My 68 327 has 100,000 miles and runs strong. I changed my oil about 7 months ago and have put about 400 miles on in that time period. The oil is definately dirty, but not black dirty. Also, its about 1 quart low. No oil hitting the pavement or splashed on the underside.

Also, I've noticed some smoke when I let off the accelerator. Sometimes, pretty heavy. Not sure if this is due to driving only once every 2 weeks or so.

Are these signs of a engine in need of some work in the near future? Thanks much!

So..are you saying you burned one quart of oil in 400 miles?
If you do a search on the subject, it seems that a "rule of thumb" is if it smokes upon deceleration, its valves/seals/guides. So maybe you need to freshen up the heads. Until you do, why not try a little bit of good old Marvel Mystery Oil and see if it doesn't help a little. Some of the guys here swear by the stuff on high-mile motors, especially when it comes to sticky valves, seals, etc. And maybe drive it a little more. Good news is, its probably not rings, and you're not leaking. Hows the oil pressure?

Maybe about 3/4 quart of oil in 700 miles.

Funny thing about the MM oil. I was reading a thread that was right below this one after I posted this. Sounds like something I'll try.

donno bout the MMM... but it sounds very much like you're valve seals have seen better days.

The seals can be changed pretty easily without taking the heads off, do a search or pop me an email for details.

a quart per thousand really isn't bad... but nobody likes smoke.

One other thing to check that may help is the oil return holes in each head (valvetrain area, under the valve covers). It is very common for the oil return holes in the rear (toward firewall) to gunk over with time.

I have never seen this kind of blockage plug it up enough to cause oil starvation and engine failure, but what it will do is have the valve seals sitting in a bathtub of oil. This will make any leaky valve seals pass a whole lot more oil compared to normal lubrication.