Oil Burning?

[Davidov Speed WRC]

Hi, I'm new to this board so I thought I would ask a question about my 86 Civic Sedan.

Lately my Civic will have this white smoke(smells quite like oil), flume up from around the area of the exhaust manifold.
I wont even have to run my car hard to make this smoke start arising.
One thing I found odd, was that when I checked my oil level(dipstick) it was almost perfectly full. So it must not be burning oil quarts at a time.
My first notion was the head gasket was deteriorating, so I must replace it. I will get to replacing the head gasket within the week.
But before I rip apart the valve cover, any suggestion??

[fritz_269]

That would be my first guess too. It doesn't take a very big leak to make a surpising amount of smoke. You might want to steam clean the front of the engine and see if you can visually locate the leak before you bust open the valve cover.

You should also post this question in the Civic fourm as well, just in case it's a well-known specific problem.

Good luck.