Freshly rebuilt 350 burning oil and tappet noise.

[Elephanthead]

My point about the $5000 cost is if the engine only is usable for 50 miles, you have an issue with the builder, if you paid some joker 100 bucks to do a junkyard swap, that is another matter. I realize costs out west are higher, so maybe $5,000 doesn't get you what is does here. Anyway the place to diagnose it is not over the internet. Tear that thing down. Sorry to hear your having issues.