RS Aizawa ITB 1.6 - valve stem seals - improvements while in the head ?

[atlex]

So my white car, which, I promise I will do a walk around one day soon, has developed what is probably a valve stem leak (or, rings, but not likely)

When giving it the full monty between 6K and 8K, it smokes grey-blue when I lift off until it drops under 5K or so. All that vacuum. I've put in some seal conditioner and it has reduced to the smoke but not solved it permanently.

I've done an ATF soak (24h) of the piston rings in situ while hand cranking her. The rings I suspect to be perfectly fine. There's barely any blowby on cold idle either. I checked by blocking all but one breather. (NOTE: they weren't, it was probably the oil control rings that were gone, which I fixed separately through multi-day ring soaks)

This is one of those cars where, I really want to retain the character of the 1.6 and especially the 1.6 RSA ITBs / value therein - the car is an absolute blast on this intake setup and so that's the one thing I won't change, so I've no interest in going 1.8. It'd destroy the intrinsic value and nature of the car.

So... what to do ? Let's OVERTHINK this! :-)

Sourcing Seals. - I'd either get the OEM Mazda ones or a set of supermiata viton ones. Or are there better available than those ?

Since I'll be going into the head there's an opportunity to improve things. 8K rpm is probably not ideal with HLAs I'm eager to take it from HLA to SUB. It works fine now but I'd like to let it go a little higher and get there a little faster.

Sourcing SUBs - Probably want to get the mazdaspeed SUB lifters and then source / machine the lashcaps in europe (good supply of 6mm ones here) - has anyone got better suggestions ?

But there's opportunity to do more.

Valve springs and Retainers - to go past 8K and get there faster - All the google searches I do for valve springs kind of.. well, they're not really informative. and they're really old.

I see supertech have lovely kits. I have my doubts about supertech ones (actually, I have my doubts about supertech anything..) - are they OK ? But I'd love to lose more weight in the head - Supertech's TI retainers look unique and interesting. Thinking to combine those and some volvo or 'race engine' ones I can perhaps find from the EU mx5 tuning wasteland.. or from Japan ? But from who ?

Or should I forget about messing with the springs/retainers and just do the SUB conversion after replacing the seals ?

Not trying to save money, just want to get the best out of my 1.6 and do it the 'best' way and let it safely go over 8K. Arguably I should get everything from Japan (Maruha and the rest) but I'd rather get the unique things from there. Lashcaps aren't unique. etc.

All criticism welcome and insights gratefully received.