Hello
        I bought my syncro ,a month or two ago, with a blown motor.  I am
still thinking about putting a Subaru engine in it, but I have been playing
around with it,starting it up driving it around a little.  If I baby it, it
only smokes a little, but if I the engine revs over 2000 RPM under load it
starts blowing dence clouds white of smoke out of the tail pipe.  Besides
this one anoying habit the engine sounds really good(no rod or main bearing
knock) solid like it has  been taken care of .  The owner told me that it
got oil changes/3000miles and the miles he put on were freeway miles 70-80 a
day.  The person that I bought the van for had it checked out.  The shop
told him that the rings were blown.When the engine first started pumping out
the smoke he was driving down the freeway and noticed the clouds of smoke
behind him.  The PO said the water temp was fine and plenty of oil.

How can I verify the shops diagnosis?  

I tryed to do a compression test but the neck of my tester was not long enough.
Would a lesk down do it?  I would have to rent or by the tool.

I thought about trying to look at the cylinder with an endoscope but I don't
have one.

What if any other possible explanations for that much smoke?

How much a of a pain is it to put new pistons and cylinders?

Has  this happened to anyone else?

How could I verify wether or not it ran out of oil?

Thanks for your input.
-- Derrek Wittmann