Okay, I will now admit my regret at getting rid of the venerable 1984 Turbo 300D.

I succumbed to the good looks of the newer 1993 300SD. I heard the bent rod comments & the electrical gremlins that plague these models. But this car drove sooo nice, had so much power, started first time every time the 3-5 times I dropped in on the used car lot and started it from the cold. All the electrical stuff works save for the trunk close assist.

After I bought it in August, it just ran a little rougher than I knew it should. So I had the head pulled, and found that the head was not torqued to specs on the #1 cylinder....... so it was leaking oil around the gasket. I saw the gasket so I know the shop told me the truth. So while it was off, had it slightly machined, new valve seals installed and new hydraulic lifters too.
I had it compression/leak tested. It spec'd out after the head was done. While the head was off, the pistons all spec'd out at the top of the block so they said it is not a "rod bender"......at least not at that point. I bought it with about 93k miles on it, now has about 103k.

I drive at a minimum 1,000 miles per week. This rascal uses about 1-2 quarts per week at that mileage.... still. And when I floor it to accelerate/pass, it emits a huge plume of dark gray smoke......

Why does it use so much oil? Is there anything wrong (other than the expense) of just keeping to pour the oil to it?

Looking for some direction here, this just seems bizarre... are the rings bad? Valve seal job bad? Turbo pulling oil? Crank ventilation out of whack? Is the IP overfueling it and washing the cylinders? I am stumped.

Even still, it gets about 23 mpg no matter how hard I run it. Not bad for a big sedan...... and not too different from the old 300D...

Thanks in advance for the assistance,

JMH

PS:The shop where I take it has done work on all of my European vehicles for almost 20 years; have never done anything to make me not trust them.