My brother bought the car new and drove it until it had 146K miles then I bought it and I’ve put the rest on it. so I know the mileage is accurate although it would be hard to prove it because of the old 5 digit type odometer. When I bought it I was hoping to be able to drive another 100K miles out of it. If it makes it another 28K I will have put 400K on it myself, not bad for a $500 car. The most intensive repairs have been rebuilding the front end a few times (ball joints, tie rod ends, and steering rack), a couple clutches and timing belt/water pump replacement. The last clutch lasted about 260K miles and the current one has about 210K on it. The only clutch that wore out prematurely was the original. My niece drove the car a few times while my brother owned it, apparently she wasn’t too good with a straight shift. I’ve really not spent much money at all on the car, because I do 98%+ of the work myself and most of the parts that have been replaced I replaced with lifetime warranty parts so whenever something does wear out I just take it off and go get a new one. It has lifetime front/rear brakes, right and left ball joints, tie rod ends, steering rack, clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing, ignition module, water pump, fuel pump, front and rear struts and maybe other parts I can’t think of right now. Auto Zone will certainly be glad to see this one wear out!! I bought another '88 Escort for $800 a few years ago that had been owned by an elderly lady who had quit driving, it had 78K original miles and was nearly like a new car inside and out so if the Pony ever wears out I’ll strip it down before sending it to the junk yard and store parts in the garage to use on the GL.
I also owned a '76 Chrysler many years ago, I drove it as a daily driver until it had 231K miles and sold it to a friend and his wife who didn’t have a car or much money and needed cheap tranportation. I don’t know how many miles he put on it after I sold it to him, but he drove the crap out of it a couple years after buying it from me. The last time I saw the Chrysler it was on a flat bed going through town, it had be crushed and was on it’s way to be reincarnated into a new car. I’m not sure whether the car wore out or not, he quit driving it about the time an emissions testing law was passed and I know it didn’t have a catalytic converter on it, because I had removed it when I first bought the car with 32K miles on it. It may have just been going to cost more to get it to pass inspection than the car was worth.
Those parts you mention replacing are considered normal wear and tear items and based on the car’s history and mileage it sounds like it’s been a fantastic little car. Just drive it 'til death do you part.
Most cars have met the crusher long before that kind of mileage is accrued and it’s amazing that the car only goes through a quart of oil every 800-1000 miles.
The biggest oil consumer I ever owned was a Mercury Sable that went through a quart every 600 miles. I can’t complain over it though because the car had over 400k miles and most of the oil loss was from a leaky rear main seal. I lived with it because I simply had no inclination to drop the transmission and change the seal.
Try using rislone engine treatment, it’s better than SeaFoam, it will take 2 applications, just follow the directions, I can’t recall them exactly but you drain out enough engine oil to have space for the Rislone, or wait till the engine is down a quart then add it; drive it, that’s the part I can’t remember as to how far or long, maybe 30 minutes? Drain the oil and refill the oil leaving about a quart out, and replace that missing quart with Rislone, drive and drain and put all fresh oil in.
Personally, since the car just started using oil, I might try replacing the PVC valve before doing the engine treatment, and check where you park the car to see if there is any oil leaking onto the pavement. Once you replace the PVC drive it for a while and see how it does.
If the PVC fails to cure the problem then try the Rislone treatment.
If none of that stuff works well then you know the engine is weak, not much you can do except add a small can of STP Oil treatment, it’s more tried and truer than the others that promise the same thing that are on the market. Adding STP is not a cure all, it’s more like putting on stitch in a wound where 6 are required, it won’t stop the bleeding entirely, but it could let you use the car for a while longer, how long? That’s purely speculative. But I would be saving money like crazy to buy another car, and keep saving till the engine quits, hopefully you can pay cash for a car and not get a loan.
I forgot, make sure you are using high mileage oil if you’re not already, Castro GTX is the best in that category of more severe oil burning. Check your owners manual to see what the heaviest weight you can use and use that weight.