Burning oil smell?

[Ponchonutty]

Not sure if I have a serious issue at bay or not. Every once in a while when driving I get a whiff of burning oil. Doesn’t happen all the time. Crawled around and can’t figure out where it’s coming from. Can’t smell anything from exhaust. Looks like one of the valve covers could be seeping a bit so not sure if that’s the source or not.

Another oddity is it started surging while driving and when shifting into overdrive it stutters sometimes. I swapped the BBK 95mm throttle body with my Denali’s stock ported one and the surging and shifting issue seems to have stopped. Thinking I may just be paranoid and I have a bad BBK unit/or needs a better tune and I just need to replace valve cover seals. What do you all think?

[Olddudesrule]

If you have oil seeping from a valve cover gasket, then obviously could be oil burning on your headers. As far as the surging goes, could be any of several issues. I personally don't care too much for BBK products, and have read quite a bit of negative press on their TB's. Not sure how long you had yours, but if it worked well for a while, try cleaning the intake and MAF sensor. Swapping the intake from your Denali sounds troublesome. What size is the TB off one, and what size was the motor? Your sig shows you're tuned for the mods you have, so adding and subtracting stuff could get problematic..... Start with the easiest solutions first before you start throwing $$$ at it.

[InFiD3ViL]

There is a very well known issue with oil smell on these cars. Search it on Google, you will see tons of threads.

But, its not a burning oil smell, it is a hot oil smell. I get it sometimes too and am 99% certain I am slinging tons of oil into my intake manifold. I have no catch can.

Are you sure its a burning smell like oil on headers type of smell? Or is it more like hot motor oil like when you smell your dipstick (we all do, right?).

[Ponchonutty]

Old dude, my Denali has the 6.2 LS motor too. I already swapped them and surging went away.

InFi, yeah I guess more of a hot oil smell but don’t smell it all the time. The thing is that I never noticed it until this year. I too do not have a catch can either.

[J Rod]

That would be all the convincing I'd need to go ahead with a cam swap. You know... just to make sure everything is buttoned up tight and not leaking.

[Ponchonutty]

J Rod ohh how I’d love to do it but with 2 kids in college, $3500 isn’t all that easy to come by. Hell, I’m lucky to still even own this thing and my wife is over due for a new rode as well!!!!

[dookie454]

regarding the hot oil/burning oil, I was one that only smelled it after an oil change for the first 100-200 miles then it was gone. I did add a catch can, still was there. Added a Whipple, still there.

Then I removed the stock manifolds and cats, installed long tubes and straight pipes. NO oil smell ever! My theory was always that somehow oil is getting dripped and collecting somwhere, like the little cross tube or something under the engine.. and the hot exhaust is burning it off. The cats on these cars are up high and tight and we all know they get real hot. I think that is the source.. hot cats, oild trapped somewhere from oil change. Sitting in idle traffic is when I would smell it.. little air flow, any oil trapped is getting hot finally.. delete the cats and now no excess heat, no oil smell.

The other source or oil could be when filling.. if some gets dripped or like you said, you valve cover is leaking.. those hot cats, the hot air goes straight up.. could be burning it off.

[Ponchonutty]

Well I had factory manifolds last year and didn’t notice anything. This year I have stainless shorties and solo cats and smell it after laying on the pedal a bit

[shibbs]

I smell it on mine, too. LT Headers, catch can, whatever else. Still smell it. Always have. I just blame it on the car being a muscle car.

[xc_SS/RS]

i smell it occasionally myself but last night i discovered a very tiny leak coming from my oil cooler which i think is the culprit. i'm hoping this is where my oil loss is coming from (.5 qrts over 4k miles)

[P1100]

I have a slight smell while idling at a stop light, only happens for about 500 miles after an oil change. I use Mobile 1.

My 2010 Corvette did the same thing, also running Mobile 1. dealer said it’s normal. Lots of threads on that issue.

I didn’t notice it when running dealer semi-synthetic. Would rather put up with the smell then run semi-synthetic.

[JerTM]

As said before I would checkout the oil cooler, and the oil pan gasket for leaks. Both of which are fairly common and can drip just enough not to hit the ground as your driving and get the cats.