He's telling you it runs like it always has because he's trying to sell a car. To you tell girls that you smell funny when you try to take them out? Common sense. Smoke out of the crank case equals bad rings no matter what. Bad rings have to equal lower compression. This has to mean lower performance. Again a logic issue.
if it's a nice car and a CHEAP DEAL, buy it swap out the SR for a bare SR longblock, and swap the accesorie's. Try
WWW.heavythrottle.com or
www.Sr20store.com to source this up.
If you are interested in the Performance/tuning aspect, this situation put's you ahead. With a decently together long block, sleeve's, custom pistons, polished head, and cams can all be built up without sacrificeing you're daily driving capapbilities without down time on the car. If you are interested in these types of modifacation, we can provide you from mild to wild on the bottom end. Copy and paste the URL in the signature.
John/STEVE