premature valve guide wear
 

Has anyone heard of this. My car has blown smoke on startup, and from reading here, it doesn't sound as if mine is the only one. It used to be only if it sat for a week or so, but now is seems to be more and more frequent. A friend on mine said he heard that this can cost more to have repaired that dropping in a new power plant.

No worries, a little smoke at startup is normal with a boxer motor. Because the cylinders lay on there side a little oil often migrates to the combustion chamber which quickly burns off at start up. On a vertical cylinder motor the oil drains back into the crank...no smoke.

I've not heard of that as a problem with these engines. Is it still only smoking for about 30 seconds on startup? Not at any other times, like full throttle runs?

It did yesterday, travelling through the city and stopping at traffic signals. But once on the highway no noticable smoke. Maybe he was just blowing smoke. It is easy enough to mess with the FNG.

Exhaust smoke while driving is another issue. Is it overfilled with oil? These cars are very sensitive to overfilling and will injest it right away and smoke like a mutha. If your car is more than 5 yrs old you may also need to check the AOS. If it fails oil will leach into the intake causing exhaust smoke while driving.

I don't believe that it overfilled. Checking the dipstick first thing in the morning i don't hit the top indent. I have been reading about the air/oil separator. From what i read it isn't overly expensive and a Saturday replacement.

If you are smoking after the initial start up you could have a failed or failing Air Oil Separator or AOS. Do a search for this and see if the the symtoms sound familiar.
Here is a link http://mike.focke.googlepages.com/airoilseparatorreplacement