Drove to work yesterday and smoke was coming from under the hood after I stopped and turned the engine off!
Opened the hood and it'* coming from the drivers side a little forward of the firewall. I can't see anything leaking on a hot manifold but it smells like something is leaking. Any suggestions on what to check? Today I noticed the smell while driving to work, after about a half mile, it'* only about a mile and a half to work.

have to clean up any grime build up and then look for drips

I will be getting my brake clean out tonight and clean everything off. Thanks for the suggestion.
Jim

sometimes on the back side of the engine the only way you can see is jack up the car

It seems to be more on the upper corner of the engine where a shielded pipe is.

if you are talking more toward the middle driver side where that pipe goes into the lower intake manifold, its probably from upper intake or lower intake manifold gaskets. which both have to be done on almost every 3800 i have ever had or heard of.

i always recommend you do the upper/lower/and elbows, all at the same time. and the kit comes the egr fix. so you take care of all the common 3800 issues at once for maybe $120-130

https://www.gmforum.com/mechanical-1...2005-a-304071/

I have already done the elbows, I don't understand the reason for the two plugs and what is this kit you mentioned and the egr fix?

How'* your coolant level? Both in the tank and the radiator?

make sure its coming from there before you get too excited.

Dorman pn 615-180is the upper intake manifold. come with the redesigned egr(some say the original melts the upper intake). the plugs are optional, i think the coolant being in the plastic is bad idea in the first place, all it does is warm the TB. i live in western new york and have not noticed any difference. the new manifold comes with all the gaskets, and is thicker in the problem areas. the lower intake manifold gaskets are plastic too and they will be a problem at some point, and when then leak they let coolant in the cylinder sometimes hydro-locking the engine. and in some cases the engine is done. if you disturb the elbows and you put new plastic ones on it, might be trouble trying to reseal it. the plastic breaks down after a while.

Uses some coolant, but I have to replace the heater core which when used last winter caused a film on the windshield.