I'm finally looking at buying another 3rd gen after what happened to my camaro (pic)

Anyway. The current car of choice is an 89 yellow (painted by owner) firebird formula (auto, 305). It has some niceties like t-tops, a working ac, a great interior and rust/dent free exterior. Everything seems to be in good working order. The only problems I have with it are that the driver's side t-top leeks (easy, but not that cheap, fix), the driver’s side headlight wont go up (needs an actuator bushing thing rebuild, the motor spins fine), and the engine burns some oil on startup.

When I first started it, it let out a puff of blue. I let it idle for 3-5 minutes and then gave it some gas (went to about 2.5k then to 3k) and it shot more smoke when the engine was revving up, but it was more of a grey/brown color. It idled completely clean. It also cruised clean. I also pulled a spark plug and looked at it. It was completely clean with the exception of a few small deposits of greyish stuff, which is completely normal.

It can’t burn that badly considering the plug condition, right? How easy/hard of a fix would it be to get it to stop burning all together? And finally, would you pay $1,750 (he was asking $2,000, but will take my $1,750) for the aforementioned car?

 

Without being able to diagnose the problem firsthand, I would guess that the startup oil smoke is due largely to failed valve stem seals, and possibly to a lesser extent the grey/brown smoke from higher RPM is from chamber deposits and/or incorrect fuel mixture. I know few people that would pay that for an otherwise clean '89. I'm not saying you should buy it, or should not, but my guess is that the smoke problems are not serious.

Don't let the seller know that, however. If he/she feels that you are concerned over the "problem", the price may relax even a bit more.