i have a 57 bird with a 312 in it. has been setting in garage for about a year being started every few days. checked oil yesterday and noticed it looked a little cloudy. smelled the dipstick and could tell it had some gas in it?
Gas is not getting into the crankcase from an external
carburetor leak, but as mentioned a torn fuel pump diaphragm will leak into the crankcase. The one time that happened to me the oil level was also high, above the 'full' mark of the dipstick. What was shown as your oil level?
The reason I ask is there is one other possible cause - when you start it 'every few days' do you let it fully warm up to operating temperature? Just at idle, without driving, this may take 15 minutes or longer. If run less time than this, the
carb is set very rich at cold start and fast idle, to the point you are washing the cylinder walls with gas. That gas will end up in the crankcase and needs to evaporate through the road draft tube and oil fill cap vent. It cannot do that unless the engine is at full operating temperature for a bit of time.
Separately, everyone has a plan to keep a car in storage fit for use by occasional starting it. I've never seen anyone do it 'every few days'. I start my cars in storage every 4 - 6 weeks, and let them come up to full temp and then run for another 5-10 minutes or so (to assure the gas is evaporated out of the oil, and condensate in the exhaust pipe has a chance to get hot enough to evaporate). For the cars with auto trans I also put them in every gear for about a minute and roll backwards and forwards a few inches (as much as my storage arrangement will allow). I don't do this with the stick shift cars as I understand the input shaft rotating the cluster gear while in neutral will sling oil everywhere inside the transmission case to keep everything lubricated. Other folks may have other rituals to recommend, but I would suggest every few days may be too frequent.
