white smoke now? also i had plugs and cables changed today not sure if that could possibly contribute to this.

one more thing i was told there is a recall on my car i'm not sure for what does anyone have any info on this?

**bmx6454** · 07-25-2012

the recall is for leaky front valve cover gaskets. under hard braking, they can spill out oil onto the exhaust manifold, and the oil will smoke and it smells pretty bad. did it smell like coolant?? or something much worse?? cause oil has a very distinct smell when it burns haha. and back too the point... have this issue addressed immediatly, because oil can ignite and cause a nasty engine fire.

**Isidro Luna** · 07-25-2012

well wife was driving it i turned it on now and nothing happened idk. she says shes not sure what coolant smells like but it didn't smell like oil and the smoke was white.

**BillBoost37** · 07-25-2012

Likely coolant from that elbow. Want to fix it for about an hours work and $4? We can tell you how.

**Isidro Luna** · 07-25-2012

yeah of course if its something i can get done at home easy im up for it reason i didn't do it before was because a franchise mechanic shop told me it would cast about 120$ to get it fixed.