Generally, if you burp the throttle from idle, and the engine smokes on acceleration, you have bad rings. On the other hand, if engine is running fast (3000 rpm) with little smoke, and then you quickly close throttle and see smoke, it is worn intake valve guide. Worn exhaust valve guide won't necessarily contribute to smoking, but will cause excessive blow-by and for some oil out of the breather.

I have the same problem (1999 Dixon Ztr 5022) has a 22hp Kohler on it. Started using quite a bit of oil last year and would foul out a plug in a week or two (around 8-10 hrs run time). Had some spare plugs from my truck 5.3 vortec and they happened to be the same size but must be a bit hotter of a plug, they take quite a bit longer to foul. I don't notice a lot of smoke while mowing but if I shut it off for 5-10 minutes then start it back up a big puff comes out. Anyone have any ideas? Bermuda is starting to green up so I would hate for it to be down too long.

I have not seen a WI since I was a lad. Born in 1947.

Remember these were cast iron engines and MUST have 30 wt oil.

I assume you are going to restore it. Yes, the ring job is easy and I would do that first. You can do the valves later.

From my memory Briggs never really gave a compression scale. They said to spin the engine by hand an see if it had a back kick before compression. Crazy!

The only reason I am messing with this motor is that it and I have a "history". As a 9 or 10 year old I showed an interest in mechanical things. My grandfather's barn was full of equipment with small motors on them, many of them homemade like a garden cultivator with a cut down model A axle and large steel wheels. Anyway, I wanted to mess around with something so he pointed in the corner to an old Reel lawn mower with this engine on it. He said; "you can do anything you want with that mower." I had no idea what I was doing but I spent hours and many days out there trying to get it to run. Every once in a while I would get a putt out of it. A few years later he gave me the mower. With help of a neighbor we got it running. That engine has powered a go cart, a homemade raft, an antique snow thrower and now will power an old pump jack. It was born in 1939. I got it in 1962. My brother used it on the snowblower for several years in the 80's and 90's. Visiting him in 2008 he asked if I wanted the motor back since he was going to scrap the snow thrower. I removed the motor and let him scrap the snow thrower. I am 65 years old now and still working on the motor I "played with" as a 9 year old kid. Pretty neat.

Your worried about a 50+ your old engine using oil? I'd expect it to use some

Quick way to tell if it rings is to do a compression test. Take the reading then add a squirt of oil down the plug hole, if the compression goes up you need rings if it stays the same it's the valve guides