This is my first post so I guess I could share some background first.
I got a 70 Malibu when I was 15, and me and my dad painted it ourselves.
It was originally with a 307 but got burnt up in like 76'. So the original owner put a 350 crate motor in it. That 350 lasted me all the way through high school, vo-tech and college. Which I thought was quite impressive for as hard as I drove it.
Now, its got a 700R-4 in it, and a 350 motor I built up in vo-tech. The motor sat for 4 years before I got around to putting the motor in it. It had pop-up pistons, and a comp 292 cam with .501 lift and the block was a 4 bolt. Plain jane 882 casting heads with 1.94, 1.60 valves, 76cc.
Well life happened, I got married, had a kid, (not in that order, but no regrets here.) So the car has been sitting for a couple months.
Last week I went to mow the yard for the last time and I went to move it. It had a water leak in the door, and there was mold in the carpet on the dr. side. Then I found the truck to be full of water.
I said thats it. I broke out the credit card, ordered a new cam. (comp 270 w/ .470 lift) but it in the motor from vo-tech on Nov. 11, pulled the old 350 out on the 12, replace the oil pan gasket I messed up when doing the cam swap, and a few other things, got the motor in on the 20. Sunday it was almost ready to fire except my starter wouldnt bolt up. Waited til Mon. the 15 and bought a starter and fired her up. The Holley was acting up that i rebuilt for it. (Fuel leak) So that was that. Tues. night we tinkered with it some more, and I had to leave early. My dad stayed up late and fixed the fuel leak. Wed night the 17 I raced to Classic Chevy after work and bought a door weatherstrip kit to fix my water leak in the door. Finally, I drove it Thursday.
Now for the problem, its burning oil almost as bad as the 140,000 mile 350 that was in it. graemlins/angry.gif I've only put like 75-100 miles on it up to today, and I am just really bummed out.
Some guys at work say its ok, give it a 1,000 miles and the rings will seat in but the other half, (the half I believe the most) says it shouldnt smoke at all. They say it sounds like a stuck or broke ring. I REALLY dont want to take that thing back out again, and really cant afford to fix it. I just wanted to get it to where I wanted to drive it that way I want to take care of it and my plan is not going well...

Thanks for listening and for any advice you guys may have.
Philip

My last engine smoked and burned oil for a while but then stopped after 500 miles or so. I never liked it and was about to do something about it when it stopped and everything was fine.

Was the engine prelubed before you started it up? Did it start up right away?

When is it smoking? Accel, decel?

your post was very confusing to read?

When I built it in vo-tech 4 yrs. ago we did pre-lube it before we started it, and yes it did fire right up.
Last week before we put it in I went ahead and chaged the oil/filter, prelubed it again just in case. With a Dewalt 12V drill on low it had like 80psi of oil pressure.
As far as starting right up I suprised myself because stabbing a dist. is my biggest downfall, haha. Of cousrse I had the dist. unhooked when we cranked on it to get the fuel to the carb, and when I turned the key with the dist. hooked up it busted right off and built oil pressure almost immediately. (kinda proud of myself.)
As far as I can tell it smokes all the time at idle, and it really starts smoking when you rev it. Its out both banks, and it is oil.
Philip
P.S. How was it hard to read?

Do you have a baffled PCV system hooked up?

Yes, I do have a baffled PCV.

where the heads overhauled/rebuilt when you built it in school?

Yes, the instructors helped me do a 3-angle valve job and we went ahead and knurled all the valve guides, and put on umbrela type seals.
Do you think its possible that the seals dried up in the 4 years and cracked?
Another thing was that I could have a stuck ring.

Originally posted by XChevellePhil:

Do you think its possible that the seals dried up in the 4 years and cracked?
Seeing that it was fired up four years ago, that means it had 4 years for those seals to sit and dry up. That is a DEFINATE possibility, probably the most likely culprit. Umbrella seals are cheap and fairly easy to replace. I'd try that before doing anything drastic yanking the motor or anything.

Give it a leakdown test.

Ditto on the leakdown test. It's a lot easier than tearing anything apart (even the seals)

Sitting for four years in an unheated garage may have caused a couple cylinders to rust a little. With some time driving, it may clear itself up, who knows.

Don't discount the intake leaking oil into the cylinders. Pull the plugs and try to isolate the cylinders that are burning oil and go from there.

knurled all the valve guides redface.gif

Bad idea

Don't ever do that again

I bet if you pull the springs off, you'll see broken off pieces of valve guide laying there. They are now trash (as if they weren't already).

At least they were just 882 heads, so you didn't screw up anything worth anything with that mistake.

Get a decent set of heads; and next time you're working on some heads, if the valve guides seem loose, use the bronze inserts to tighten them up. Then cut the outside of the guide boss, and use "positive" seals, instead of that useless stuff you've got now.

I dont guess that I understand what you are saying, to a point I do but still, broken pieces of valve guide? Its not like we knurled them on the motor. If its such a bad idea then why has it been done for years? (not like its needed nowadays but I dont know for sure.)

What are the symptoms, does it smoke constantly or just after startup and for a while after, but cleans up after some driving. Often bad seals will cause it to smoke for a while, but once the oil is burnt off and the seals get lubed up the smoke will clear up after it runs for a bit, and wont smoke until you let it set overnight again cause the oil leaks through. But, its still possible that the seals could be bad enough that they are always leaky. Either way, the volume of smoke should still be higher when you initially start it. If its pretty constant, its probably going to be a gasket issue or something with the cylinder walls or ring seal. Like LeoP said, pull the plugs first and if its obvious that only one or two burn oil, start there and save yourself some work.