Your compression looks good. In fact, above what could be expected, so your compression rings are holding just fine. If you are burning oil, then the oil rings are worn. Oil is cheap though (for right now) so if you have the cash to get the short block overhauled, that is what I would do. If not, check the oil often and keep her topped off.

 

Redo the compression test but this time ad a couple squirts of oil to each cylinder when testing . If the rings are a problem the compression will spike up quite a bit with oil sealing . If it remains the same , the valve seats can be suspect . Be sure your valves are adjusted correctly before you try the comp test .

 

My feeling is that you have worn valve guide(s). As you see, #1 also has slightly higher compression. I'd say this is a side effect of the cylinder getting oiled. As a crutch, you could try installing new valve guide seals. I'm not sure what the milage is but most likely the old seals are long gone and worn guides.

You could also have a broken ring too but it's easier to install new valve guide seals first.

 

When you say the plug is black, do you mean wet with oil or black and dry? If its black and dry, it sound like its not firing, or the plug is dead. Is the car smoking and when, acceleration/deceleration? You shouldn't cause any problems with the valve guide because of the valve being misadjusted.
I'd stick a new plug in it and fire it up to see how it runs. The compression looks ok.
Jerry
My web page

 

More info and response to some previous posts:

I can't recall if the plug looked wet, or dull, but I do recall seeing a thin line of bare metal across the tip of the metal surface in the center (sorry, don't know what that's called) where I presumed it had been firing.

The car smokes out of the passenger tailpipe w/ blue smoke when idling and when revved up, but more so when idling and first revved.

The block is a '97 roller block w/ less than 1000 miles on it. I got it from a guy who was running low comression pistons for a supercharger but decided to upgrade to a 351W and sold me the bare block and original pistons cheap.

I installed new rings and original pistons and bolted on some freebie stock 1970 302 heads (no work done to them) taken from a running engine (guy can't remember if it smoked or not) before he upgraded to AFR's.

Can valveseats be done as a "do-it-yourself" project, or do I need to pull the heads and take it to a shop to do?

 

there are 2 kinds of black one sooty and one glossy if sooty look at carb running to rich and black smoke if glossy look at an oil problem blueish looking smoke if it is oil smoke then do what the others have suggested. ::

 

Oil burning on accel after periods of high intake manifold vacuum like idling at a stoplight usually indicates worn valve guides. Oil burning on any accel usually points to worn rings. Do the compression test again; all plugs out, cranking engine to get highest reading, then as mentioned above squirt in a little oil and see if the readings increase substantially. Also, check out your PCV system. A clogged PCV valve, hose, port, or breather can cause you to burn oil by pressurizing the crankcase.

 

Based on your published compression readings I can't imagine your compression increasing substantially. Leaky valve guides will frequently cause a cloud of blue smoke at start-up as the engine burns off the oil that has leaked down from the rocker gallery while sitting. You should probably consider replacing the plugs and checking them again in a few thousand miles. Note color and condition by cylinder.

 

Your compression numbers look OK to me....

Do you have blow-by? If not, I would suspect worn intake guides or leaky intake gaskets.