I just bought a 1997 Chevy express van 350 motor 73000 miles on it. It runs very good does not puff oil on start up it does not blow blue smoke out the exhaust or leak any oil at all but it uses a quart every 300 miles. I have checked the breather it is not pluged the pcv valve is not pluged. It looks as though someone recently changed the intake gasket. Any one else had this problem or any ideas. Thanks John
Does it have vacumm power brakes, and how do the brakes "feel". I ask because had a Monte Carlo with a 350 in the shop a few years ago with complaint of first time hit the brake pedal good, but if you let up and hit again, like pumping the pedal the pedal got harder, and it the stopping distance was terrible. turned out the intake was vacumm leaking from the galley area. it also used oil, not as much as you are but if I remember it was a quart every 500 miles. this was an older gentleman's car and seldom saw highway driving. It ran well too.
Whitelightning
Good point. You could put a vacum gauge on it to and see if it is high and steady at a idle. (should be around 18 to 20 inches at idle and steady) Also he could have bad valve guide seal because that can cause increased oil usage as well.
Common problem. I went thru a quart every 200 mi. I suspect it was valve stem seals were worn, a common problem with the 350's in the early 90's at least. I however got sucked in by the employee discount and traded in my
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