engine smokes BAD

I don't know a whole bunch about these motors. I've had mine for about a month. It smokes some and leaks even more. When I got it, it used a quart of oil every 50 miles. I took the PCV valve apart, cleaned it out and the plumbing. Now it uses a quart about every 150 miles. That ain't great but it is a huge improvement. This engine mostly leaks though.

jpet

Besides the many leaks these guys develop, three primary areas to look for excessive oil consumptions are:  clogged and malfunctioning PCV valve, worn valve guides and valve stems, and worn rings and cylinders - in the rough order of ease of repair.

Had some thoughts on this, I'm thinking maybe the rings have gotten gummed up from sitting for an extended period, especially the oil control ring. Putting some Marvel might help, but the problem with a flathead is that not much of it actually gets to the rings since the plug holes aren't directly above the cylinders. Sometimes just driving time will free them up. Could be something else entirely but that's what came to my mind when I read your description.

The valve guides will do this to you .  They may be bad.  If you have 110 on the cylinders that should be good.  I would really look at the guides though.  Just my thoughts

Driving it should answer your question anyway . If you have compression then we know its not the rings , so that only leaves three possible problems . 1: The crank case doesn't have enough ventilation and its building pressure , forcing oil past the rings and guides ( I don't know enough about jeep engines yet , but on most other engines its an easy fix )or 2: its been sitting for so long that oil has leaked into your cylinders over a long period of time ( which driving it for a couple of days will burn it out ) or 3: your guides are bad . If the guides are bad then the smoking will decrease , maybe even stop after driving it a while but if you let it sit over night it will smoke bad again in the morning ( in which the head will need to be taken off and new valve guides installed ), A local machine shop can install them if you are unable to do it yourself .

its blue smoke  oil for SURE!

Black oil simply means the detergent in your new oil is cleaning up the dirt in your engine. If a previous owner wasn't too good about maintenace it will take a few oil changes and maybe some parts cleaning to get it to where it stays cleaner longer for ya. It does NOT necessarily indicate the engine is worn out.

As I did say before , I could be mistaken . This is the conclusion that I've came up to based on my own experiances . but looking at what I put down , I did make it sound pretty bad . Even if the engine has a lot of miles , that doesn't mean you have to completely rebuild it . Good compression and oil pressure tells me that the bottom end is fine . If it is the engine itself , I would say its valve guides , which really isn't that bad . Ive had to replace them before on other projects and had it taken apart and put back together in a weekend. And trust me , there is always a chance that it could be something small that was simply overlooked . Knowing that , I would try everything else first . As mentioned above , you dont want to spend the time and money to tear into an engine only to find out it was something simple , and if it does turn out to be valve guides lube isn't going to make it any worse.

That actually sounds about normal for a vehical thats been sitting a while . Keep driving it when you get a chance and see if that smoke clears up . The steering play doesn't sound bad to me either , but I think I would bleed the brakes if I was you .