white exhaust coming out of muffler

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Swapping in another KA would certainly be less downtime. Machine shops take their sweet time rebuilding heads and engines these days.

[mechanicalmoron]

I get aroudn 240miles (lol) on a full tank mixed driving.

You have bad valve stem seals. The oil il leaking past and burning, and combustion junk is getting blasted into your oil.

She said that the plugs had oil on them, this could be either because oil is leaking down from the head (meaning bad stem seals), or splashing up past the oil rings (meaning bad rings.) If the compression on a certain cylinder is bad, then thats where I'd suspect the bad rings are.

In either case, I don't think she's doing the repair on her own so it would be cheaper to get another KA and swap it in there. Maybe someone from here thats in that area can help her out.

Well if the plugs have oil on them, that's awful, because my motor is at death's door, and there's no LIQUID oil on the plugs....

OP, I see you said you didn't want to use a smoke stopping product: so you know, what they do is thicken the oil, it burns because the spaces in the engine wear and get too wide, and it seeps into the combustion chambers. If it's worn badly, that part will wear faster and faster, because it won't be properly floating on an oil cushon, as the parts will have wiggle room. Oil thickeners stop smoke by making it form a thicker (more viscous) cushon, that will not fit through as small a space as easily as the same oil without the thickener. They can be miracle stuff, they basically make my car drivable, just buy the good stuff: again, I reccomend lucasoil oil conditioner, they say you can use it for up to 60% of your oil for a very worn engine, but more like 30 seems reasonable for a bad KA, and around 50 I get funny sounds from my valves and such, at least when killing the engine and before it warms up.

So yeah: a cheap crappy smoke-stopper or too much may be bad (if it's TOO thick, it obviously won't do it's job) but the right amount of good stuff will help save your motor for a lot longer.

They also increase oil pressure, because the oil doesn't flow through the channels as easily. It stops my timing chain rattle to use a proper dose of it.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

It depends on what side of the plug the oil is on. If it is on the back side, it's just a leaky valve cover gasket. No big deal, and doesn't really affect performance at all.

[95Nissan240sxSE]

krash,
I think I'm gonna get the same as you 240 miles per tank...

mechanicalmoron,
thanks so much for the advice, I think I will definitely go to autozone and buy the good stuff and change the oil filter and oil... thanks again.