[steeny]

You need to make sure the valve seals are installed correctly. Those plugs look like it is suckin' oil pretty good on a couple of cyl's.
While you have the leak down checker, pressurize the worse looking plugs cyl. and remove the springs on that cyl. Check the seals on those valves.

 

[steeny]

Also, you said the PCV was suckin' oil. Why? Is there a baffle installed in the valve cover under the PCV.

 

[jax_pap]

leak down test % don't look too bad. shouldn't be using a qt. every 100 miles with those #'s.
how old are these heads????
you may have worn intake valve guides and valve seals, causing oil to be pulled thur intake guides.
changing seals now, is what I'd try 1st.

 

[lmsport]

Compression seal and oil control are separate issues, the compression ring can seal fine and the oil rings be hosed. If its sucking oil past the intake valve guide seal, the intake valve will be oily, usually crusty.

 

[johnsongrass1]

I believe that type of tool is designed to operate at 100psi. 85psi shop air at 15% leakage is not 15% leakage. At 100 psi the leakage is likely 25% percent.

Regardless, 25% isn't that bad for a shade tree reringed street engine however it should be done hot for the best results.

 

[2old2fast]

bet the 2nd ring was installed upside down !
dave

 

[BuzzLOL]

Some sparkplugs looking great and some totally crudded over like that usually means you are sucking oil past the intake to head gasket in some spots... try snugging all those bolts up a little each at a time to a total of ~20-25 lb.-ft. and see if that helps... if not, may need a new gasket... if the engine has ever gotten low on coolant and overheated, it can shrink that gasket... re-torquing the head bolts first is also a good idea (some are under the valve covers)...
Sucking oil past some rocker arm studs threads can also do that... some of those stud holes may go into intake ports...
If pull the gasket, check that intake manifold surface and head surface are exactly parallel... milling heads and/or manifold can create an uneven gap top to bottom for the gasket to try and seal up...

 

[seven up]

Thank u for your response. I have a leak down tester coming via ebay in a week or so. The engine was rebuilt by a friend. It was a low dollar affair. Everything is perfect minus the oil consumption.
I might add all spark pugs look identical. not really wet but black. I thought about possibly disconnecting the pcv valve to rule that out but I didnt know if that would create other problems.

Yup, plugs look like it's running ok on almost 4 cylinders.

Checking under the valve covers will rule out plugged oil return passages, a lesson from the Ford FE.

 

[Norcalcruizer]

Gentleman, thank you for all your input. I am waiting on the leakdown tester to arrive before I move on to any further steps
The engine was built by a friend and diesel mechanic that builds his own gasoline engines that he drags with at the track. Of course, mistakes happen, but he is competent in my opinion. I have lost contact with him as he has moved.
More facts worth noting is, the engine is running rich and the timing is set at 12 degrees and 32 max.
I broke in the engine myself with lucas break in additive. I than ran the engine a few hundred miles before I took it to a dyno to get everything dialed in.
I may have made a mistake but I wanted to make sure the engine was running perfect before I spent about 400-500 dollars on the dyno pulls and tune.

So, maybe this is my fault, ill own up to it. But, I am trying to diagnose the problem before I send it out for new rings and a hone job.
The pcv was sucking oil so I am thinking of removing the pcv valve and replacing it with a breather filter and then run the car some more miles.
I will try to take additional better pictures of the spark plugs and post them here.
The engine was a low dollar affair as the long block with performer intake cost me $400. It was an engine he no longer needed and re-freshened himself. I cant say what rings or how well the hone job was but, he is an honest guy and I pretty much trust his work.
Again, thanks you all for your time and input. Ill keep you all posted. Thanks.

I was having a similar issue on my 350, the PO installed unbaffled valve covers and my PCV was sucking a lot of oil into the intake. I was getting a lot of blueish smoke out exhaust, especially wit higher RPM then deceleration. I installed baffled valve covers and it drastically reduced oil consumption to less than 1/2 qt per 1000 miles. I also have no smoke coming out exhaust anymore. My plugs looked just like your did, carbon built up with oil.

Do you have baffled valve covers?

 

[BadSS]

Gentlemen, I apologize for the delay. I've been working on the car when work allows. I appreciate everyone's help and patience.
The reason the pcv was sucking in oil was due to some baffles that where not very effective. See pictures below.




So, I swapped out the valve covers for stock baffled covers. As well I removed the pcv entirely and plugged the port at the carb. I installed new spark plugs and then drove the car this way for about 30 miles or so.
Here is where things get interesting.






The pictures above are from the same spark plug.

All 8 plugs look very similar. Before pulling out the spark plugs, I indexed and marked the plug with a marker to show where the plug sat pointing straight up in the head. And it seems as the oil is coming from the valve side of the head and not from the piston side of the chamber. Can this point to the heads? Or does this have nothing to do with anything? All plugs again identical with reference to the index marks on the spark plugs and oil stains.

 

[BuzzLOL]

Looks like bad valve seals since on all 8...

 

[BadSS]

Thanks to everyone that responded. Well, I pulled off the intake and took a look at the valves and the were dripping in oil. The seals and guides were done.
I tossed the heads and am installing a set of vortec heads. The cylinder bores look very good. Again, thanks to everyone that helped with advice :thumbup:

 

[AutoGear]

Thanks for the feedback SS

 

[PHWOARchild]

Glad to see a fix that didn't involve tearing down the short block. Valve stem seals, bad or improperly installed can pass a lot of oil.