Sounds like it could be valve issues too. If the valve is gummed up, it may not seal up completely, pushing the fuel mixture into the exhaust. Although, ATF in the cylinder would not affect the valve seal as much as with the rings. Either way, you will probably need to go into the engine.

 

At least take the valve cover of to see what all the parts are doing.
No or low compression could be bad rings, ring gap alignment, cylinder wall to piston clearence problems, bent valves or valve timing.
Safely jack the car up and remove the passenger side front tire and the splash sheild exposing the harmonic balancer bolt. Remove all the plugs and stick a piece of dowel rod through the #1 spark plug hole. Slowly turn the motor clockwise until the dow rod goes the whole way up then check the cam gear through the little plug hole in the plastic cam cover you should see a timing mark on the gear. If not turn the crank one revolution and check again. If you can see the mark when the piston is at TDC the timing is OK.
Rebuilders don't do things like check cylinder wall clearences, they just set the hone to the factory clearence size and have at it. One of the contributors to this forum lost a considerable investment due to a stupid lazy rebuilder that didn't realize forged pistons need more clearence than cast. One of his slugs sized in the bore. Anyway the rebuilder could have clearenced the block for oversized slugs and stuck a set of standard size in.