well crap! drove the car 15miles today and gained a quart and 1/2 so i reckon it wasn't the lift pump. also the ticking noise came back because the oil was thinning out i think. with the car starting so easily even with the engine hot and running so smoothly it makes me think [hope] that it is not the injection function of the pump and injectors. it seems to me that it wouldn't run well if the "function" was losing that much fuel, that's approximately 30% of the fuel that it took me to go to and from walmart. anymore thoughts?

thanks, joe hunt