I think that I have narrowed my oil useage to the valve stem seals. I did a compression check and all of the cylinders were between 135 & 145 PSI dry.
I have purchased the Fel-Pro kit (HS8548PT-6) for redoing the top half. I understand the procedure in pulling the heads and I am ok with all the mechanical stuff. I am more concerned with things like valve guides and machining.
How do I really tell if I need to get my valve guides replaced? Money is tight right now because of reduced hours at work so if I don't have too I won't.
I have seen the better vavle seal that require machining but they aren't part of the kit. So how bad are the standard seals and will they last for a few years? I want to fix this and drive it for a year or two.
Any guidance and help is GREAT.

 

A year or two, use the stock type.

Forget the guides, just swap in the seals.

Make sure everything is clean, especially gasket surfaces.

You might fill the ports with water and see if the valves leak if you are paranoid....

Good luck.

 

The valve stem seals can be replaced without removing the heads. To do this, the particular cylinder is rotated to TDC, an adapter is screwed into the spark plug hole and then compressed air is admitted to the cylinder. This holds the valves closed, and a small screw type valve spring compressor is used to compress the spring and remove it.
In lieu of compressed air, even thin rope or sash cord can be used to fill up the cylinder.

A bit of Google searching will no doubt show the details of this technique.

 

Good idea, this could save some money for the OP.

 

If you decide to pull the heads and want to check the valve stem guides here is one way you can do it. Remove the valve springs. pull the valve almost all the way out but with the tip even with the top of the guide. Wiggle the valve back and forth, divide the distance by 3.5 and this will give you the approximate stem-to-guide clearance. The upper clearance is 0.005".
I just had my heads done for $125 - new valve guides and seats reground to match the new valve guides. My valve guides were really close to the upper so I did them while I had it apart (of course I did a minor porting job on the exhaust to give me more power but I have 302).
My brother did not do this on his 428 due to funding issues and really regretted not doing the valves guides. For him they started leaking oil almost immediately.

 

I was able to get the valve seals done (finally). It was real pain because I didn't take the engine out of the truck. I drove it a bit the last few days. When I get home I am going to check the oil usage. I am hoping and praying that solves the problem. If it doesn't I think I am about ready to give up. This thing has been nothing but trouble from the minute we brought it home.
If that does the trick then the next issue is solving the "pinging". I think it is a vacuum related issue because it starts to ping only after the engine is warmed up. When it is dead cold no ping.
Thanks to everyone who gave the advice. It was all helpful.