[Shockwave78]

Originally Posted by steve25

Any intake valves that where not closing properly, yet the cylinders firing would have made for back fires being heard out the Carb, especially when you put your foot in it,BTDT!

Did the op have plugs that where not firing? I forget.

The one major thing here that will have many different repercussions is that for whatever reason the amount of run time on the motor in its poor state was enough to get the engine oil to smell of fuel, so this was either due to 1) cylinders not firing. 2) a Carb problem. 3) or both combined!

Also low vacuum in and of itself would have made for a rich condition.

Diluted engine oil combined with blowby will make a mess of things, I have seen this in many a high mileage SBC motors that should have been rebuilt the right way, that there owners just re-ringed and stuff in a 250 duration Cam and a 850 Carb while the delusion of then having a 11 second car.

it was firing on all 8, I checked the cam timing, it was installed correctly, and the new timing set is cut exactly the same as the old stock one, so I don't believe cam timing is the issue. I don't know that the piston rings sealing is/was the issue either, because of the compression it had, and the cylinders are no more scored now than they were when I first took the engine apart. The fuel in the oil was definitely a carb issue, and that has been fixed.