Many thanks Stuart you have pretty much verified what the fellow at the cylinder head shop I visited today indicated. He said the original seals weren't much anyway and that the guides were much more suspect in his mind. He said the same thing on the rings that you did, nice that you have good compression, but you can still leak through an oil ring, and/or have cylinder wall damage that could cause smoking as well. Won't know until the cylinder head comes off of course, so will start at that end and see where it leads. Thanks for what you offered Stuart - it started me on the trip to the cylinder head shop (the guys there were great too and showed me a lot of examples of what to look for) and it definitely has me going in what I think is the right direction now.
Dale

1956 Chevy Cameo