Fellas, I got an odd circumstance and cant seem to understand how its possible. The 383 in my Volare (Sold two years back) is having oil "pool" on top of the valley pan. i understand pool as not just seeping but ounces of oil and not burnt or odd in color. it is a stock bottom end with 346 iron heads, an edelbrock RPM intake with the felpro valley pan and thin gaskets. how or where can oil get to the topside of the valley pan, the new owner say the intake was removed and reinstalled and has the same issue.

this seems beyond odd as the oil is splashed up on the bottom side of the pan and i cant think of anyway oil can get on top. any insites are appreciated. Thanks in Advance Henry

I've seen this before, the oil is splashing, seeping, leaking out of the valley pan on the bottom side of the pan and heads, it is not sealing properly.
I would try thicker gaskets to seal it better.
If that doesn't work you may need to have the intake surfaces corrected to match the angle of the heads.
I've seen many aluminum intakes needing that
I found that out fighting the same thing but mine was sucking the oil into the intake ports, I remove the pan and cleaned up the heads and intake mating surfaces and set the intake on the heads and used feeler gauges to see how much gap was on all four corners at the top and bottom, it was easily measurable so I wrote them down and took it to a good machine shop and they fixed it by surfacing the intake

Inspect the valley pan for cracks.

Are they sealing the intake bolts also?

That isn't uncommon on high mileage engines. I've seen oil on the valley plate a bunch of times over the years. It either leaks from the oil pressure sending unit, or the distributor, or the intake bolts or a crack in the valley pan itself. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes to figure where it is coming from. Just wipe everything clean and then watch it.

The front is clean and dry, cant be distributor, cant be the oil pressure sending unit, it's not front or rear rails.

I believe its oil wicking up through the threads of the intake bolts. The heads ports are clean and it runs great, does not have vacuum leak.

Too much crankcase pressure maybe or cracked valley pan

Absolutely! It almost looks like the pan is bulged up a little, based on the shape of the puddle of oil towards the middle

Sure looks cracked to me.

It can absolutely come through the threads of the intake bolts if they weren't installed w/ thread sealer.

That much oil indicates the valley pan is cracked and blowing oil up through

Every time I've ever had that much oil on the Valley Pan it was cracked or rusted out.

How?

Crankcase pressure causes it to wick up through the threads. Had it happen to me years ago. Thread sealer on the bolts stopped it.

That had to be a hoop of crankcase pressure
I've not seen that as far as I can remember
My old 415 HP 1963 M.W. Stocker would blow one or both breather caps off in the burn out with 42,000 miles on the original pistons, the top ring groove had over .011 thousands side clearances That was back when NHRA only allowed OEM stock pistons
I should have had those pistons cut wider on the top ring and used a spacer to tighten up those clearances, hind sight is wonderful, isn't it

i was thinking the same thing when i saw those pics.

Maybe needs more valve cover venting from the vid I seen of someone beating it a bit.

Absolutely needs a better crank case ventilation system, and likely a ring job.

So.... what was the verdict in this?

I will post when I know more.