Here's the oil smoke problem. I will give you one off the wall variable and the other two are basic.
The first oil smoke problem (off the wall) is a small oil leak that runs on top of a header or exhaust pipe. This will be obvious as you look under the car and find built up oil around the exhaust system.
The other two basic oil smoke problems are as follows: Smoke upon start-up. This is caused by valve guide/valve seals. The valves tend wear in their guides and loose their tolerences. Even if you replace the seals, this is only a band-aid fix. The valve will move far enough away to egg shape the new seal's lip and suck oil back into the combustion chamber when the intake valve is open and on it's "intake stroke". Worn valves/dried seals: The car sits over night, the oil will run down the vavle and trickle into the combustion chamber. When you first start up the engine, it will burn off eventually, but it's slowly sucking in oil at every stroke.
Here's the trick to know if you have a valve guide/seal problem. One is cold start up, as stated above. If you want to know how bad it really is, go down a graded hill and lift on the throttle and coast down hill. Then stomp on the gas, (if you are driving) and watch the bellow of smoke through the rear view mirror. You'll see a big puff of white smoke when you do this. What is happening is... vacuum forming in the combustion chamber. It's sucking in oil throught the guides. As you step on the throttle, it finally puffs out. This is how you detect a valve problem.
The second oil smoke test is: Oil is constantly smoking at idle and driving. This is generally worn rings.
Either way, you have to check your oil level and monitor the milage. If you top off the level now, check milage. Drive for a day or two and check the milage again. Did you have to add? If you did, time to either fix the valves, change to a fresh engine, rebuild the one that's in the car, or buy lots of cases of oil.
4play is right. If you have an air compressor, a spark plug adaptor and the mechanical skill to change the seals, I would try the cheapest way first. If it's smoking on only one side, it might be just a seal? Not sure, but just guessing at this point. There is a valve spring tool made especially for this job. Tool trucks like Snap-on usually have these in stock. You need to set the valves after replacing the seals. There is only one valve seal used on each chamber. I used to install new quad rings and seals on both intake and exhaust. I would buy two valve seal packs to do the job.
If you attempt to do this at home, there are enough gear heads here, to walk you through the steps.
