engine bay plastic/rubber smoke

Ooops. Got maybe 10-15 seconds of blue smoke rising from the right side of the engine towards the front of the engine....appeared to be outboard of the cylinder head from my view in the mirror but I can be sure. Smell was plastic or insulation, NOT oil or grease. Smoke is now gone, and no check engine light was set. Temp gauges were all reading normal, and the engine was nicely warmed up. I've looked through the discussions here and haven't found this exact subject, but if you know of it, please point.

Shall I pull the tray off the bottom tomorrow to see if I can see what cooked (and to learn how to do that) since I can see no apparent plastic or insulation flaws from the top?

Anyone else have this happen?

2009 F430 11kmi manual trans

tnx unkie

 

Here's an update provided to keep us all well-read regarding the weird and wonderful ways of our cars:

I removed the upper engine compartment side panels and spent considerable time nosing around with a flashlight and mirror (no smoke and mirrors act here). I then parked it on the lift, remove the lower rear pan, and spent over an hour poking around with a flashlight and mirror. Still nothing. No oil leaks, though the smell wasn't oil in the first place so I didn't expect that. No soft goods showing any damage whatsoever. Could not see much of the alternator or the wiring behind it.

Checked alternator output voltage at the battery: engine off voltage 12.62 measured at the battery terminals, engine idling voltage 14.35, engine fast idle voltage 14.46. All seemed good.

After driving another spirited hundred miles or so with no indications of any problems and a conviction to make more smoke or break it if it would….. I took it to the super techs at Ferrari of Silicon Valley this morning for their scrutiny. Absent any other indications, I kept coming back to the alternator as the smoking gun, though the smoke source was offset rather than the center of the engine as viewed in my rearview mirror, and it continued to run fine. As it should. Suggests something other than the alternator. Did something cook in the alternator yet allow the alternator to continue to operate? Doesn’t seem possible. The smell was clearly electronics cooking.

So the wizards nosed around with mirrors, flashlights, and a borescope, asked questions nosed around more and then came back with the zinger: “do you know what burning carbon fiber smells like?” “Nope”. Soooo to make a long story a little longer, after further discussion with IndyCar carbon fiber fab guys and the like, we've settled on the most likely culprit to be a chip off the engine compartment carbon fiber panels that landed on the exhaust manifold and then went up in smoke.

No foolin.

Whew.

While the dealer is working this week to warranty replace the two cracked exhaust manifolds found during the inspection (at 12,000 miles, an ‘09 model? Yeesh) they'll look at the engine panel edges which I had completely overlooked of course, to confirm a little piece got loose.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Unkie

 

No issues this this arose. Lead wizard and I had great discussions over my investigations....that he confirmed with his. No elec problems, and that was the candidate because of the character of the smell. So we're sticking with a carbon fiber chip theory. Engine bay has all the carbon panel options available in 2009 as far as I can tell from the factory sticker and our inspections, so with carbon everywhere, some little fleck got away and stuck onto the headers.

unkie