Confused?Need some input please!

[89K5guy]

When driving my K5 i smell oil burning but nothing coming out of the exhaust.I am running true duals all the way back with headers.Anyway ,i pulled the plugs a few days ago and they looked perfect,no oil crud.I did notice however that on the intake on the driver's side there was oil laying in the little valleys.
Oh yeah and for some reason the passenger side exhaust pipe is black and when it first starts up and idles it blows out some watery black stuff then goes away.I understand that HEI burns hot which maybe that is why i am seeing no oil crud on the plugs at this point.It is using oil especially at highway speeds.Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Wishbone]

my '84 has the same problem. In my case the rear main seal is going bad and the leak is getting worse. First you smell it, then you see smoke, then the puddles in the driveway.

 

[mouse]

Its not uncommon for oil to seep up around those intake bolts. Where the oil sits, it very well could cause the oil smell.

You can pull one bolt at a time and apply some thread sealer or Right Stuff to the threads and the puddles should go away. Sometimes those bolts can be a bugger with everything on the engine though.

As far as the black smoke, sounds like a choke or rich condition under startup. If its blue smoke, then you probably have some bad valve oil seals - this is also common, and not really a big concern. Most people don't like smoke on start up, but it doesn't sound like anything serious here.

 

[Jagged]

My 87 with the stock exhaust did the same thing after I swapped a cam and new heads on it. Let it set for a while and when you start it up it would puke black water out the tailpipe.