Mannimarco

The car has been sitting for about 2 months. It previously had to have the head gasket replaced TWICE and I still see bubbles coming out of the radiator but it doesn't overheat. Drove it for the first time in 2 months today and after about 10 minutes, it started running rough, especially when first accelerating from a stop. While sitting at a light, it seemed like it was rumbling/shaking around as well. When I got to the house I popped the hood and smoke was coming up from where the manifold meets the engine right at the front bottom of the engine. It wasn't a lot of smoke but it smelled awful and it wasn't a sweet odor like coolant from what I recall from the head gasket ordeal. And the CEL is flashing, which I think means a misfire. Anybody had this happen and know what it is?

Whatever is going on in this video, it looks EXACTLY like this on my car as well:

ezone

3rd time's a charm?

Poor workmanship on the head gasket work-- the head may really be warped and/or the root cause was not found and repaired?


Now you have misfires, maybe a glowing catalytic converter that stinks, maybe burning off oil residue from the previous work?


read code, figure out which cylinder has the misfire?
See if the spark plug is wet with antifreeze?

Mannimarco

Thanks for replying. The thing is, it ran fine after the 2nd head gasket repair (the head was machined the second time as well, in case it was warped) and up until I let it sit, and now it suddenly has this problem. It also never had horrible acrid smoke coming out of the front of the engine either. It's not like a burning oil smell. I've smelled that a lot on other cars. All at once, it started running like crap, the CEL started flashing, and smoke began to come out of the bottom front of the engine right where the manifold meets it. Not gradually, it was all of a sudden out of nowhere. I know head gasket failure isn't always the same but I've had it happen in a really uncanny number of cars and usually it either overheats, and then I find out that it's losing coolant, or it starts billowing white smoke, or it stalls out and then one of the first two happens. The mechanic who did this head gasket did my other ones and they were fine. It could be the head gasket of course, but it's not acting like it is.

ezone

I see you added a video of (what looks like) a 2.7 V6 Accord engine, that was well known for pouring oil out of those rectangular plates below the spark plug tubes due to hardened rubber gaskets....pours directly onto the exhaust manifolds.
Those engines were horrible about leaking oil as they aged.

How long had it been driven--from the time the head gasket job was finished, until it sat for months?

What have you done so far, to figure out the causes?
What's causing it to miss?
What's causing it to smoke?