car is a touch rich . Not horrible but enough you can notice it if standing behind it while idling and a strong black cloud when I nail it . But other than the odor no black smoke at idle.


OE stock PCV valve arrangement and no signs of oil inside the hose that I can see

Plus were black or REALLY dark grey ,,,,,but I didnt see any signs of deposits on them . At a qt per 100 miles I would think the plugs would have some heavy deposits on them


Engine builder did NOT do the heads,, they were farmed out to a local guy he trusted to do them right but ,,,,that man has long since retired now . And he has no idea brand of stem seal he used or clearances back then. ( engine was built back approx 2000 )


On extended idling time engine will get up over 210 degrees and I can detect blue smoke out the tail pipes more so than any other time.. This is the warmest it will ever get and is also the longest time it will be ax max vacuum . Thus one of the reasons why my gut tells me its valve guide issue.
Once running back down the road and it cools back down to running temps in the 180 range I see nothing.

I bought the car knowing full well a piston change was in my future ,,,,was planning maybe 2 or 3 years down the road ,,,aka post retirement . ( car is aprox 11.5 -1 compression )

But was not expecting it so soon from oil consumption issue . The previous owner is a very good friend of mine and I trust him to not feed me a line of BS. And he said he didnt remember ever having to add oil to it. BUT he only drove the car 850 miles in 16 years



This all said, IF I can confidently rule out a ring seal issue . Im ok with leaving the shortblock alone just have the heads redone. And install a much thicker head gasket to bring the compression back down a tad and make it much more pump gas friendly. Mixing with 110 octane gets expensive at 5-6 miles per gallon.

Ive owned it right at 6 months and have put almost 1800 miles on ,,,,,,so far and that number will continue to rise going forward


Also, I pulled the plug wires off last week for a look see inside the tubes just for grins . As someone else suggest the Milodon tube seals . and I can detect a small trace amount of oil inside the tubes . mind you not enough the plugs are submerged . But enough I can see its wet at the bottom of the tube . And IMO the only way that can happen is oil seeping in between the tubes and the head . And if its getting inside the tube it can just as easily get inside the cylinder.