Freshly rebuilt 350 burning oil and tappet noise.

[gavotter333]

I need some opinion and advice from other members. This is a long one however you need all the info to understand where I am at. HELP

I have a 1972 Chevy c10 with a 350, 3 speed auto. Its a lovely beast and you can see her in the pics associated with my user name.

Ill cut out as much detail from my problem to give you an idea so you can comment. Easy way to tell this. Moving from San Francisco to new york. So decided to drive and take my very well maintained and loved truck with me.

Now I blew the 350 on xmas eve last year on the I5 literally at the exit to Bakersfield CA and took the truck to an engine builder there( I will omit there name as I am still communicating) To have a totally new engine built. 5K later merry xmas to me I had a new engine. Without getting into too much tech at the moment its got a comp cam ported polished heads and everything that you would want. I can go into detail if needed. Was what I had originally planned to put in when the assumed perfectly good 350 aged a little more.

What i then did is drive to phoenix where shortly after leaving Bakersfield I noticed oil leaking from the bottom of the engine at a rather dramatic pace. In fact every 20-40 miles i was replacing oil. I was very very careful to check that the oil level did not get low and continued to drive very carefully and went to a shop in phoenix to let them have a look. They were a friend of the shop that built the engine.

We discovered that the oil pan was not bolted on very well at all and that the reused rocker covers from my original motor were rubbish. At this point I really do have to mention that this motor was built over xmas. Some of the bits from my original engine are still there. There was nothing wrong with them however none of them are in the core of the new small block. Only the starter, HEI distributor and edelbrock 750 carb, Alternator and exterior bits were reused. I remember that the rocker covers had not been the best on my original 350 so I went and got some edelbrock aluminum ones and new gaskets and tightened it all up. it seemed it was all good.

Changed the oil and proceeded to drive. engine went fine however continued to burn about 1 quart of oil for every 200 miles driven. Now I was on the freeway at 65 Mph average/. Kept it low and did not push the engine although the guy that built it assured me that it was ok and would not break.

This is where it gets interesting. I continued to drive to New York and have to say made it here fine. All be it using lots and lots of quarts of oil.

So after communicating on a very regular basis with the builder who was and still is very helpful took it to a new mechanic here that seems to be good and knows his muscle cars and engines. I was told by the builder to put 30 weight oil back in the engine and a new filter. So this is what I have done. We also checked the timing and it was at 4 deg. I called the builder and he said it should be at 12-14 deg. we adjusted it and wow She flies. lowered the idle too as it was having a lot of run on. On one occasion it was bad and smoke came out of the bonnet like there was a fire in the engine. Not so good. Not doing this now.

Now this is where it is not so good. Its still eating oil at the same rate and although there is no smell or leaks its still using tons of oil. This leads to a new set of problems. After the oil change the passenger side of the engine has become very tappy. So much infact that I can not drive it and think there has either been head or valve damage. There is a loud tapping noise that seems to come and go. Sounds a little like an exhaust leak. ( however its not) and its not firing properly like a cylinder is not there. Its hard to tell with a really lumpy cam when you start it up but when it settles down it when revved a little sounds horrible. There is a loud banging along with the tapping. I have replaced all the spark wires to eliminate this as a possibility. Its just not firing properly.

So after all this if you have read this far. Would you think that the freshly built engine with all the top Quality stuff from a really good shop is cactus. Its now done 4000 miles and I cant drive it. Or is it just adjustments.

I am unsure of the law in California however i picked this motor up on the 27 dec and its not running like a 5k motor to me .. There seems to be too many things going wrong.

Help......