Funny you mention the smoking started with MaxLife, as that was my exact experience with the Mustang in my signature as well. It burned oil but did not smoke when I purchased it, or through my first 5k OCI with Rotella (which did not help with the consumption, either). I then switched to MaxLife partly to see if it would help with a small leak from the rear main seal, and within a few hundred miles the consumption got worse and I was getting smoke at startup and when taking off from idle, but no other times.
I ended up replacing the valve seals shortly after. They were hard, brittle, and no longer doing their job. I don't know what it was about the MaxLife that finally caused the problem to become apparent, but something did. End result of replacing the seals was no more smoke and so far it hasn't burned a drop running Supertech HM Synthetic 5w-20, and the rear main seal has stopped leaking.
If you're getting blue smoke at startup, I'd suspect valve seals as well.
I ended up replacing the valve seals shortly after. They were hard, brittle, and no longer doing their job. I don't know what it was about the MaxLife that finally caused the problem to become apparent, but something did. End result of replacing the seals was no more smoke and so far it hasn't burned a drop running Supertech HM Synthetic 5w-20, and the rear main seal has stopped leaking.
If you're getting blue smoke at startup, I'd suspect valve seals as well.