Hey Guys: The 65 satellite 440/512 race car was doing great all season- then it wasn't.
End of a 6.32 pass, it didnt want to idle down. Kill car and restart- no idle issue.
Checked "everything " for vacuum leaks- none found.
Checked carb- noticed some black material starting to form on carb blades, but it seemed "hard" would not easily clean off with carb cleaner- then they called our index.
Car repeated the run with a 6.33, idled up again coming down return lane.
we won the night with that pass, took pics, loaded up.

Next race was to be in bad air,i wasnt going with the car, threw a tune in it- car didn't run for crap, thought: how the heck did i miss a tune that bad?
Guys just backed up an index , did well.
Pulled data when car got back- tune wasnt that bad, but drivers bank and little lean and should not have been- what the heck?
Pulled carb, black material on edges of blades might not let carb blades close correctly and, perhaps its a intake gasket- sure enough, pulling oil through intake bolt holes going through to rocker area- but carb has this oil all up in it- sigh,
Tear Carb down, give it a good bath, get it ready, new intake gaskets, use thread sealer on bolt holes- we should be ready to go, cars sounds "right again".

we go to races, have a t&t friday night - jetting not good, get jetting squared away- car will not run the number, in fact, it keeps getting slower, even when Da's are getting better.
Check everything, check everything- rinse and repeat several times- plugs look great, carb clean, afr's are dead nut for both banks.
Qualifying saturday- car makes a decent run on Q1, slows down again on Q2- but we cant find a dang thing causing it- now im pulling out whats left of my hair- I dont miss tunes very often and unusual i cant see in my mind whats not right or, a good theory anyway. Plugs staying nice.
Back up an index, slow car down, make rounds, car starts belching smoke out the valve cover breather on passenger side bank after the run, when we kill the car- tiny bit on passenger side- but i notice both filters are now oil soaked- i think we have lost ring tension , cracked a ring- but the plugs look fine! We decide to try and make a round, maybe two to protect our points lead, lose out but, its ok, we were in first place, now 10 points behind- not a problem.

Get car home, do a compression check- passenger bank is 200, 200, 208, 198, drivers bank is 197, 187, 187, 200- so, ok, maybe, maybe we have lifted the head between 2 and 4 a little but, nothing for sure.
Pull the rockers, do a pressure test at tdc and btc .

Number 1 -5% loss
NUMBER 2- 10% LOSS
NUMBER 3- 10% LOSSS
But, on cylinder 1. with no valvetrain on the car, i can hear air leaking
Number 2- more air leaking
Number 3- same as 2

air not in intake, not in header- - its coming out the lifter galley - you can actually feel the air moving if you put your hand between the pushroad galleys.

We pull the heads- cannot find even the slightest indication of a bad head gasket, and i mean- nothing.

These are cometic mls gaskets- can this leak be between the layers and just gets worse with heat cycling?
Needless to say the heads are going to machine shop for a cleanup for straight/flat but i sure would like to know- for sure- whats happening here and, im wondering if crankcase pressure "pushed" oil up the intake bolt holes, wetting the inatke gasket, softening it and thats how we pulled in the vacuum leak that pulled oil up into the intake/carb?

Im just puzzled how the head/ gasket/block can look that good, but be leaking and, plugs stayed looking great. The oil is what was screwing up the tune- i get that. I figure the smoking was because the carb was no longer pulling the crankcase pressure out , it had to go somewhere, yet i still don't "know" why it was smoking after we kill engine unless its draining back oil into a cylinder one we kill it and lose crankcase pressure.

Can these MLS gaskets breath between the two layers , let oil flow back and yet still hold almost 190 lbs of cranking compression?

Puzzled guy that just really wants to know.

Thanks guys- hope you are all well.