Possibly burning oil?
 

I have a 95 Gen V 454 Mag EFI. Rebuilt last year, block honed, new rings, new rod and main bearings. Replaced the valve train, new camshaft, hydraulic roller lifters, roller rockers. Heads redone by Tyler Crocket, new intake and exhaust valves, seals, springs etc. I noticed when running the boat, the starboard side of the transom gets darker than the port. The starboard exhaust tip is darker on the inside as well. Last summer when running for the first couple of times after the rebuild I noticed some weeping of a oil/water mixture out of the space between the head and the block on the starboard side. Later I found out that I did not torque the outside row of head bolts to 80 ft/lbs. They were only at 20 ft/lbs. I decided to torque the outside down to 80 and see how that worked. Through all of this the motor has been running great! No more seepage. I'm just wondering if I could be burning oil for some reason? I probably burn a quart every 5 hrs. What could be the possible source of the oil? Or is this normal? Also, the second spark plug from the back on the starboard side (forgot the cylinder numbering scheme) gets a little carbon on it. The rest of the pugs are perfect. Should I recheck my intake bolts? Just looking for possible suggestions or ideas? :confused:

Allen

Head bolts should be torqued in a pattern. If the outside bolts weren't torqued maybe the inside weren't either.
Check them as well.

DAVE

Rechecked all the head bolts and the rest were ok. I gave the information about the head bolts for background information incase that could have anything to do with the motor possibly burning oil. I also added stainless marine exhaust, re-programmed ECU from Arizona Speed and Marine, adjustable fuel pressure regulator. I messed around with the fuel pressure a number of times last season. I think I have it set correctly - forgot the exact setting. (plugs look fine except for the carbon on one and not much transom soot on port side). The motor runs great, 5300 RPMs and 74 on speedometer in a 24 outlaw. Just trying to determine why the starboard exhaust and transom is darker than the port after running for a while. I feel like I'm burning too much oil.

That does seem a bit excessive. Mine , with 700 hrs on big blocks (30 hrs this season) is down a 1/4 quart. By the end of the season it'll be near a quart low.That's usually 50 to 60 hours.