Maybe bad valve seals. The test.

Go for a drive at night when cars are behind you so their headlights are shining on you. Cruise at a steady speed like 50mph and then roll into wide open throttle, see if you just left a huge swirling cloud of smoke, or any cloud of smoke at all. Thats bad valve seals.
I had this with a big stroker motor way way back in 2002-2003. My builder, Agostino Racing Engines, told me to do the same thing I just told you to do......I left a monster cloud of smoke. Had my heads rebuilt and no more cloud. And, no more burning 2-3 qrts between 3000 mile oil changes.

 

Thanks! I think Ill try this.


Short of popping covers (dont think i’d see anything visually) or leakdown….I think i will just keep an eye on oil consumption. Based on most of the replies here and the amount of driving I did last oil change, it may be “normal”. I would rather keep an eye on it and try to develop a more accurate baseline before tearing into it. If i can indicate that it is burning oil at an accelerated rate, then i will investigate deeper.

 

My last engine, a fully forged iron 390 cubic inch 420 RWHP nice, but mild, set up. I beat the living **** out of it for the last 10+ years. I promise it never used more than a half court of oil between 3000-3500 mile oil changes. Up until 3 months ago when the cam started shedding material and caused me to have to pull it and I just finished building a brand new 390ci.

You should not be burning that much oil. Even high mileage. When my valve seals were bad as I mentioned on my previous engine it cured the oil burning 100%. I took my covers off to see if I could see anything wrong and there was nothing to see. I did notice soot building up on my bumber right above both tail pipes......thats how bad my seals were. You could also just have 1 or 2 really bad seals.

When we took my heads off all of the valve seals fell right out just by gravity, the seals were history.