Dealing with an engine with oil blow-by - hoping for some thoughts and coaching on options Options

[Tdskip]

OK - so here is the scoop on the '74 AZ car that has me about to learn new things.

This is the car that has the 2.0l case with 1.8 heads. Runs strong, good pulling power, no bad noises, and has good oil pressure. Came to me with a recently put together engine with no guarantees but believed to be redone heads and fresh bottom end. Price was right on everything so I bought it, no regrets.

The issue I am seeing is that the engine has too much blow-by. After a short time (under 30 miles) it started smoking very noticeably from the breather and blew out the oil seal on the breather tower.

Since then I've changed the oil and done more heat cycling and it's smoking significantly less (barely noticable now) but I still have too much blow-by. I don't think I have much to loose by driving it some more and seeing if the rings seat better but I am working on the expectation that isn't going to work.

Assuming the most likely case, which is that the rings don't seat any better, I believe I would need to pull the heads and pistons off and start again. Yes/no?

Should I be thinking of just replacing the jugs and pistons with a new set from AA or do these clean up (in general). I believe replacement is the usual approach these days.

I think I would plan to send the heads out for servicing as a precaution so I know I have good ones with good oil control going back on.

Assembly from this point should be pretty straight forward I'd think?

Thanks, appreciate the continuing education here.