Warm Smell at Stoplights

[bjared_454]

Hi, folks!

To preface this, I have only owned my Camaro SS for a few months and previously to installing the new Flowmaster exhaust, I almost never drove it (or any previous cars) with the windows down.

I have been noticing that when it's warm outside and I've been driving the car for a while, a reasonably noticeable warm smell wafts into the cabin through the open windows while at stops. There is no smell at all with the windows up. It is reminiscent of oil burning but not nearly so strong, and definitely isn't coolant burning. It is far fainter than the smell from my old Subaru that had a leaky valve cover and would spray oil onto the block and cook it off at lights. I also tried popping the hood right after completing a drive, but the smell doesn't appear to be emanating from any particular place under the hood.

There is no visible sign of oil leaking from the valve covers (nor is there a noticeable amount of oil loss according to frequent dipstick checks - I replaced the oil 1000 miles ago and I haven't lost any oil that I can see). There is some oil on the outside surface of the oil pan, but it's hard for me to tell how long that has been there.

Once again, I've never owned a higher-performance car so it's possible that I'm overthinking this - it seems like LS engines have their weird sounds and quirks, so perhaps this is such an instance.

Any feedback is appreciated, many thanks in advance!

[0stones0]

If you can, give a good wipe to the oil pan, just to see if has a continuous leak or just something leftover from an oil change.

[1JEWLDSSRS]

If you said you recently installed a new Flownaster system on it, and you haven't driven it much, you may be smelling the paint ans the light oil film they put on the piping burning off. Anytime I have swapped mine out with a new system, I do smell that until it all burns off and the "new" paint on the mufflers cures from several heat cycles.