Outstanding!!! Just shows that being persistent pays off!!!
If it were me, I believe I would try running it 30 minutes or so, dump the oil and replace it with fresh, maybe with one quart replaced with Marvel Mystery Oil or some such, and run it another 30 minutes and see how it does. Probably lots of crud in the rings and lands, I think the rings will come around eventually. We've heard of stranger things happening on this board. Don't walk away from it though - 3o minutes of idling will thin the oil and lower the pressureOf course, there's quite possibly a broken ring or two throughout, but you can diagnose that when the rest come loose.
Report back often - this is a great saga!
-Michael
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X2 with the mystery oil. I had the same situation an "old smokey" with a studabaker 289 only my saga spanned weeks and months as I was working on other things as well. I found that each time I'd come back to it the smoke seemed less that before untill last time I fired it up I realized I wouldn't be embarassed to drive it anymore. I think the warm it up,then let it soak cycles were the trick and it has made me a believer in the Marvel oil as well
