My wife's 07 Odyssey (175k miles) smells "hot" (burning oil, maybe?) after being run for only a few minutes, and there are small amounts of smoke coming from the exhaust manifold on the front of the engine. The area looks wet, and her engine is about half a quart low on oil. It's our go-to family car, so being out of commission is not a feasible option for us.

I was going to put some engine cleaner on the area and see if anything fresh popped up in a day or so.

Any advice?

 

Probably a valve cover gasket leaking. Cleaning will only be a short time fix.

 

Found out that the place that did the last oil change used the wrong oil! They put 0W20 into the engine, instead of the correct 5W20. One of the car guys I work with tips me to put some Lucas Oil stabilizer into it until I can get it to either the dealer or my preferred garage to get it flushed and looked at.

 

0w-20 has been approved for many vehicles that were originally spec'd for 5w-20. That in itself would surprise me if that was the problem.

 

I just had the same exact issue on my 2007 Honda Odyssey and it was the valve cover gasket. I replaced them both and no more burning smell or smoke. There is a video on Utube on how to change them. Front is easy, back is a bitch. because of the electrical harness sitting on top.