360 sudden oil usage

[Garry Albert]

After a cam and lifter change, I fitted a 750 holley with vac secondaries in place of original carb from an earlier model J20 to my 85 J20. We have had the worst time trying to get the mongrel to run without flooding it's guts out and stalling at the most inappropiate times, but also since we fitted the 4v valley cover/intake manifold, it burns about a gallon of 50 grade a fortnight, coincidence or not. Fuel usage is 9mpg at 60mph, daily driver ( when I can afford it) fuel in Australia is about $1.05 a litre.

[imported_horsepuller]

You're burning a gallon of oil every two weeks? That's an accurate figure and you're sure you're burning it, not leaking it?

It sounds like two separate issues: (1) Trouble adjusting a pretty big carb to run on a 360 (and what type of intake manifold did you use?), and (2) an oil loss issue related to the cam/lifters/intake work.

Can you provide more info?

[fredws]

Does the new intake manifold have the heat shield on it? If not, the PCV valve could be sucking oil into the intake and burning it.

[Garry Albert]

The intake manifold came off another 360 I bought with a gas kit, so I think it was standard issue, somewhere back down the track. I also thought the pcv may have been at fault, so, I disconnected it from the base of the carb and capped off the vacuum port at the carb,, still same. I have jusy pulled the spark plugs, they read an excellent burn by thr Haynes manual pictures, More thoughts please. I washed the motor down when I made changes, Don't have oil leaks,,,,yet.