Couldn't find a recent post on this exact question. I'm pretty sure that my problem is my head gasket but not positive. I checked my oil the other day and noticed i was about a quart short and haven't been more then a 1/4 a quart short ever since i bought my car. I have noticed a little smoking lately but it didn't raise any questions because it just recently got pretty cold and thats when I would notice it. But now I figure that the excesive smoke is from burning a little oil. So I pulled out he spark plug wires and noticed that there was more oil on them then usual. Usually is not very noticeable but this time I thought it was getting to be to much. How much longer would it be considered safe to drive the car? And how long or hard do you think the job would be to replaced the head gaskets and probably just replaced spark plugs and wires and a good tune up while i'm at it. I don't drive the car a whole lot but it does get some miles on it because i drive it to school and back which is 235 miles. But once I drive up I won't be back till about spring break and thats when I am thinking about working on it. Any help would be great.

 

[:@]With a cracked head gasket your oil wouldbe a milky white. Also your coolant would be low. What size motor? I have the I4 and had oil on my sparks and was just the Vavle cover gasket. I don't know too much about the V6. How many miles? It might also be your piston rings or valves allowing oil into the chamber. But HeadGasket jobs always seem to a B!^*#.

 

Is the smoking from UNDERHOOD or out the Exhaust ???
Out the Exhaust is likely rings...

Underhood =
Head gasket possibly but I've seen VERY few fail ....
Look for Oil in the spark plug tubes, as well as a leaking oil sender (common troubles)

 

The smoking is from the exhaust. I have a 2.5L V6. When I take the spark plug wire out it has oil on it and i can see some oil on the walls of the wall of the hole where the spark plug is located. The car has 132k miles.

 

Sounds like you have two troubles you need to get the valve cover gaskets with tube seals ...
Replace them ... It's not a bad job ...About three hours for a newbie as the plenum must be removed ....
As mentioned above if its out the exhaust it's likely rings or scored piston walls that is an EXPENSIVE fix at that point the 3.0 swap is probably cheaper