Owner's Manual says 3 qts. of oil consumed per 1000 miles. REALLY?

[Shortsguy1]

Hi-
I never had an owner's manual for my 68 220D until today (hooray for ebay. $3 plus $3 shipping). It says "average oil consumption-approximately 2.6-3.4 US qts. per 1,000 miles." Could that really be what MB intended for this car?

I have a Clymer Publications "MB Tuneup and Maintenance, 1958-1976" which supports this by saying "average oil consumption is 1 quart every 300-400 miles." But maybe they just repeated the same error.

That is basically a quart every visit to the fuel station. Can anyone check their owner's manual (for any MB diesel) and let me know if this is perhaps a typo? Seems incredibly high to me. My car leaks from pretty much every orifice and I still don't need to add 1 quart every 300-400 miles.

My main reason for asking is that I am trying to figure out if my engine has ever been rebuilt. I figure low oil consumption is one indicator of a healthy (and perhaps rebuilt) engine.

My car has documented, regular maintenance through 220,000 miles, but since then, it is hard to figure out as the maintenance records are missing.