cooling fluid was almost non existant, oil level seems fine, possibly some leakage underneath the car. please help. any ideas?

95 subaru impreza, sorry.

Torn cv boot, grease splattering on hot exhaust??

Leaking oil on exhaust??

etc etc

give us a hint... was there overheating related to low coolant or just incidental finding when you saw smoke??

Torn cv boot, grease splattering on hot exhaust??

Leaking oil on exhaust??

etc etc

give us a hint... was there overheating related to low coolant or just incidental finding when you saw smoke??

 

no overheating, there's spotting of oil under the car, it's not the antifreeze. oil change maybe 2-3 months ago...

 

we're thinking it's not the head gasket?? i don't know. any ideas would be great.

after running a makeshift test, the oil that was leaking seemed more brownish and maybe a little watered down... if that helps

Is the car misbehaving other than smoking? What does the smoke smell like? Different auto fluids have particular smells.

As I said before, splattering grease from torn cv joint or oil dripping from valve cover, oil dipstick gasket, leaking oil pump seeping oil from timing belt cover area will blow back onto exhaust and smoke like a James Bond stunt car.

You need to keep looking for the source of the "brown" fluid you saw on the ground instead of worrying about all the possible "what ifs". On this site, it seems anytime the gas gauge approaches E or the radio has more static, there is a knee jerk reaction to assume that the HGs are failing.

Start at the top and front of the engine and work back and down. If it is a substantial leak, you should find it pretty quickly. If it is still elusive and your engine is all grimy anyway, clean your engine and get a fresh look at what's going on.

Looks like this underneath?

 

Looks like this towards the front of the engine?

 

Then you might need a new front oil seal.....either Crankshaft or one of the camshaft seals.

Nice one JPX, picture is worth a thousand words