the smoke smells like oil? its not water vapor?

I had a Saturn that did this once, especially under engine braking: it was the head gasket letting water into cylinder 4 and it was vaporizing. When I took it apart, cyl 4 was steam cleaned AF

Not saying this explains everything youre experiencing, but there are a lot of similarities IMO. it might also be how oil is making its way directly into the exhaust

 

Its not an overpowering smell of anything to be honest. I don't smell the strong dexcool burning smell but its also not crude oil burning in a barrel strong. I Suppose its possible that its a head gasket theres a spot on the passenger side header that is odd. It looks like fresh oil spilled on it but its not burning off at all. When I wipe it doesn't leave oil residue on the rag so maybe the passenger side head gasket let loose and splattered a little out the side? I would love to just pull the heads off and not yank the entire motor. They are LS9 gaskets with ARP studs that know I torqued correctly because I triple checked but I had the heads on and off twice and reused the same gaskets.

 

I run 2 catch cans vented to atmosphere, they both smoke abit and it smells like oil. Its been like that for 2 years with no issues.

 

Hmmm. I run one catch can and do not vent to atmosphere and I get zero smoke. My ring gap is .022 and .024” FYI. I also run the mighty mouse catch can.

 

Ring gap is .025 top and .027 bottom. It did not smoke that for the first 150 miles so I know something is wrong

 

Number 4 looks wet with oil. These plugs have not been changed since first start up.

 

Remembered I had a cheap bore scope laying around and decided to probe the holes. Pics are terrible but I could see I'd say 80% or more of every piston and they all look good. Some just look wetter than others . I also drained the oil and it looks great! No coolant, no sparkle, no chunks and not necessarily burnt smelling or smelling of fuel.

Yes I know the quality and angle suck but I figured I'd post anyway. I was able to spin the camera more just couldn't get it to hold in a good spot so I could actually take a pic showing all of each piston.

 

Looks like good news to me. Pulled passenger head and found #4 had been burning oil. Everything looks good to me besides the head gasket. Theres 2 things I can think of I might have done to cause this.
First is I torqued the heads down and then pulled them back off twice I think and used the same gaskets.
Second is that I was religious about keeping the motor soaked in WD40 and I sprayed the cylinders with the gaskets sitting on the studs. Maybe the oil got between the layers and cause it to not seal well.

 

This dude looks like he may have been seeing some water. That piston is pretty clean.

Your number 5 plug is really clean too.

 

I'm thinking that the head gasket was a total failure on #4 letting a little water and lot of oil in and out of the motor completely. Maybe the gasket was bad out of the box?

Got driver head off tonight and all looks well.🙏

I ordered the new gaskets from Amazon on Saturday and they said delivery by Wednesday. But now most of everything is postponed till April so hopefully they come Wednesday.