Originally posted by biggnasty
Also keep in mind, I will most likely not be honing the cylinder. Is it totally bad to just drop in the new pistons and rings?

If you're not going to at least hone the cylinders, park your car, buy a crowbar, and use it to pry your head from your ass.

The fumes are oil vapor from pressurizing the crankcase, not coolant. You lost the #3 ring land. at the cheapest, you're looking at replacing one piston, rod and ring set, a new rod bearing set and honing the cylinder walls. However, rod bearing kits come in sets of 8 (two halves for each journal) and ring sets supply enough for four pistons... so you're wasting your damned money if you only replace hole's worth. If you're going to do it, re-ring the whole motor and replace all the bearingsa. Hone the effing cylinder walls

You absolutely WILL have to get into the motor, so you might as well do it RIGHT.