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Don't know where to begin so I'm asking for help.

I had my oil changed 1000 miles ago. Suddenly, in a 100 mile freeway drive, I smell exhaust or oil in my cabin. WTF. So I pull over and check the oil. Sure enough, it's just below minimum, but I have to check twice cuz the oil is so clean it's hard to see. I put half a quart in and the smell stopped. Two days later (today), I check the oil again, and it's still full but it's BLACK.

So I'm a little hesitant about making the 1000 journey to KY tomorrow.

In ideas of what's going on here?

If it's relevant, my timing belt and water pump were changed last month and they have to jack up the engine a little to do that. They changed it because it broke when I was driving at 30 MPH, but I shut the car off almost IMMEDIATELY after I heard it go.

Black oil after a recently oilchange isn´t that nice, but has the filter been changed and how many miles has she got totally now ?

110,000 miles. Just asked my brother who is a mechanic, and he said I should check to see if they tightened down the drain plug and/or filter right--common problem in oil changes. If oil was coming out there it would splatter against exhaust components and would account for exhaust smell.

Just looked at drain plug and filter. Seemed fine to me. Tight. Checked the oil level again. I've lost half a quart since yesterday. That sucks.

I put the car up on jackstands, ran the engine and looked around with a flashlight everywhere I could, under the car and under the hood. I couldn't see any obvious leaks. As for signs of leaks, yes. Outside of the oil pan, the part of the engine right above the oil pan, and the lower motor mount were caked with dried oil. Cleaned some of it off with degreaser, just for the hell of it.

When I stick my nose under the hood, I could smell oil burning--or exhaust--I can't tell the difference really, being both a smoker and a n00b. That was with oil level right between min and max.

So my car has decided to give me a "merry f**k you" for Christmas.

Do a compression test.

The oil changing color really depends on how clean the internals are, if they are a bit gunked up, it means the oil is doing it's job, by cleaning it.

I doubt if a valve got slightly tweaked it would cause it to burn oil. If it got hit hard enough to damage a valve guide, it wouldn't be firing on that cylinder. Could just be coincidence that the valve seals have gotten brittle enough to start leaking.

They really should have put a cam seal in while it was apart for the belt. That, and a compression test, to be sure the valves hadn't been damaged.

If they pulled the rocker cover, the gasket could be seeping oil onto the exhaust manifold, and burning off before it gets any further.

Really anytime the belt breaks, it is a good excuse to pull the head, and have it gone through, or replace it with a new R/T casting.