So, I picked up this red SC2 advertised on Craigslist. Surprisingly the car had almost no rust anywhere on it. Evidently it had spent most of its life some place other than West Michigan. It had just come back from Germany of all places.
First thing I did after getting it home was set the front toe. That instantly improved driving feel. I also swapped several items from my 1995 SL1 sedan that I had up for sale, including the front rotors and EBC Greenstuff pads. I also swapped out the damaged air filter box in the SC2 with the undamaged one from the SL1 and brought the drop in K&N air filter along.
The thermostat was obviously not working, so I also installed a new one of those and flushed the cooling system.
After some research I did a Marvel Mystery Oil (MMO) piston soak and changed the oil to some Shell Rotella 5W40 synthetic and put on an oversized Motorscraft 400S oil filter to catch the crude. Looking down through the plug holes the pistons looked shiny and clean. The SC2 continues to use oil. I think it is just what GM engines do. The 3.5L DOHC "Shortstar" in my Intrigue used a lot too.
There was still a lot to work to do on the SC2, but now it was at least in decent shape to get me to work everyday. With the SL1 sold to a college student, I gave the Geo Storm to my wife to use until we purchased a bigger car for her. She likes the GSi a lot.