[vancelot69]

I'm not sure. A few weeks ago, I put on a new power steering gear because a friend of a friend who is a mechanic told me that that is what was blowing petroleum all over the exhaust and making it smoke. After I got it on, I wiped down 3 spots on the bottom side of the engine - the oil pan drain plug, the oil filter, and the timing cover. Then I took it out for a short drive, about 5 miles, and only got it up to about 45-50, but by the time I got back home, I saw smoke that looked like it was coming from under the front passenger side fender, so I jumped out to see if I could see where it was coming from but it had already stopped by then. I climbed under it and the three spots I wiped down were still dry, but I saw some other wet spots. At this time, I didn't wipe them down.

Fast forward to yesterday. Yesterday morning I got out and wiped down the other couple of spots - the sides of the bell housing (the flat spot where the dust cover mounts to), the input shaft to the transmission / throwout bearing, and the output shaft on the engine / rear main seal, then went to the local off-road park. Got it up to 55+, but most likely no faster than 65, off roaded for a bit, then drove home. In the course of that time, I did have to add a quart of oil, but all of the spots I wiped down were still dry, maybe a slight hint of dampness on the input and output shafts and timing cover. During the drive home, going up one particular hill, it felt like it had no power, and the lifters were chattering like crazy, and my wife said she saw black smoke coming from the exhaust. So, the thought crossed my mind if those Spectre valve covers I got don't have correct baffling, or if I didn't set up the PCV correctly and it's still consuming oil, or if perhaps whoever rebuilt the engine before didn't set the ring gaps opposite each other, or if the improper PCV setup before messed up the rings or valves?

The carburetor is manual choke, and there is no choke handle in the cab, so it's basically not choked, so I have been thinking about either getting a carb with electronic choke or something, or swapping to an EFI kit, or doing an LS swap, but all of those except the carb are too expensive (for me) right now.

My friend's mechanic friend said that the lifter chatter could most likely be attributed to being out of time. This engine still has the old points and condenser style ignition, and I have been thinking about replacing it with electronic ignition. I have seen a few threads on these boards where people suggest to use the electronic distributors from newer Chevy small blocks, but I haven't found any reviews on this site on after market electronic distributors, like MSD or Accel. I'm not concerned about it looking original, I just want it to be reliable as a daily driver and part time off roading / road tripping / camping / overlanding / blah blah etc. etc.

Maybe the combination of the carb/EFI and ignition would be worth it to save a few bucks more and do the LS swap...

edit: added more to the second paragraph.