Heavy oil consumption and smoke

Hello again.
This is actually a question on a Honda knock-off, it's a DuroStar 16HP on a DS10000e generator. Smoking really bad, smells of oil burning. My first instinct was bad oil ring, but when I dug in, the cylinder is beautiful, the piston top is shiny, a bit of carbon however in the ports, and the intake valve umbrella seal missing. Is that seal enough to make it smoke that much? The head gasket showed no signs of burn, but a little bit of it did transfer to and stick to both the cylinder and head sides, which leaves me wondering if a leaking head gasket sometimes has no obvious visual signs? (unless that was one) The head is not warped.
I have new seals and head gasket on order, just hoping that someone my have some insight before I put it back together and see if that's all that it was.

Well, i did the umbrella seal and head gasket, unfortunately it didn't help much. I guess the rings are next. I can't think of much else that would make it smoke like that.
Is anyone else frustrated by these knock-off engines that don't even have proper make and model numbers that are hard to find parts for? These DuroStar, BlackMax, Predator, Champion, etc are becoming very common in the big box stores and home improvement centers, and subsequently making their way to mechanics' benches. Is there a trick to getting parts? Do I just look up parts for a similar sized Honda?

Yes.
It has taken a while to come up with a plan that allows me to look like I am being helpful without breaking my balls and end up costing me money.

1) I charge a quotation fee for all non main line products at 1 hour labour, up front before I look at it.
Regular customers query this & get told that I have to do it because it costs me time to quote and almost none of them ever get fixed.
2) provide a written quote for labour only with a parts list of the required parts.
3) give the parts list to the customer, tell them to go back where they got it from and get the parts because you can not get them from your wholesalers and as far as you know they have no replacement parts warehouse.
4) offer to buy the broken item for spares when they come back months latter telling you they can not find the parts anywhere.
5) sit down with them over a coffee / beer and explain how much it costs to run after sales service & maintian large inventories of repair parts and why cheap engines are not cheap.

This turns their anger towards the shop who sold them the engine that can not be fixed and not at you for not fixing it

Both of the local Honda shops will happily sell parts to owners of knock off engines that they know will not fit and of course refuse to refund or charge a restocking fee.

If I need one gasket that is in a set, I charge for the entire set and give the customer the left overs telling them that I had to buy a complete set to do the job so they have to pay for the complete set.
Same thing with RuZing carbs, I charge for a Walbro and a Zama full rebuild kit and give them the left over parts.
This compensates me for the hundreds of hours I spent finding a supplier of RuZing gaskets & diaphragms.

Thanks Bert. That actually made me feel a little better (and a little worse too, somehow). Something definitely needs to catch up, here, because this problem is not going to get better, only worse. If I had the money I might invest in opening a major parts warehouse for all the knockoffs, I would get rich quick. I see online stores already doing it for the Chinese minibikes, go karts and ATVs.

If you can work out which factory makes the engine.
Preditors for instance look like they are made by at least 3 different companies depending upon the size of the engine.
Ducar make all their own engines and are now No 5 by volume in the world due mainly to European sales, lots of EU stuff now wears rebadged Ducar engines.

Chase up Ali-Baba , Made in China, China Co and similar sites then look at the min order size.
Now if you have 5,000,000 sitting in a lazy bank account that you are not interested in making any return on , go ahead.

I have found a lot of suppliers that supply my wholesalers and noticed that many of the parts I buy are marked up 200% .
However most of them have a minimum wholesale order of around $ 10,000 US .
Add shipping & import duties makes the order worth $ 15,000 landed.
Then you have to advertise distribute and finally sell, then pay tax .

The only reason people buy these engines is because they are cheap.
And because the engines are cheap, they expect the parts to be cheap.

This is why I make my customers find their own parts.
A replacement piston rod rings & valves is generally about the same as complete engine.

When there is enough demand then the after market companies like Rotary, Stens, Prime Line & Oregon will start to carry them.