I have a 1997 Acura 3.5 RL and have been told my valve covers are leaking . I smell a burnt oil smell but see no smoke at all . The smell comes trough my vents sometimes when my air is on . Is this really my valve covers or just the gaskets needing to be changed ?? And can it blow up my motor with me keeping oil in it ?

SOURCE: how to remove valve cover gasket on a 1998 honda accord

try removing the bolts hold on the valve cover and once you do that take a razor blade and a little lube and careful scrape the old one off.

SOURCE: Leaks oil looks like from valve cover

You have to remove the spark plugs cables and remove the four nuts that you see when the cables are removed.

When the four nuts are removed, simply raise the valuve cover. When replacing the gasket, make sure you get the gromets as well. Those sometimes get worn or crack since they are more exposed than the value cover gasket. Make sure that you clean the cover from oil and replace the gasket with no use of silicon.

Good Luck.

SOURCE: oil leak on manifold passenger side - v6 4motion

Get a can of Gunk and clean the engine according to the directions there (please do read them), with attention to the area around where the oil leak is.  Once you get the motor squeaky clean, you will be able to trace back to where the oil is coming from.  It may be running down the underside of a hose so you will need to look carefully.  You can do all this in the driveway.  You will probably have to let the engine get to operating temp before it will start leaking. 

Matthew Spark

• 1066 Answers
• Posted on Nov 28, 2008

SOURCE: OIl leak in 2001 Grand Cherokee Laredo

valve cover gasket is like $20 and a do it yourself job, just buy a manual like a chiltons from an auto parts store. if it was valve cover, the smoke would be coming from engine, not tailpipe.

rear seal is in between engine and tranny, this would cause oil to leak on ground, but not to burn

if smoke is coming from tailpipe, your piston rings might be going bad. that is an expensive repair, but switching to synthetic oil may give you several more years of life out of the piston rings, synthetic oil has a way of soaking into bad piston rings and temporarily making them like new again, unless they are already too far gone.

SOURCE: IMT Seals and Valve Cover Gaskets

now rear toe control links ive never heard of. your saying you saw the smoke and smell the burning right not the dealer. how does the car drive overall? have you checked your oil level?