If you get serious enough for a second look, please do this:
Have the owner start it from dead cold...make him open the hood so you can get your hands on part of the engine to verify that it stone cold...then stand where you can see the outlets of the sidepipes when it starts up.
a puff of blue smoke at cold startup=bad valve seals at least, maybe bad valve guides.
If the seals are the only problem, that's not a labor intensive fix if you know how to do it without removing the heads. If the valve guides are the problem, though....well, as Roseanne Roseannadanna use to say, "...that's different. Nevermind!!". It will mean the engine has to be stripped down to the block for replacement guides...that can be quite expensive!!
It is one of the "checks" I ALWAYS make on any car I'm considering.
Even if the engine starts clean, I'm with the others who say to run, fast, if the owner balks at letting you get a mechanic to check it over, which ought to include draining a bit of
oil from the pan and sending it off for a contaminant analysis to see what sort of shape the bearings are in. At the price these things bring, it's cheap insurance.
Cheers from Dugly
