My wife owns a 2000 Infiniti I30 with approximately 84K miles on it. She purchased the vehicle as a lease return in Ohio about 2 and half years ago. The vehicle has had problems since she bought it - smoking, rough idle, etc. Before we got married, I researched this problem and identified it as a pretty common situation with Nissan/Infiniti maximas from that time -- bad ignition coils. We replaced the ignition coils last year right before we got married and all of the rough-idle and stalling problems have stopped. Now, the car just expels a ton of white smoke when you start it in the morning. The smoke goes away pretty quickly and only returns if you leave the vehicle turned off for several hours. I had the vehicle checked out by a pretty reputable nissan mechanic in our area to rule out a headgasket or any transmission problem. He said the HG was fine -- there is just a ton of oil sludge everywhere. He said the only solution is either a new long block (~$6000) or a hot bath for the entire engine (~$4500). The car barely passed California smog last year by two points and my wife is worried about passing it again in 2 years. She would like to sell it as soon as possible. I think the original owner probably just never changed the oil. There was probably a bad coil for a good portion of the cars life, which probably didn't help things much. The car was cheap and is completely paid off. To me, it has low miles and drives well since the new ignition coils. My thought is . .. keep driving it until the wheels fall off. Do you guys have any thoughts on this? Would it help to give it any sort of oil treatment with a frequent oil change regimen to flush things out? My theory has just been to drive it as much as possible because it seems to keep the smoking to a minimum. I am a 1/2 
guy and an entire engine replacement seems pretty daunting. . .
guy and an entire engine replacement seems pretty daunting. . .