Engine: B230FT, 1990

I let me car sit for a few days before starting it today. For a while after starting I had a lot of smoke out the exhaust that went away after a little while.

Over the last year, the engine has been consuming about a quart of oil every 1000 miles (which is within spec, but the smoke this morning persisted for a long time, and bothers me). When I check, the oil is dirty but not milky/frothy, and because the smoke in the exhaust only happened after the car has been sitting for a few days, I suspect that either valve clearance might need to be adjusted, or it needs new valve stem seals.

The stem seals were NOT replaced at the 150,000 mile service, and the service record doesn't state if the clearance was adjusted then, but I beleive it was. The car has 175K now.

I've never done either adjustment or seal replacement myself, and will my Volvo specialist to do it, if that is the problem. Does seal replacement require removing the head in a B230FT engine? If it does, the job becomes much more expensive, and I am going to hold off on it.

Ashok