Not good to hear, glad your still around to share wisdom.
As an update, i decided to run some seafoam in the oil to see if there is a stuck ring. Ran it for 25min. The pace of oil coming out of the pump was considerably less but still weeping.
I will try mowing with it tomorrow to see...
I was looking for something broken or bent. It seemed fine but at the time I had oil blowing into the intake. That doesn’t seem to be the case after sanding the head but I only say that because it wasn’t smoking after the test cut I did afterwards. Before it would start smoking and bogging...