Need some opinions on where to go from here...

middleagecrisis said

Heads were new, but you put the old rings back into their matched cylinder. Did you run a compression check on the motor before you disassembled? The lower #4 cylinder and oil residue on some of the plugs tells me bad ring seal. I've never used the same rings again when pulling apart a motor. A quick hone job and new rings are too cheap to risk having sealing problems. That's just my opinion.

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Yes, heads were new, rings were not. Hence my logic for not re-honing. I never did a compression check before, mainly because I was planning to install new rings. But thought I would try re-gapping/checking ring gap, and re-installing back into the same cylinders in the same position, like many of the LS and some Hemi guys do for budget boost bottom ends.

I would agree with you on the ring seal of number 4, except that the leakdown, even cold, showed very good ring seal on all cylinders, except number 6