1997 bentley turbo r engine bay smell

[redpepsi31]

hi ,
i have a 97 bentley turbo r which has a small mineral oil leak from (i believe)one of the high pressure accumulator pipes at the rear of the engine .
i mention the above before i get to the issue which is really puzzling me ...
when i have been running the engine for a few minutes i get steam/burning oil smell and associated smoke in the engine bay .
i'm assuming that its mineral oil dropping onto the exhaust manifold but the smell /smoke etc does seem excessive .
i thought perhaps it might be a leaking head gasket ? does that seem possible or likely ?
there is only what i'd consider the normal amount of smoke from the tail pipes and i am using no oil or water and there is no oil in the water and vice versa .
the temp gauge is normal (about one third up the gauge)
your thoughts and ideas would be much appreciated .

[KMF]

When i had my Turbo R, it had a leak from the top of the engine on some kind of small piston type pumps. Only small items and cant remember exactly what they did but it did cause an oil leek down the engine

[bergxu]

Absolutely make sure that the power steering reservoir isn't leaking. If it still has the black plastic type on it, you would be well-advised to upgrade it to the newer, aluminum reservoir. The original ones are known for leaking around the fittings at the bottom and dropping ATF onto the hot exhaust manifold resulting in a fire. Also, NEVER EVER overfill the power steering reservoir--if you look closely at the cap, there is a small pinhole in it which acts as a vent. If the reservoir is overfilled, ATF will mist out of the vent and land on the exhaust, with the same results as the leaking tank.

Cheers,
Aaron

[2woody]

I'd certainly say that it isn't the head gasket. If that was leaking enough to cause a smoke-burning-off issue, then it certainly wouldn't run properly.

The ATF reservoir issue is a real one and normallt caused by the rubber reservoir-to-pump pipe going hard due to its proximity to the exhaust manifold. A new, grippy pipe should stop the leaking and you could choose to cover the pipe in some lagging - I use a hydraulic pipe sleeve bought from Hyrdaquip for 50p.

a GMF leak is also a strong possibility - changing the flexy pipes from chassis to engine should cure this - and its easy to do, too.