I have a 97 base prelude, after hitting vtec (shifting at 7k) i started to smell a funny burning smell, almost like oil and antifreeze together. i checked under the hood and there was smoke all in the engine bay, not a lot like in the first fast and furious, but a decent amount. I'm not sure what the problem is.

 

Well - maybe you ran the car too hard and the antifreeze squirted out onto the head....and since the head is hot, it burned the antifreeze to make smoke? Maybe you have a faulty reserve tank for the antifreeze - i did this once driving my fourth gen - but i was running it REALLY hard - but if there was oil or antifreeze on the valve cover, it might not be much to worry about.

 

when the car is cool, pull off the radiator cap (while the car is off)

Start the car with the cap off and check to see if your coolant is black or if there are metal flakes or anything of that sort on the cap. If there is these are signs of a blown head gasket. Also check your oil. If it has a white/milky appearance the head gasket is toast.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 98TypeSH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">when the car is cool, pull off the radiator cap (while the car is off)

Start the car with the cap off and check to see if your coolant is black or if there are metal flakes or anything of that sort on the cap. If there is these are signs of a blown head gasket. Also check your oil. If it has a white/milky appearance the head gasket is toast.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Great way to put it...."TOAST"