[blykins]

I prefer to call it "tough love"......I've been on here for 11-12 years now and consider most of you guys buddies and family. I usually don't sugar coat things.

As for taking it all the way down, I would do a compression test on it to see what condition everything is in. Puffs of smoke on a startup can be indicative of valve seals...so if you swap heads, you'll remedy that. If it does turn out to be the rings, then it's either a stuck ring, or the bores aren't straight (or worn) and a ball hone probably isn't going to fix that.

If the rod bearings need replaced, then it's simple enough to measure the journals and measure the ID of the rods with the new bearings to check clearances, but to do the mains, the crank needs to come out (I wouldn't trust Plastigage...never used it, never will)....which brings us back to square one.