Here's an update for those who remember
 

After 2 years and checking everything on my black car, we're closing in on the issue.

History: August of 2003, JPR heads with a 224/230 cam went in at JPR. Car made 375/363 to the ground through ASM headers and a cat on the first pull, first tune. Second pull detonated hard up top, done for the day. Immediately thereafter, car started running rich, stumbling, surging, low vacuum, fouling plugs, just running terrible. Get car down to FBC in Baltimore, they troubleshoot to two dead cylinders. AP Engineering shortblock goes in spring of last year along with a custom Joe O cam, and end result is car was running EXACTLY like before. Fast forward to May of this year, Alvin@PCMForLess was talking to Chad at Golen Engine Service and thought to run my problem by him. He said "I know EXACTLY what the problem is." After some pictures and descriptions, we verified the problem:

When my heads were ported by JPR, they were milled approx .015" (as measured by the combustion chamber size of 52cc), although it's unclear if they were flat or angle milled. The intake manifold was NOT cut. I wasn't getting a good seal along the bottom part of the manifold sealing to head surface, thus sucking oil and oil vapors into the intake runners where it was subsequently burned, causing all my problems.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...94571655YCxCWF
http://community.webshots.com/photo/...94571720brKftM
See the oil leak pattern? That was after less than 10 minutes of run time last time around (just a few weeks ago), and after we cut the manifold down .015 on each side also.

So.......now the car sits as THIS. I pulled the heads off over the weekend, and Golen is taking my heads and manifold and mocking them up on one of their decked blocks (we verified my block was indeed decked) and going to cut as necessary to make sure we get a good seal. It's been a long road and hopefully this is signalling the end of it.

Damn dood... that is some crazy stuff. Looks like it's been a battle for ya. The car made some good power with that cam the first pull, should be pretty strong when you get her runnin healthy. Best of luck to ya, let us know how she does in the next few weeks.

Yeah, I'm looking for 400-420 range and 370-380 range on power and torque respectively. The Joe O cam is pretty nasty, and the ONE time my car ran good for a couple of days (I unknowingly overtorqued the manifold down after a lifter swap) it scared the piss out of me with an 85% throttle 2nd gear pull.

I think I'll be talking to Joe O once I get my next LT1.

Getting the piss scared out of you by your own car is pretty awesome. :D