Sounds like it's time to diagnose what is causing the smoke, Bob. Is the smoke blue? If so, it's oil smoke. For oil smoke, check it isn't over-filled with oil. Test compression with and without a spoonful of oil through the plughole. Look at the breather valve in the valve chest cover. It is also just possible to have good compression even if someone broke or incorrectly installed the oil ring.
If it is black smoke, of course, it is petrol smoke and you need to take a hard look at the carburetor, especially if it is auto choke or a Pulsa-Jet. Not hard to fix, if you follow the manual precisely.
The only 220 amp stick welder I can remember was a Peerless. I had one and was so disappointed I donated it to the local steam club. (They seem to be rather pleased with it, though.) On test the 220 amps turned out to be 180, and to get it that high the choke had to be dismantled and removed completely, not just pulled out fully. It also gave a rather rough arc. I have an old (about 1960, from before CIG bought the company) EMF Transarc 230 that shows what a stick welder can really do. Smoothest arc I've ever used, and when it is set for 230 amps it will undercut inch plate with a 4 mm stick. Real amps, not pretend amps. Of course there is no way it can be called portable - sits on 4 roller-bearing wheels, and it's a fairly heavy lift for 2 guys. (Even the choke's rotary adjustment seems to be on ball bearings, with click positions every amp, they built them right in those days.) It only goes down to 30 amps, even on high voltage, so I keep an old pie-warmer as my sheet-metal welder. That is another 1950s EMF, but with a Pilot-Arc. The Pilot-Arc is a spark-gap radio transmitter attached to the electrode. When you put the stick within 5 mm of the workpiece, a continuous radio-frequency spark jumps between the two. As you bring the stick closer to the workpiece it turns into a serious arc: no striking, no contact, no sticking. Just what you want for sheet metal. It has a current range from 12.5 amps to 200. It works well enough so that I've never seriously considered buying a MIG welder.
