It is getting colder now here in Idaho, if I let it sit for a few hours and cool down upon starting it runs fine (with a little bit of assistance with the throttle) for about 8 seconds or so, It than immediately begins throwing out a fairly sizable amount of blue smoke for 15-20 seconds as in a large cloud. The smoke goes away as quickly and abrubtly as it came and once its gone there is no strong smell of oil burning coming out of the exhaust. The engine will not blow out any smoke if its left shut off for ten or twenty minutes, but if it sits for longer than three hours it will blow out another 15-20 second burst of smoke after the 8 second delay.
Whats wrong?, should i be writting my last will and testament on the engine?
i'd guess either a valve wiper, or maybe compression is going.
would I worry ? nope. not till it made some noise.
the magic smoke is alot harder to get back in the engine than the un-magic and often confused blue smoke.
If it sits all nite after using does it smoke like that in the morning? Sounds like valve seals (wipers) to me, common on old engines with low milage that have dried out seals. Bad valve seals won't affect compression so if engine still has good compression the rings and valves are still sealing, check compression to confirm.
My 97 had 80k miles on it when I bought my 02 GS in 03 and didn't smoke like that. I used the 97 only a little for a while after that then parked it for a couple years. My son put it back in service this past spring and I noticed it smoking after restarting hot, valve seals were dried out. He put a low milage used engine in it at 88k miles and with rejetting it's better than new now.
Are you sure it is not just condensation? Typical in colder weather.