I'd have to say it's the cam then? I know I'm not much help, it's been a long time since I had anything like that but my guess is cam.

 

Ya I have had cam worries from the start, and any advice is helpful. Im weighing out the idea of a full removal or in the car disassembly all the way down ti the lower block. I need to do a full work through of the engine, to really do this restoration correctly, any advice on that?

 

i would say do a distributor rebuild first to get it out of the way. my old neighbor has a corvett stingray it had the same problem till we took apart the distributor and replaced every thing in it. like the pickup coil and the vacume hook up and the rotor put it back in and it ran beautifull. his stingray i think has the same engine but it has been a while. i am not sure if it was the 350 or the 305 i do believe it was the 350. i know it is hard to find the original cam for it because when it was produced then and now i think the hight of the new 350 and the older 350 has a slight lob difference. but i need to look that up again to be sure so dont take that as gold. i think there is a distributer up grade as well for the engine but i think it would be the best to replace/rebuild befor ripping the engine apart to see the cam

 

Are you trying do a resto?Or staying close to stock?If not then get a mallory distributor from summit they have a HEI for around 85-95 buck an is drop in ready with a upgraded coil an module.
I personally when do a rebuild to make sure the pervous owner didn't mess some thing up or didn't tell you every thing.There so much you can do to a 350 for a decent price.
But as far as your problem to me it seems like a cam issue.I be more help if I was there.I'm more of a hands on kinda guy.

 

Well I think im gonna do a full replacement distributor set up, and see how that affects it. I will have to tear into the engine eventually, even if that fixes it, becuase im getting a creeping feeling im burning oil and im pretty sure it's gonna end up being the piston rings or bores due to previously disregarded evidence, plus I can't handle spewing soild smoke into the shop. Its getting pretty annoying. Just saying.

 

What color is the smoke?Your not burn coolant are you?

 

Blue/black

 

Fuel/oil I wonder how bad the valve seals are an what shape the carbs in.
Sounds like the perveous owner take the best of care of it.

 

Previous owner lost it to the state, so take a guess

 

From the sound of it your trying to give it a second chance at life.Are you at a point were you can do a tear down?