my a14 has been using heaps of oil and it is using to much too quickly for it just to be leaks, when i first start the car in the mourning it blows think white smoke for about 30 seconds then it clears up and is ok, anyway after taking it for a bit of a thrash on the weekend i blew an exhaust gasket so it made a big leak and after looking at this the next day it had a fair bit of oil around it, also one of the bolts was melted (even though the tempreture hadnt gone above about 1/2) and when i started it it blew the same white smoke but thicker and longer. i have had a problem also that when i have been driving the car for a bit and turn it off for 5 mins then try and start it again its a bit hard as if its flooded or something, could this be due to oil getting into the plugs. also am i right in thinking that my rings are ####ed and a rebuild is on its way? the box aswell SEEMS to be making a grinding noise under load mid revs, it could be the exhaust rattle i have developed playing games with me but i dont think so, im also guessing this means my box is on its way out. anyway i have a rebuilt 1200 4sp and im guessing this should hold up alright in a standard a14? sorry bout the essay guys haha

the smoke sounds like your valvestem seals are flogged.

Have you done a compression check? White smoke could be steam from water. Possibly head gasket?

I'll second the vavlestem seals. That should take care of the smoking when you first start it.

Could also possibly be a burnt valve. If you take all the plugs out do they look similar? would possibly do a compression test to narrow down the fault.

white/blueish smoke means ur engine's burning oil, black means carby problems (burning too much fuel)

the guys are right ... it should be the seals or the rings or both.

check your spark plugs, clean or replace them and might as well replace the points, condenser, check dizzy cap, check timing.
basic maintenance stuff till you have the money to rebuild your engine or swap engine.

all the plugs, points condensor dizzy cap coil etc etc are brand new. compression test showed up as cylinder 3 having 15 less than the rest. im 99.9% sure the head gasket is fine, the white smoke is only when i first start it then it vanishes, the oil and coolant are both clear and dont look like they have mixed and compression test showed up alright. the fact that the compression test showed up fine means the rings rnt totally rooted im guessing cos if the rings were totally rooted i would massivly lose compression or is that totally wrong haha???

If your rings are shagged the motor will poke out huge clouds of blue smoke when you give it a really good honk. Take out your sparkplugs and inspect them. If they are crappy looking on one side and clean on the other , then that is a sign that oil has been getting past the stem seals and driping into the cylenders.If your plugs aren't too old then this should be quite apperent.

i checked the plugs and plugs 1 2 and 3 are the same and 4 is heaps blacker and seems to have oil on it...???

Sounds like Valve Stem seals to me.

Compression check can be a bit misguiding too.... Do a leak down test if you can, that will do a better job of finding the problem.

If you do the compression check when the engine (oil) is cold, it can increase the compression in suspect cylinders as the oil helps to seal the rings. This happened to me just recently. When we ran the engine, and got some heat into the thing we did a second compression check....this showed a huge drop in compression in cylinders 2 & 3....which would also explain the amount of blow by I was getting too!

My bet is still on the valve stem seals though....good luck.