car smokes to much please help

Hi everyone, been awhile since I was here but as of late I am having some problems with my 92 eclipse. Its one of the little 1.8 motors and I use it for great gas milage (frickin 3 bucks a gallon -_-) Anyway I am doing alot of work to it this week. New rims, tires, speakers, radio, plugs, filters, oil, and more. But I drove it the other day and while I was stoped at a light I looked over out my passenger side windwo and saw a good amount of smoke rolling by and it was coming from my car. I asked my friend who ofton rides with me and he says its been going on for a while now but I dont think it does it while im driving at least not that I can see. Anyone know what that might be caused by. My plugs looked fine when I pulled them yesterday and the car has all the power it ever has. Aside from that smoke the only thing wrong with it is a small valve tap. I have never red lined the car and it wasent doing this when I got it about 2 or 3 years ago. I replaced my ECU when I got it because the other ecu was bad and making a cylender not fire. So does anyone know what this may be. My gauges all look fine except for oil pressure but it only drops a bit when I stop which I hear is normal for older DSMs it has about 140,000 miles on it if that helps. I am thinking maybe the head gasket which would be great comapred to my other thought which is the piston rings. Well enough text and help would be greatly appricated. Thanks for reading!

What color is the smoke?

clear to whiteish not black at all. I dont think its oil because the plugs were dry when I pulled them.

Well clear smoke and you wouldn't be able to see it, so I'll roll with the white. :)

White smoke normally indicates burning coolant. Which is most likely a head gasket. Do a compression test on the motor just to be sure.

my dad and uncle say the smoke is blue so I dont know. If I do the compression check will that tell me one way or the other. I went to advanced auto parts to see the old guy who works there. I opened my hood and gave it gas and smoke came outta the compartment and the tail pipe. He said to replace the valve cover (its leaking oil) and the exhust manifold gasket, and see if that helps. He also stuck his finger in the tail pipe and got black crap out that was real wet he said. I dont know what to do. If its the rings I cant replace those myself and it would be more than the cars value to have it done. I love the car :(
Does anyone have any other ideas or is there a sure fire way to tell if its my rings. I trust you guys more than anyone else because you own these cars. Thanks for any help anyone can offer me.

Doing a compression test will rule out a couple of things.....Head gasket, valve problems and rings. Do the compression test and post up the results.

http://www.dsmgrrrl.com/FAQs/compression.htm

Easy to do. :biggrin:

Thank you very much. My father has the compression tool so I will do it today after I get back from columbus. I will post the results when I get them. Thanks again!

just a note while you are checkin things (I have a 2G but it pretty much goes for any car) check your oil pressure switch, when they start going out they leak oil down the back of your engine, which burns off and usually you don't see it as well when you are driving because it's not concentrated like your exhaust, just goes everywhere. However this the head gasket and the exhaust manifold gasket will not cause smoke in the exhaust. manifold gasket will explain smoke underhood, but bigger problem is before that. spyderturbo007 is right do a complete compression test should tell you problem.