smoke on start up

[dalebrignall]

my girlfriends 2 door is on its origional engine and it runs and drives really well .it has always smoked a bit on start up,then after 2 mins or so the smoke goes .is this the valve guides giving up the ghoast .the oil useage is about half a litre of oil every 400 miles so thats not too bad .it it needs valve guides would it be benificial to change the cylinder head and if so is it easy to do i only have basic skills and dont want to muck it up .

[aupickup]

its easy to change the head

[MarkyB]

It's pretty easy to replace valve guides too, hammer, drift and a ruler should be enough.

[bmcecosse]

It needs to be a stepped drift - and even then - you will need to de-burr the top edge. My advice - do nothing - the oil consumption is acceptible as it is.....