Is this bad? How bad is this?

My trusty 2004 Mazda 3 has been burning oil like crazy since I purchased but otherwise worked without issue. Recently it's been having a hard start (unreliable) and the exhaust is smoking like crazy. It also seems to be worse (more noticeable) in colder temps.

After a day of not driving it smokes pretty good upon startup, however if I rev the engine it will blanket my entire street. Once I drive for a few minutes the smoke dissipates and is "fine".

Video: *without revving

I will leave my own speculation at the door. Any ideas?

 

double post

 

Well there is no guessing..
You will need to find the cause of the burning oil and smoking. Its relatively easy.
With a vacuum gauge see what the reading is at idle to rule out or add to the question and problem PCV issues.
Next do a proper cylinder compression check. Make sure engine is cold and no more than 5 engine rotations per cylinder. To many rotations makes a flawed result. Then is any cylinder being more then 10% lower than the highest cylinder reperform the test adding about 30cc of oil directly into the cylinder. This is a wet test. repeat the compression test and note the new results. Then you will need to perform a cylinder leak down test of each cylinder. note the results. Once you do this you will know exactly the health of the engine and wear the oil is entering the cylinders.
Any other advice would be totally a guessing. Without knowing the numbers from the test, you really know the true start of the engine.

 

I've assumed the oil burning was due to a faulty PCV, however I never bothered to fix it since it is such a difficult task.

The current issue seems to have stemmed from the oil burn although it seems much worse... and likely much more expensive.

What are the chances this is an under $500 fix? $1000?