I had lost another quart when we did the intake swap.  Now not enough miles to tell.

#'s 1 & 5 were mostly clean.  A little light brown on the ceramic, but nothing on the electrode.  The bad plugs were the ones that we were burning wires on.

They are the same cyl's as at BG. 

Here's a tip for you guys that want to rebuild, especially if you do not have a matching numbers engine.

With the $$$ I have spent chasing this beast, I could have purchased a 210hp crate from the dealership and still be money, skin and blood ahead.

I can't stress enough finding the reputable guy.  I thought I had.  After all, he builds his own race engines, has all the right equipment, let me check out the shop, etc.  He was a horses ass, but lots of those guys are until you have spent big $$$ or gone to them more than once.

The real problem is, there doesn't appear to be a decent engine guy in central OK.  That said, Tim and I are going to try to find a decent shop for the mill work and try our hand at building our own.  Can't be any worse than what I spent well over $2200 for.

For now, I'll keep chasing this gremlin.

If there is oil leaking down into the cyl's, can it be coming from anyplace other than the intake?  Could it be coming around the valve guides? 

When we installed the new intake, we used black RTV to seat the gaskets to the heads.  After they were firm and set, we put the intake on. 

Any other thoughts?

It sounds like you might have bad valve guides. Even with new valve seals the can suck oil down the valves if the guides are bad. Just a thought.

Yeah, worn guides can absolutely suck oil into the cylinders, even with seals. Worn/stuck oil control rings will do it too.
What heat range plugs are ya using, anyway? Perhaps they are too cold?

A note on using RTV, tho...it works best when you assemble the parts while the stuff is still wet. If it has time to "skin" over, the skin part doesn't really stick too well. Also, if you meant you used RTV to stick the gaskets to the heads...that's not the best thing, either. I hate to keep diggin at ya...just tryin tuh help here.
The best way to "glue" the intake gasket to the heads is to use a small amount of weatherstrip adhesive(black or yellow) around the water passages only. Put it on the heads, let IT sit for a few minutes until tacky, stick the gaskets to it, pull them up, and then stick them back down. They are now stuck! They will not slide around as you put the intake on. Once the side gaskets are stuck, use RTV on the end surfaces of the block, and in the corners where the intake gasket meets the block, and then install the intake before the RTV skins over. This has, in every engine I've ever done, eliminated having to do it twice...or more. The only time I've ever had one leak is when I scraped the RTV on the block off while setting the intake on. Sometimes, ya just cain't set it down straight...

Valve guide wear/leakage can be measured, but it takes some specialized equipment. What they do is seal off the port, whether inny or outty, and then create a vacuum in the port. This way they can tell if the guides are leaking excessively, or the valve seats. Not really worth the $$$ on most engines. If your guides happen to be worn a little, they can be "knurled", which basically threads a special tool down thru them that raises the surface of the guide in a spiral...like a thread. This both supports the valve better, and makes it harder for oil to go past. The guides can also be reamed, and bronze inserts installed, to bring the guide bore back to spec.

Joel;

Brian told us to use the method you stated, but I forgot the part about it being weatherstrip adhesive (yes, he told me in a pm also, but I deleted it) so when we put the gaskets on the head, we put them on with a THIN coat of black RTV around the water holes only and stuck the gasket on as soon as we finished putting the RTV on.  It was still sticky.

I strongly suspect the heads because I just don't trust the yahoo who built them, and the rest of the engine.  Tim had these heads for a while and they needed cleaning up but he didn't say anything about the head work and since he nickel and dimed me to death and the price changed every time I talked with him, I would think he wouldn't have missed the opportunity to get more coins out of me.  He wasn't as bad in the beginning as the first guy I talked with, who went from $1100 to $3400 for the same work in about 10 minutes time, then the owner told me his employee screwed the price up and it would probably be higher. 

Mark told me $1100 firm, then every time I called, something else needed done and the price went up.

Since we can't find an engine guy or machine shop worth a crap around here, I may just buy new heads if they aren't cost prohibitive. 

I have heard of a place in Arizona that is supposed to be good at head work but I think shipping might be cost prohibitive.

I've put about 130 miles on her since the plug change yesterday and she seems to be doing ok so far.  The plan is for 2 more 100 mile trips, then a 400 miler on Saturday if all goes well on the next two trips.  Then up to Tim's next week to pull the plugs for a check. 

If they look good and she survived the trip on Saturday to Chouteau, then her next trip is to Ardmore.  Round trip there is 400+ miles so I will pull and check/change the plugs after that trip and prior to Hot Springs.

At this point, all I can think of to do is the plan layed out above. 

As always, all suggestions welcomed.

Thanks guys,
dnv2008-01-28 22:18:01

Thanks, man.  I'll PM him.

[QUOTE=dnv] Joel;

Brian told us to use the method you stated, but I forgot the part about it being weatherstrip adhesive (yes, he told me in a pm also, but I deleted it) so when we put the gaskets on the head, we put them on with a THIN coat of black RTV around the water holes only and stuck the gasket on as soon as we finished putting the RTV on.  It was still sticky.

I strongly suspect the heads because I just don't trust the yahoo who built them, and the rest of the engine.  Tim had these heads for a while and they needed cleaning up but he didn't say anything about the head work and since he nickel and dimed me to death and the price changed every time I talked with him, I would think he wouldn't have missed the opportunity to get more coins out of me.  He wasn't as bad in the beginning as the first guy I talked with, who went from $1100 to $3400 for the same work in about 10 minutes time, then the owner told me his employee screwed the price up and it would probably be higher. 

Mark told me $1100 firm, then every time I called, something else needed done and the price went up.

Since we can't find an engine guy or machine shop worth a crap around here, I may just buy new heads if they aren't cost prohibitive. 

I have heard of a place in Arizona that is supposed to be good at head work but I think shipping might be cost prohibitive.

I've put about 130 miles on her since the plug change yesterday and she seems to be doing ok so far.  The plan is for 2 more 100 mile trips, then a 400 miler on Saturday if all goes well on the next two trips.  Then up to Tim's next week to pull the plugs for a check. 

If they look good and she survived the trip on Saturday to Chouteau, then her next trip is to Ardmore.  Round trip there is 400+ miles so I will pull and check/change the plugs after that trip and prior to Hot Springs.

At this point, all I can think of to do is the plan layed out above. 

As always, all suggestions welcomed.

Thanks guys,
[/QUOTE]

Thanks Brian.

Tim, help me remember this!

I wonder if you have multiple problems confusing the diagnosis.  The problem of running worse when hot, then good again after cooling off seems like it has to be an electronic component.  And your only electronics is the aftermarket distributor.  That may or may not be related to fouling plugs.  I would borrow a distributor and run it hard to get it good and hot and see if it works OK.