[PetChemMan]

The possibilities that come to mind are a cracked intake that is pulling oil up from the block, a defective intake manifold gasket that likewise allowing oil to be sucked in from the lifter valley, a blocked PCV system that is blowing oil into the intake, a crankcase that is overly full of oil , spark plugs that are way too cold, or an ignition system problem that is allowing the plugs to become gasoline fouled.

I had a car brought to me that was smoking and misfiring during hard acceleration. The problem was 9 quarts of oil in a 4 quart sump ! I can see having 8 quarts in the sump, which would occur if someone " changed" the oil without draining the sump first, but having 9 quarts means someone not only changed the oil without draining it, but then added another quart on top of that ! The dipstick was correct for the engine.

On another subject, one lesson I've learned ( repeatedly and the hard way) is never to go charging off investigating a problem just because the owner told me what he thought the problem was. Usually, the owner's diagnosis is incorrect, and can cause a lot of wasted time investigating. For instance , the owner of the above car with 9 quarts of oil brought the car to me because he thought it had a brake problem ! He thought the surging and bucking of the car was due to the brakes coming on. In another case, a chainsaw was brought to me with a reported ignition failure. It turned out he had put chain bar oil into the gas tank, and gas into the chain oil tank. When he came back to pick up the chainsaw, I told him what the problem was, and he asked me how I had started with investigating an ignition problem and worked my way to the final problem. I told him the first thing I did was check the gas tank, and I never investigated an ignition problem. There was a moment of silence, during which he realized that his diagnoisis was never taken seriously !
Certainly, what the owner reports is your starting point, but don't forget to check the basics and and make your own analysis first.