I have a small oil leak that that gets worse during higher RPMs (4000+). I'm definitely using 2-3 qts of oil every 50 hours or so that ends up in a soupy mix in the bilge.

If I run WOT for a couple minutes I'll see what looks like a 1/2" wide spray pattern on the lower half of the bilge and engine hatch that lines up almost perfectly with the balancer. I'm not seeing any other signs of leakage from valve covers, pans, drain etc so I'm assuming that this is the front oil seal on the timing cover.

(#18 on this PARTS DIAGRAM)

My questions:

1 - Can I replace the timing cover without dropping the pan? (I want to do this in the boat and I have plenty of clearance to pull the balancer off, but my mechanic said that sometimes there is a lip that has to fit in the pan groove.)

2 - All my cooling lines have "one time" crimp use clamps on them. What should I replace them with if I dremel them off?

i dont know about the sbc's, but i had a front crank seal leak on my 502 and was able to get the seal out and new one installed without pulling the timing cover.

the problem was actually with the balancer. it was pitted a little from rust, and the pitting was taking material out the seal. they sell a sleeve for the balancer shaft that presses on and gives you a new smooth surface.