someone said id cooked my rings because i was getting smoke up from the air box. would not the plugs foul if that was the case. also motor is very hard to start. it keeps hitting but wont fire althoug sometimes it will. afraid im going to burn the starter up trying to crank it. 1986 gl wagon 2bl carb

Not necessarily. If your compression rings are toast, then your compression would be very low, possibly making the engine hard to start. Your oil rings don't take the thermal abuse that the top two do, so they may have survived. It is entirely possible to have no compression, but still have oil control. The oil rings would still be wiping oil off of the cylinder walls, even though the top compression rings can no longer control combustion gasses. Your plugs would remain clean, and you would have tremendous blowby.

 

Have you tested the compression yet?

 

Also, coolant leaking into the combustion chamber has the tendency to "steam clean" everything, making your plugs look clean. You overheated the crap out of this car, right? I think I remember you saying that. Well, subies like to blow head gaskets when overheated. Rings cook that way, too.