Thread: New engine blues

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Ok.....;.. I have built a grand total of 4 sbc's. Each of which have had relatively the same problems. I have finally gotten an aluminum intake to seal. Whoo hoo!! I still seem to have a hard time with the oil pan. But im going to try to use one of felpros one pc gaskets. Btw.... all of the engines have been pre 86 blocks. Anyway......the one problem that i always have is that after running the engine on a stand for a while after breakin, i seem to get oil on the plugs. I havent gotten this engine in the car yet to drive it. Is it possible that all i need to do is get some street time on it? Like maybe an engine running on a stand wont allow the rings to fully seat? I have been messing with this thing for 3 weeks on the stand. Is it also possible that the rings will never seat right now due to running on my stand?? I really thought I had the answer to my problems by finally getting the intake to seal.... PLEASE help

Because you had trouble getting the intake to seal(?) I would question rather or not you still have a vacuum leak and are pulling oil out of the lifter valley into the intake ports and, hence, to the plugs.

OR.. is it possible the plugs are fouled with raw fuel and not oil?

What brand of intake is it?

I am running a performer air gap. The reason i say that i dont have an intake leak is that i dont see signs of oil leaking around the front or rear, bolt heads are dry. Is there some other way for an intake to leak without any visible signs? Ive run the engine with a vacuum gage hooked up. It idleing at 13hg. The needle is a little bouncy and moves 1 to 2 hg. I figured thats due to the cam.... Idk. How can i check the intake as the culprit if in fact there is a potential leak? Or....... would a vacuum leak in general allow oil to be pulled into the cylinders? The engine is running quite rich........ Would the plugs look like oil???? I reallllllllly want to just have this engine run like it should. This is 4 ina row... Ive done so many different things with this build to try to overcome troubles ive had in the past. Im running a retro roller cam, custom lentth pushrods, etc