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Problem: *Big* cloud of lazy blue smoke on startup. Totally cleared after 3 seconds. After that, no smoking under any conditions.

Background: Just replaced the valve stem seals with viton ones from FPS (to fix a much less pronounced version of this problem). Also replaced rocker cover gaskets & belts. K8ZE engine w/ 185000 km. I'm 99% sure I didn't mix the exhaust and intake seals.

Oddity: The amount of smoke seems to vary randomly. Occasionally there is virtually none. Its better when I park on a heavily tilted area (i.e. right hand side of the car facing downhill)

Question: Is there any chance this could be anything but a bad seal or two (or 24)? I'm not looking forward to spending another couple of days redoing this job.

Question2: Diagnosing this? I'm thinking of pulling the manifolds and rocker covers and squirting 0W/30 oil on the seals to see if any runs down the valve stems. Any better ideas?

Cheers.

Just pop off the intake manifold and see if there is any oil sitting on the valves.

How's your compression?

yeah I would check compression, could be old worn out piston rings. Usually one or the other and since you are pretty confident in the seals then I would consider the rings next. The rings usually wear faster anyway.

Also you should note that the stem seals are just one part of the seal - the majority of it is done by the valve stem/guide clearance. Stem seals will only mask a guide clearance issue.

Did the whole job again - this time using felpro viton seals, and it seems to have fixed the problem.

Last seals were unbranded "premium" viton seals from fordprobestore. Recommend to avoid these like the plague.