^^ Yeah, it's burning oil. The oil is turning black much quicker and it's burning at about 2 qt / oil change. I'll do a compression test to verify. The only place it could be leaking oil is through the breather. That gets alot of oil. What could cause serious blow-by other then leaking piston rings?

There's no way I'm going to pull the head to get to a piston ring.

Faithofadragon said that he was able to pull the pistons without pulling the head through the oil pan. If I pulled the head I'd need to redo timing and gaskets. The oil pan would be alot easier I think. It's just an engine brace, motor-mount strut, then oil pan right?

 

yeah, then you have to pulll the transmission, to get the flywheel off, to get the crank off, so you can pull the pistons...

 

There's no clearance in there huh?

 

refer to my pics.. does it look like you are going to not only get a 82mm piston out of that space, and then get a ring compressor tool in there.

 

^^ I was at work until i posted about clearance. I guess you're right. It looks like it might be possible to get the piston out, but it is never going back in. I contacted Faith to see what he was talking about when he said that. Maybe he was saying durring a rebuild. I dunno.

I do have some other options to explore. Another possible cause could be clogged PCV line inside the manifold or valve cover forcing my breather to take the oil. Meh, we'll see. All I know is that I need to do a compression check to be sure. Thanks for the help. I'll post again in here if i find out anything.