I have a 1986 Camaro Berlinetta (see sig for mods) That the 350 in it just started acting up.

went out the other day to start it up and drive it to school since the weather was being cooperative and to try it out with the 3.73's. Just put in 4 1/2 Quarts of Castrol HM 10-30 last week, and Oil pressure has always stayed around 50-60 psi cold. I had a HELL of a time getting it started. Backfired once out the carb, but eventually fired. It started idling really irratically and was shaking badly like there's a serious miss. Oil pressure gauge was pegged at 60psi.

I've put 50 miles on the car since November, just a few trips around the block about every week. Never any problems with power loss before the oil change, always idled smoothly. Timing was set at 6 degrees base timing and 28 degrees advance and has not been touched.

it stalled after about a minute or two of idling, the header tubes for 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, all get warm, while 2, 5 and 7 were ice cold. Double checked the plug wires on 2, 5 and 7, to make sure all were sitting snug. That was ok. Took a timing light to see if the dizzy was giving current to the plugs. Yep. I took 2, 5 and 7's plugs out and they were soaked in oil pretty badly. Driver's bank seemed to put out quite a bit of blue smoke. I Cleaned the plugs out and put them back in. Idled great for about 5 minutes all the header tubes seemed to warm, and then started bucking and shaking badly. Pulled #5 again, and it was fouled in the same way as before.

Bought 3 new plugs today for 2, 5 and 7 (Delco TS43's) and put them in, double checked the timing, checked the cap, rotor and the plugs for the module. Fired it up and it was ok for again, about 5-10 minutes at idle, then the same symptom.

Could this be just Valve seals? Or am I facing a deeper problem, like misseated rings?

should I try a few squirts of oil down each spark plug hole and see if that improves things?

someone on my regional board suggested it might be a fuel washout problem.

anything else I should consider trying?

 

Nice double topic post lol

Again, are the plugs fouled with oil? Soaked with fuel? Water? Read the plugs.

 

Read the plugs. Sounds like the rings went away on you. If it was the valve seals, the cylinders would at least fire enough to get the headers hot and they wouldn't be stone cold.

Do a compression test and leakdown regardless of what the plugs say. If the rings are washed the leakdown will show it. For them to be washed though, it would have to have been real rich.

Did you break the motor in properly? Who built it?