My 94 Bonneville has a noticeable burning smell, and with the hood up, you'll see an occasional white puff of smoke come from out from between the radiator and the engine. I'm not sure if this is a leak or the engine actually burning the oil, my guess would be a leak since it is occasional puffs. Any ideas what this could be or suggestions to get a better idea?

Valve cover gasket is very prone to leak on the 3800..do you see oil on the head/block under the valve cover.If its leaking it would hit the exhaust manifold once in a while and burn off..creating the white puff of smoke and smell

Indeed, I did notice a buildup of oil around the valve cover when I quickly inspected it. What is involved in getting the valve cover off to replace?

Just pull the bolts out of the valve cover lift it off and replace the gasket

You can see the bolts along the top..there is one in each corner also as well as under the spark plug wire loom..to remove the wire loom just pull up on it

Seems simple enough.

Does oil need to be drained in advanced and/or changed afterwards?

Oil does not need to be drained..So long as the car has not been running for a while there will be almost no oil under the cover..only need to change it if you drop a bunch of crap down iin and cant get it out.

Great, I'll give it a try this weekend. Thanks for the help.

Your Welcome.Let us know how it goes.

Easy repair. The front of the block and starter and everything else in the area is coated in oil. Could this all be from the valve cover leak or is there another spot it could be leaking from? They sold me two gaskets in the pack. I'm assuming there was no real real reason to that.

The car is currently inoperable .. but once I get her running again we'll have to see how that repair holds up.

Yup, that would do it. My valve cover gaskets used to do the same thing. Some careful time spent with a hose and some degreaser will clean off a good portion of it.

Valve cover gaskets are always sold in pairs, because you have one in the back of the engine, too. That one is much more of a challenge, because you've got some brackets and perhaps an alternator to remove; arguably, it'* more important, since oil can leak from there, land on the hot exhaust manifolds, and start an engine fire. (There was a GM TSB about this happening during hard braking, can't remember which years.)