2016 Impreza possible head gasket issue?

[tacopilot]

My wife’s Impreza was purchased fully rebuilt after it had a front end collision a few years ago. Last week there was smoke or steam coming out from under the hood. Just poping the hood at first I thought it looked like it was near the water pump and I noticed the lower coolant hose was stone cold. I put a new thermostat and water pump in because I had the parts on hand. And I pulled the spark plugs and drained a little oil to check if there was coolant in it. My repairs did not fix the problem.

When I jack it up the smoke looks like it is coming from at or maybe behind the exhaust manifold. The smoke starts pouring out just a few seconds after starting the engine when almost all external parts are still cold. In my photo looking from beneath the car the smoke comes from at or behind the red circled area.
The oil had been over filled a little and I wondered if maybe the over flow was located above the manifold? I know I am probably grabbing at straws hoping it is not the head gasket but I guess it probably is.

 

[tacopilot]

I found this product called K-seal. The reviews sounded positive and it was not too expensive. From what I read it is heater block, thermostat safe etc. I still don’t know what was going on with this car but after dumping this stuff in the radiator it was back to normal within a few min. The product claims to be permanent, we will see. It has been three days and I have not seen or smelt anything unusual yet.

 

[tacopilot]

One thing I noticed was that this leak wherever it was, only smoked when I didn’t have the A/c running. When I turned the A/C off the smoke would start right away. I am thinking maybe there was a pinhole crack in the black pipe that runs left to right across my photo above. I think that maybe it was spraying on the hot manifold making all the smoke.

 

[tacopilot]

Here is a link to the product I used.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QT9KO6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[tacopilot]

Update, the smoke came back just a little bit a couple weeks later so I used another bottle of the K-seal. Have to wait and see if the leak comes back again.