kabanimk3supra;1386230 said:smoke? why would it smoke? do you mean if the piston rings are in poor condition?
I understand what everyone is saying, I'm just trying to make an educated decision. It looks like I'll be doing a full rebuild by the time I'm finished.
The biggest issue I didn't want to deal with is break-in period, that's why I wanted to reuse the original parts.
I was in the same frame of mind -- didn't want to deal with break-in. Unfortunately, once you remove the pistons and rings from the cylinders, it breaks the seating. Even if you rehone the cylinders and reuse the old rings, there's a 99% chance they'll never seat anyway. I bought my NPRs for about $50 shipped...cheap peace-of-mind knowing you wouldn't have done all that work for nothing.
**Edit** The reason it'll smoke is because your rings won't reseat and you'll get blow-by and burn oil. Why do you think one of the indicators of bad rings is an engine that smokes?