Hey all. Engine is a d16y7. I recently did an engine flush with liqui molly and had the valve cover off. Scrubbed it and got it clean and it was carbon coated and nasty. Upon reinstalling and NOT over torquing any valve cover bolts I'm smelling some burning oil at stop lights. Nothing dripping from oil pan although it is slightly seeping and has been since iv owned the car. I'll get to that eventually. Anyways it's not dripping oil I'm smelling but it's coming in the vents and when I look there is slight amount of oil in top of valve cover. Seema to be coming from around bolts. Do these leak? Would this be enough to cause the smell? Mechanic seems to think it would be something much worse leaking elsewhere to smell it but I honestly can't see anything besides what I mentioned. I recently did my pcv. Just finished a clutch swap myself as well. Thanks in advance. I hate these headaches just want this thing to be fixed.

 

You can use new bolts/Gromit seals and properly torque them to spec although hand tight is usually good enough.

They may be loose..

 

Did you use new valve cover grommets and a new valve cover gasket? The original ones are probably baked and no longer pliable. I recommend sticking with OEM for these grommets and gasket, as the cheaper aftermarket ones tend to leak, especially the valve cover gaskets, as my experience is that they swell when oil saturated, meaning it's very tough to get them to stay put. If you're leaking oil out of the valve cover gasket, it all slopes down perfectly to drip the oil onto the hot exhaust manifold, hence the smoke.