I have a 97 v6 Accord and when I get home from work today I shut it off, and hear kind of a crackling/popping noise and smell a little something. So I pop the hood and see a little bit of smoke but nothing else, until I see the reflection of a small flame on the passenger side of the firewall. Back on the rear bottom part of the engine, something's dripping on what I assume to be the hot exhaust pipe and causing a small flame. W/o being able to jack the car up yet to see what it is, I assume it's an oil leak, because I would think a fuel leak would have caused a lot bigger flame. Are there any common gasket fail points back in that area that'll give me something to look for before I get the front end up on jack stands? With my limited experience on tranverse mounted v6 Hondas, I would think probably an oil pan leak?

 

I got it up and checked it out. It's not the oil pan, because that sits below the exhaust pipe. Another thing leading me to believe oil, is it was a crackling noise that happened every second and a half or so, meaning a slow drip of oil, and not a constant supply of fluid like much less viscous fuel would cause.