I went to crank my car up and it made a little whining sound but cranked fine. about a few seconds later I smell a burning plastic smell from under the hood. I smelled everywhere but it seemed to be coming from around the intake manifold the strongest. Its not coming from the side where the throttle body is but the side that has the alternator. Do you think my wire that goes on the alternator is correctly on all the way?? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

you might be smelling the belt burning...did you change the alternator recently or loosened the belt for some reason?

 

I changed my valve cover gasket today. I started it without tightening it all the way. Oil was leaking from the front and smoking on the headers.
It smelled like burning plastic too, I tightened it and it's gone. maybe check that

GL

 

i had the exact same problem and then a day later my car started to lose power. that burning plastic scent is the alternator brushes going bad.

 

Is there any way to stop that from happening or just replace the alternator?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bonestock98GS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Is there any way to stop that from happening or just replace the alternator?</TD></TR></TABLE>
maybe your timing belt is too tight. Do you have a manual, it says in their how much deflection it's suppose to have. I think the FAQ has an on-line version.
If not, then I would replace it, only because I don't trust myself to rebuilding one. I'm not sure if rebuilding is much cheaper than a new one either. GL

 

Thanks for all the replies guys I found out the problem today. The Alternator was smoking real bad so thats gotta be replaced also fixed: vacuum leak,coolant leak, and I still gotta get a slim fan lol