I just went for a drive and when I got home I smelled something burning.
When I popped the hood I noticed a small amount of smoke was coming from a spring that is bolted to the back of my header.
Is this something to worry about or just some melted plastic?

 

does anyone have any thoughts at all on this subject?

 

I can't think of anything plastic around the header, so it must have fallen or broken off from somewhere esle.

 

does anyone know what im talking about.
There is a bolt that goes into the header and there is a spring over the bolt.
Could it just be a rubber bushing or something getting heated up from the header?

 

i'd have to go look at mine (but it's dark and i'm buzzin'). the springs that hook up to the exhaust headers (on FWD cars) are there to keep the pipe conneted to the header as the eng moves from front to back when rev'd (vs side to side on RWD cars). the smoke you see is coming from you motor (this is norm, but you don't see it with a tight pipe). at the connection there is a crush gasket (like on spark plugs) that keep the seal good. 'cause of the back and forth movment of the motor the seal wears out, and needs to be changed. hope this helps, good luck.

 

thanks I thought it was something like that.
Thanks again

 

plan on buying new bolts if your gonna take em out. If the exhaust bolts dont snap, then the threads will be fubar anyways.

 

about 80% of the time if you spray the heck out of 'em with wd-40 or liquid wrench they come off without any problems (let 'em soak overnight). when you put it back on you will have to retorque the hardware for the first few heating cycles. if it don't stay tight replace the nuts. good luck.

 

WD-40 is a water displacement liquid, not a lubricator. I know it works sometimes, but liquid wrech or PB blaster works so much better.

 

Shot in the dark. The air box does sit above the manifold. Maybe the manifold heat sheild is gone, and excessive heat melted it maybe?