[MeanGreen1LE]

Well here it goes; another entry in my personal My Car Hates Me journal. Still chasing what I feel like are sporadic vacuum leak issues. Lean below 2k, increased bucking in 1st and 2nd, (manual) slight rev hang….when previous drive none of that was really there.

So anyhow after retorquing my stupid msd after completely removing and separating halves and all that and putting it back on for the same reason. (I’m not a fan of the manifold, can ya tell?). I was checking the gaps between the halves and looking at where the runners seal to head when I noticed there was oil on the side of the head up under the manifold.

For various and usually infuriating reasons I’ve had the manifold off the car several times and every time there has been oil on the heads and valley and with some film in a few intake runners. It’s always seemed excessive but I’ve always chalked it up to the fact about how dirty these engines are known to be. I have the Mighty Mouse mild but still saw some evidence of it pulling some oil through TB from factory catch box system.

However!! The last time I pulled it all apart I got rid of pcv system altogether running breather in center port of factory catch box and a baffled breather from oil cap location to Mighty Mouse to make sure I had enough venting.
So where is the dang oil coming from then?
Recently I’ve seen a post on a Facebook group about blocking off the extra lt4 bolt holes on cid heads. I don’t have those heads and mine are lt1 specific but is it possible that oil is wicking up from the bolts on these holes? I know it is an occasional issue on gen 1 sbc and other v-8s in the past. Picture is from a previous time and it sure looks suspect to me. Any thoughts?