I am tearing my engine down today and noticed the cylinder that had all the oil on the plug is clean. I can still see the original color of the piston top. Is this normal for a cylinder that is burning oil? The other pistons are black with carbon buildup.
The valve stem is normal looking as well.

Jay,No its not normal for a cyl thats burning oil to come out much cleaner then the other 7 cyl's in the motor. The cyl thats burning oil should also look sooty like the other 7 cyls but will some oil residue left behind showing there was an oil burning issue.

If 1 piston top is very clean with no carbon/soot build up on it and the other 7 pistons are black & sooty looking as you stated i would suspect a coolent/antifreeze leak into that one cylender.

The coolent leak could possibly be caused by a faulty head gasket,cracked head or block,valve seat that was cut too deep into water jacket when head work was done,improperly installed valve guide/s breaking into the cooling jacket,or some kind of intake gasket or crack in the intake. But keep in mind the possible intake problems i mentioned are not likely to cause a coolent leaking issue into just in 1 cylender like your seeing but the other things i metioned are very viable/possible causes to go after.

Have the head,block ,and intake checked/magged for cracks that could be causing a coolent leak before you re-assemble the motor.

Scott

Thanks for the good news.lol There is builup on the combustion chamber and some build up on the center of the piston. The build up seems normal in the combustion chamber as well as the top of the cylinder. The crosshatch pattern also looks good in that cylinder. This motor has sat about 3+years with less than 2,000 miles on it.
The head gasket looks good, there is still the blue from the head gasket on the head and block. Usually you can see where coolant got by. The intake gasket looked good as well.
I am still in the disassembly stage, one head off, the other head the bolts are loose, just need to take them out, and pull the head to see the other side.

The cylinder I thought was bad is the #7. Cylinder 2,4,6, and 8 are sooty in the middle of the piston, but you can still see the color of the pistons on the very edge of the perimeter.
#5 looks like 2,4,6, and 8. 1 and 3 are really sooty across the whole face of the piston.
#7 is sooty in the very middle.