Well, I took a look at the car finally today... Seems that I'm missing an oil pan bolt, and a few of them were hand tight, or even more loose. That can only be a part of the problem, but every bit helps. The rest of it is burning oil, and probably a leaking rear main, oh well. That doesn't matter too much after I found out the rest of tonight's look through...

So, I noticed that the car had been getting harder to start when cold, which made me realize that the valves(or at least one of the two really bad exhaust valves) were getting tight. The second exhaust valve was somewhere between .005" and .010", while the fourth was around .015". Those two valves were TIGHT, as in NO clearance, a year ago when I parked the car for half a year. They who knows how long they had been tight, but whatever. I knew the car was f'd at that point, just been dealing with it since then. Today though, I noticed that the 2nd cylinder's exhaust lobe on the cam is quite worn. Like maybe half as much lift as the lobes next to it. Awesomeness.

Between the worn cam, worn water pump, looosey gooosey bottom end, worn valve seats, oil leaks, blowby, etc, I'm going to give up on this motor/car when I can. I may actually sell it.

I don't have the time or funds right now to build my 74 block like I want to, and I don't want to go through the hassle of tossing it in if I'm just going to pull it out at a later date. The car's crap anyway. Except for some newer parts on it, but yeah. Meh.
--
Kyle - 142, 145, and 244! - Oregon Volvo Tuners?