Righty. I have a decision to make. 12 months ago, while replacing my turbo, I found a dribble of oil down one of number 4's exhaust valves. It was only tiny and I had to get the car running again ASAP so I left it alone. With the turbo replaced I noticed a light oil burning scent to the exhaust but never any smoke and it didnt use any more oil than normal. I've been keeping an eye on it, expecting it to go wrong and sure enough recently ive noticed little blue clouds of death pop out when ive been idling at lights for a while then pulled away (not like the plumes of blue-white that came during idling when the turbo seals had failed). It culminated in a large plume of blue smoke when i pulled off my drive after a couple of days rest on. So I'm fairly convinced thats my problem.
Now then, having diagnosed it I had a nasty thought. The top end is a tad rattley, and 'something' I havent identified yet rattles fairly loudly (like tappets) at 3000-2500 rpm. Im fairly sure the shims havent been checked on it so it may be that. Or it may be the valve guides.
Anyone any good clues as to the likelyhood of guide failure? I'm trying to decide whether to pull the engine completely, crack it open and do seals/guides/mains/big ends etc etc or whether to try to keep it as it is and just do mains/big ends in situ and just do the seals without takin the head off.
Anyone any experiences? Are guides normally dead when seals have died? On my old peugeot I replaced the seals but the guides were fine, but then i did get rid of the car very shortly after so I dont know how it faired.
J