Strange leak, with smoke...

[Kris Hansen]

Audi fans,

I have some sort of strange leak coming from the
passenger side head on my 98 A4 2.8 30v. There is a
very nasty smell, but it does not smell like oil,
coolant or gas. There is faint smoke/vapor wafting up
from what appears to be below the valve for the
secondary air injection.

At first, I thought that perhaps one of the cam seals,
or the chain tensioner was leaking oil, but there is
no sign of drips.. I would think that oil would drip
out, especially if it was coming from that low on the
head (I could be wrong though..)

Is it possible that the secondary air injection valve
is not sealing properly, and is leaking exhaust or
something?

What else could it be? Again, the smell is not what I
normally expect from oil, or coolant. If it was
either, wouldn't I expect to see some dripping? I
suppose that any liquid oil could be dripping onto the
exhaust and burned, but wouldn't this take some time,
and wouldn't the oil run off of the cold pipe onto the
belly pan or the ground?

The only other odd thing with the car now, it seems to
have developed a rougher than normal idle, and 'seems'
to be a little low on throttle response, especially at
lower rpms.

Any ideaas or suggestions will be greatly
apperciated!!!

Kris

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