hey guys i'm having a little trouble with my wrx. i'm thinking its the oil return line. started smelling burning from under the hood. so got home checked it out and it seemed to run fine but when i get on boost the smoke started coming out. asked some car shops and they asked questions like was there smoke coming out the exhaust and i told them no cause i couldn't see any in my mirror. also they told me to check the intercooler and i just checked it out and had no oil by it. but as i looked down i could see oil spots. but still not sure about it. kinda scared to turn on the car. any suggestions? thanks guys.

 

Oil return line and/or passenger side valve cover gasket can drip oil onto up-pipe if they are leaking. Crank case pressure isn't ventilated to the intake under boost so it may case the leak to become more prevalent.

A leaking valve cover is more common.

The hoses to your PVC system can become brittle and develop a leak that will drip down to your up-pipe, but boost shouldn't necessarily create an increase in the amount of smoke/oil ripping.

Also, oil can build up heavily in your intercooler if you have a front mount; Specifically if you have a bad PCV valve.

An after market non recirculating BOV can blow out oil vapor.

 

How much would all this cost? I've never done this before so just wondering about it. I thought it was one of those hard to tell wheb the cars not on