sometimes in the morning upon the first start-up i see from my mirror smoke coming from the car in a cloud....it's not smoking but more a cloud and then it's fine........car also feels fine, no over heating issuees as well....

also just hit 100k in miles so would a tune-up resolve this matter?

 

is it blue smoke? These engines have a reputation for the valve stem seals wearing out. The parts to repair this is cheap, but there is a considerable amount of labor involved in replacing the seals.

 

All cars will smoke when it's cold, it's vapor that condensed in the exh system when the car cooled down after you park it...

Also, stem seals will wear over time, and they will contract the most when it's cold, so until it warms up it'll smoke lightly, then stop after reaching temp...

Vette's and firebird's LS1 which is known as a very very good engine note in the owners maual that burning up to a quart in three months is normal. Surely your lex isn't burning even close to that much.

My point is that it won't foul the plugs in small quantities like that so it really doesn't matter until the cloud is continuous and engulfs the car, THEN it's time to get a low mileage motor swapped in, instead of paying just to get the stem seals replaced.. Valvoline MAX-life or Castrol high mileage both employ a hydraulic fluid type additive that will swell all the seals and rubber parts and slow oil consumption, but I think it may cause more damage over the long run, as it's not adding any material to the seals, so when they swell they'll just wear that much more and may cause it to smoke more later on I think. I just use regular conventional oil and change it often to keep it clean..

Both would cost around the same unless you pulled your heads off yourself, OR you should be able to pull the motor and the cams and do them that way with a seal puller and compressed air in the cylinder to keep the valves from falling into the cylinder while doing each seal.... But that's 24 seals and you may as well just buy a 85k motor for $900~$1000, they come up that cheap sometimes as demand is low for these motors...

I had a 92 sc400 with 180k that ran absolutely perfect but smoked a little on colder startups, but the oil level never visibly dropped over the oil change interval, and I looked into swapping the motor for that one. You can get 1UZFE's non-vvti all day long for $600... There's just no demand for them, they are hand balanced from the factory (like an aircraft or racing engine) which considerably lengthens their service life to moreso that of a commercial grade engine, which was Lexus' plan, to dominate the lux market in quality and dependability.

BTW-- Our 99 ES has 205k and does burn a very small cloud but only when it's cold out and the motor's also cold, and it just averaged 27.7 mpg on a trip from La to Ark doing 77 to 85 sometimes, and passing slow people on the backroads, and doing a section called the pigtrail, which is over an hour of mountain switchbacks up and down hills in second and third gear.. STILL got ~28 mpg..

I figure it still will get 30~ mpg if I drove 72 and never passed anyone...