I never had any formal training when I purchased the Dodge pickup that had bad rod and main bearings. But I did have lots of experience fixing old tractors, motorcycles, and lawn mowers, along with helping my brother rebuild a 1967 Ford Galaxie 500. So, I did know how to use a set of socket wrenches pretty well.
Since that time, I have had many more experiences doing what would have been very expensive repairs if the vehicles had been taken to a shop. I have been very fortunate to always have a covered area to work under. One frustrating problem with more modern vehicles is that there are often many parts to remove before you even get to the actual engine or transmission. There are other vehicles that you have to take the top of the engine off to get to things like a water pump with bad gaskets. Other engines have problematic designs like those with cast iron blocks and aluminum heads that expand and contract at different rates and need jiggy gaskets to try and make up for this challenge.
Congratulations go to you for managing to keep your “98 Taco” going without expensive repairs. I am not completely sure from your description what you actually did but if it worked that is what matters. The only thing that I ever shoved in spark plug holes to try and help with an oil burning problem was this stuff that I purchased from JC Whitney.
I don't remember what I paid for the stuff but it seemed to help for a couple hundred miles and when I did tear the engine down it surprisingly hadn't made that much of a mess. But I wouldn't recommend it on a modern engine especially.