I have the same oil burning problem and am putting of doing the rebuild. Can afford the lost time, but after letting it idle and then driving away and seeing a blue cloud behind me, or even on startup I see a small cloud, and the smell, just reminds me everytime, REBUILD

 

big clouds of smoke at idle is often the valve seals.

 

I always say this but no one ever believes me

 

I believe you.

 

Definitely valve stem seals. Just hope my rings aren't blown as well.

 

I believe you lol.

Valve stem seals can be changed with the heads still on the motor, a few cheaper specialty tools and a air comp and away you go. I would think a good 4hrs work should get it done.

 

If it only takes a day then I'll plan on doing it this winter. 4 hours for you guys means a whole day for me!

 

Believe it or not I still use the ford rubber umbrella seals ..just did my 99 before the wreck...it was smoking just on start up ,and when it has been sitting for a while at first...I always use the air compressor and spring tool....
If you are going to do this, buy the valve keepers from Napa , they are really (cheap), and when the magnet decides that it needs to drop the keeper in the grass somewhere you will have a bunch of spares, they are hard to find on a Saturday evening

 

If you don't have an air comp., you can use the cotton clothes line cord trick. Anything that works to get the job done.

 

if you don't have air or the air fitting or don't trust the air, you can also use the rope trick. disconnect battery first !!! with spark plugs out and piston rotated down, feed a soft rope about 1/4 inch diameter into the cylinder. rotate crank to move piston up until it compresses the rope and stops. jiggle it up and down several times to seat the rope. this eliminates the risk of air leak, air loss, etc. you'll still need the compressing tool and some extra keepers are not a bad idea

edit - i type too slow. scooped by arde.