2009's greatest motor mystery...

[Gray Ghost]

It's time to bring this one to the masses.

I bought this truck in 2006. The original 010 block 350 had 118,000 some odd miles on it when I got it and it ran fairly well. It did use some oil so I knew the time would come when I would have to replace or rebuild.

I made a very bad choice to rebuild the original motor, not knowing the trouble I was getting into. After the rebuild I knew I had chosen the wrong builder. Even though he came highly recommended by two of my mechanic buddies, I've had nothing but trouble starting with bad pushrods the very first week.

I asked for a one piece oil pan gasket and he ordered the wrong one apparently. When I took delivery he told me he had a very hard time with it. Soon it was leaking like a seive. I took it to another mechanic [another wrong choice] and he put on the normal FelPro set. Soon after [a few months later] it too was leaking.

Since I drive the truck daily I don't have a lot of time to work on it. So for months I just kept on feeding it 1-2 quarts per week and waiting for the day I could attack the problem with some professional help. That day came last month and I took it to my buddy's shop on a Saturday. He re-sealed the oil pan, the timing cover, the front and rear seals and even checked out the bottom end for undue wear. Told me it was fine and that all I needed to do was to replace my valve covers. The ones I had were too tall on the lip for the Performer EPS and they were leaking.

I dug out some new in the box Edelbrocks and went to town and got them all sealed up. Now my crossmember is dry as well as the motor itself...except for a very small area under the front of the intake. Problem is that I am still leaking 2 quarts per week. Since I drive 75 miles a day, my next thought was rings.

I changed out all my plugs and none were oil fouled...better not be after only 21k miles right? Since day one I have been watching the oil dipstick like an addict watches his stash and it looks like I am still going to be doing it for awhile. So where's the oil going?

The back of the block is dry so it's not the rear intake or dizzy. There's no oil in the rad so it's not a head gasket. Only one spot under the front of the intake is wet. Could that bleed out a quart every three days?