Can anyone help me solve my burning oil problem? I have put a reconditioned head on it with new gaskets and oil seal, replaced coil pack and plugs, fitted new exhaust and cat. The compresion test seems to be fine but a small amount of oil seems to have found its way into inlet manifold. After spending a lot of time and money I dont want to chuck it away, please help...

Valve stem oil seals maybe

The reconditioned head came with new valves and oil stem seals already fitted so I'm guessing it's something else, thanks anyway

Piston rings?

I've done the compression test and all 4 cylinders had good compression, so I've ruled out pistion rings

Did you replace all o rings?

I'd also check the torque on the head bolts too.

All the oil rings are new on the head and it was torque according to haynes manual

Oil consumption depends primarily on two things: the valve guides and piston rings. If the valve guides are worn, or if there's too much clearance between the valve stems and guides, or if the valve guide seals are worn, cracked, missing, broken or improperly installed, the engine will suck oil down the guides and into the cylinders. The engine may still have good compression, but will use a lot of oil.

Worn valve guides can usually be restored a number of different ways. One popular method machine shops use is to ream out the guides and install thin bronze or cast iron guide liners. Knurling is another procedure that can reduce valve guide clearances. With aluminum heads, the original guides can be driven out and replaced with new ones. With cast iron heads, the guides can be reamed out to accept new valves with oversized stems.

If the oil burning is due to worn or broken rings, or wear in the cylinders, the engine will have low compression. The only cure here is to bore or hone the cylinders and replace the worn or broken piston rings

Oil burning can also occur if the cylinders in a newly rebuilt engine are not honed properly (too rough or too smooth), or if the rings are installed upside down, twisted onto the pistons, or the end gaps are too large or are not staggered to reduce blowby.

Source - http://www.aa1car.com/library/oil_consumption.htm

be interesting to find out the outcome as i kinda have the same problem,though i havent removed the inlet manifold yet my compression was avaerage of 208 my mondeo has done 203,000 miles but still flys along and impressed as its a 1.8 duratec 2001 ex taxi