What is this and why is there white smoke

[Boomsday]

What is this part circled in red there is white smoke coming from it. It only starts to smoke after about 10min of the vehicle running. Also once i turn it off a big puff of smoke comes up. The guy at autozone said he thinks its an oil leak? Any input?

 

[wbrudi28]

thats the exhaust manifold.theres a little soft metal "donut" (think wax donut used between floor and a toilet) that gets squished between that and your downpipe/flexpipe. the donut could be shot from vibrations or cracked, or one of the bolts rusted out or cracked causing an exhaust leak.

as for the white smoke, it could be an oil leak, burning the oil in the engine causing smoke but thats usually a little more blue. white smoke usually means a coolant leak.

look in the radiator and overflow tank to see the condition of your coolant and if theres any oil floating at the top. this could confirm the coolant leak.

 

[BKennedy]

Your valve cover is obviously leaking oil in the picture. It probably is leaking onto the exhaust manifold at the joint and the smoke is the oil burning off after the manifold heats up.

 

[ramo135]

Your valve cover is obviously leaking oil in the picture. It probably is leaking onto the exhaust manifold at the joint and the smoke is the oil burning off after the manifold heats up.

Is this a bad thing? My vehicle is currently smoking after start up and I think it's a slight oil leak onto this hot part of the engine