Hey MainCap: We are going to do that with the intake eventually. My friend and I ran the motor for about 30-40 minutes tonight playing around with it and noticed no "solid blue" color out the exhaust, (maybe a little bit, not much) just "grayish" smoke. (keep in mind our exhaust system has a build up of oil inside). This is the first time ever it has not burned blue smoke on a regular basis out the exhaust. I'm still running on the electric fuel pump and fresh gas. There is a chance we have two problems going on at once. The ring seal is being delayed by the grease, and the chance of oil top side by either the fuel pump, or the holes in the intake. Realizing the ultra rarety of the fuel pump and oil mixing, we are going to go ahead and drive it some on the electric pump. If that doesn't pan out, then we'll pull the intake and take a peak. My friend kinda said what you say, if the holes or crack wasn't too big, the oil going through the hole, or crack, would act like a "flowing seal" where maybe the vaccum loss wouldn't be as great to affect engine running good, but enough to suck oil. I thought I could eliminate the intake altogether when I pressurized it on the motor. (backed off all the intake rockers). The only air loss was by the intake guides to which you could barely hear. Basically the intake sealed up like a tank. I would take the air hose off and plug the hole with my finger, wait for a bit, and when removing my finger, air would rush out like you took your shop hose off an air bubble or the like. (I made a plate to go where the carb is out of 1/4 inch steel, drilled and tapped a fitting into the plate for air. my machinist came up with the idea). Good way to check intake gasket seal or the rate of air by the intake guides. (during test also used my stethoscope to listen in the crankcase, etc. for air loss). Also no air association (or in) the exhaust crossover. One more way to test a motor. If that test shows intake is ok, that leaves me with the rings, or a rare problem with the fuel pump. The only other thing in my mind that is different from stock is the drain back holes behind the oil rings. The stock piston had 8, the new ones have 4 small ones. Most people feel this is not it either when I bring it up. Grease or not, in some 25 years, have I've ever heard of a new motor burn so much oil. My machinist said it this way, with tight clearances you could almost leave the rings off and it wouldn't burn that much oil like ours is. Also said with fresh guides it would be hard to dump such oil. (if guides were an issue ). He just feels the rings can't be that screwed up, grease or not. (especially after two ring sets and fresh cylinders). Even Hasting rings said twice over the phone with me, they can't imagine the grease ever being my problem. If I could eliminate the grease as a problem, does anyone have input on the drain back holes? It would be kinda nice to know what to look for when I get to the tear down. Some 20 pistons I've looked at has at least 6 holes and are bigger holes than on ours. CP piston company said on average their pistons have 6 drain back holes. Federal Mogul said don't worry about that, that's not your problem, even before he heard of what my problem was! Wasn't impressed with talking to him. If I'm not boring you all too much with this problem, I'll continue to keep ya updated. Thanks. Later