The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop 383 "New build" smoking

Man, sorry to hear that. If it were mine, I would leave the engine in the truck and pull the heads. The 355 that I built years ago was drinking oil at an alarming rate, when I was farming out the machine work originally, I took the heads to a shop that was recommended, bronze guides, 3 angle grind, umbrella seals. I pulled those heads and replaced them with another set of cast iron medium valve units but had another machine shop do the head work. Along with the head swap and pulling the big block oil pump and putting in a small block normal capacity pump, the oil consumption problem disappeared.

I considered leaving the engine in the truck but working over the fenders to remove much, especially heavy things like the heads doesn't sound like a plan. I may take the carb and intake off to check for oil being sucked in from the valley (wishful thinking, I know) but that would be the limit I think.