At this point, you already know its leaking past the rings or the valve seals. There is no reason to keep checking it. You either keep driving and watching the oil level or you pull it and fix it. If you used a flexible sealer when assembling the engine, most of the time they come back apart pretty easy and you can get away with just a few new gaskets. I would recuse the head gaskets if they come off clean.
I don't remember if you said what cam and lifters you have, so choose your oil wisely. If I was spending $10 or so per quart of good zinc oil, pulling it now would be my choice. I couldn't stand not knowing what's wrong.
I refreshed my '85 Dodge 318 over a weekend, it was my only transportation, so I did a fast clean up and used fairly cheap parts, no machine work. The rings never seated in the freshly honed cylinders, it was using 3 quarts of oil everyday. The next weekend it came back out for a ring change. It came apart easy, I replaced the rings with a better set. I got it back together for work on Monday and the oil usage was gone, it ran another 80,000 miles before I sold it off. Compression before the refresh was so low, the leak down test would spin the engine like a starter, it only took one cylinder test to know it was worn out.
Last edited by Joe H; 06/24/2026 12:09 PM.
