I’m sure this is a newby question but it’s been almost twenty years since I did any real work on cars. I just bought a 2000 Neon ES on ebay. I drove it 150 miles home and it seems to run OK for a car with 125000 miles. But when I got it home I noticed it was a quart low on oil. I’ll admit I didn’t check the oil level before I left the lot. The car doesn’t emit any exhaust smoke at all. When I looked it appears to be leaking from somewhere in the rear of the engine onto the exhaust header, causing a puff of smoke. It must be a drip because it will puff smoke then stop then puff again and when I put more oil in the car I found a fair sized puddle on the driveway. It appears to be leaking from the top of the engine down under the metal shield or it seems to my eyes that way. I can't see any oil leaking when I looked but I want to avoid crawling under the car to check. I don’t mind changing the valve cover gasket because it needs new spark plug tube seals anyway but what I don’t want to do is spend the money for the gasket set only to find something else leaking so I have to pull it apart again.
Anybody know if it could be anything else besides the valve cover that I could check before I do this?

 

Well. if you have an oil leak somewhere in the back of the engine near the exhaust manifold then it could be your valvecover gasket. I would almost bet on it. if it's not then you might have something alittle more serious on your hands. you might even have 2 leaks. check your plug and oil filter (You WILL have to get under the car for this) but I would check the VC gasket fore and foremost.

EDIT on a site note. it could also be a leak in your oilpan gasket

 

Sounds like the VC gasket to me, just pull the valve cover and check for starters...should take a whole five minutes.

 

well if you are planning on doing your tube seals then you have to do you VC gasket at the same time. so thats that issue.

 

yeah. the only place it can really be leaking from to hit your exhaust manifold is your valve cover gasket. unless you have a leak somewhere and it sprays because of the pressure. but then you would probably be losing way more oil than you are now. also you can check the tube exiting the valve cover in the rear. if that little rubber elbow is split you could lose some (oil vapor) that way too.