[V8] V8 issues

[Roger M. Woodbury]

After a 50 mile run on Tuesday, I pulled into a parking lot and saw white smoke coming from the engine compartment.  I opened the hood and found white smoke coming from the left front corner, down low on the engine.

I waited about twenty or thirty seconds and the smoke thinned and then was gone.  I restarted the engine with the HVAC system turned off, and there was no repeat.  I turned on the HVAC and had no repeat. After our appointment, I drove the car around the city for perhaps twenty minutes with the HVAC system off, and all seemed to be operating correctly.  We then drove the fifty miles home without incident.

Today we are repeating that trip, plus adding on another forty miles to the wrench to get the oil changed and an inspection sticker.  I will have the wrench investigate the issue then as well.  I suspect there is an issue with the A/C compressor, although there are NO unusual or abnormal sounds coming from the engine.  The smoke smelled like electrical insulation of some sort, it was neither the color nor the odor of petroleum, so I am guessing something electrical in the a/c compressor.  I just started the car and backed it out of the garage and all is well.  

Another issue:  For about two months now we have been having a new kind of squeal from inside the dashboard. The squeal comes from the lower right hand corner, just above the radio.  It is really not at all like a blower motor bearing sound which I am familiar with. Furthermore, when I shut down the HVAC system entirely, the squeal remains.  Eventually it goes away, or becomes intermittent, and the HVAC on any setting has nothing to do with it, or makes no difference in it at all.  It does not seem serious, but I was wondering if there is another fan behind the dashboard that I don’t know about that could be doing this.  I am really stumped on this one so any BTDT will be appreciated.

Roger