I have a '67 Galaxie with a 390 just "refreshed"

I tore it down to a shortblock, cleaned everything, removed lifters, checked main bearing number 3 (looked brand new), had heads redone (machined on block mating surface, new seats on exhaust, new exhaust valves, all valves cut, new seals, guides knurled, new springs.), new oil pump (high volume), reused intake (Edelbrock Performer 390), rebuilt carb, replaced points with Pertronix II...overall pretty good.

So...it ran great for about 2 weeks then started blowing a bit of smoke. Soon, the rocker arm shaft on the drivers side exploded...at the college, so it was fun getting it home. Replaced both sides with ProComp (all I could afford) roller rockers nd reused the dip trays. Ran fine, then I noticed a few things...

1) My dipstick is WRONG...like full at 3 quarts in the pan...no lifter noise so I'm thinking nothing bad happened, got that all corrected now (5 in the pan, 1 in the filter)

2) I started leaking oil out the back of my intake...checked the bolts...a bit loose, tightened them up, no more leaks.

3) Here's the real problem...after that intake leak was noticed, I realized I lost 1/2 a quart through that (great...), so I topped it off and was fine...ran it for a day...went back and checked, no leaks, but now a 1/4 quart low (bearly on the dipstick). Topped it off again...next day cold start (PAIN) and I blew oil smoke untill I got up to operating temp, then it went away...

My question...what could've caused this? I don't have a vacuum leak and I think if it was an intake gasket it'd be doing all the time, as it rarely does it if I get on it, but just at the beginning. At first (with 3 quarts of oil) I was making an astounding 25 lbs of pressure at 2,000 rpm (didn't take any higher) and now I'm making around 40 at 2,000 rpm, climlbs considerably at higher rpms, but settles to around 10 at idle (SAE 50, I'm dealing with HOT days here)...Someone told me it was the valves seating and whatnot, but this is my first engine so I'm a little concerned...any input would be great.