OK heres the latest.... I checked my oil again and I was 2 quarts low! Just a few days before I was full but then I took a 3 hour drive on the freeway at about 3 grand the whole way. I filled er back up and it got a little quieter. Also adjusted valves but seems to me to be really loud in the morning when I first start it up still. I think the fuel pump was leaking oil so I changed that. No time to change oil yet. When I do an oil change, I heard 4 quarts. Is that right? With or without filter?

Could I be hearing piston slap? Do these things have old school forged pistons? Thats what is sounds like? Sounds like a diesel just fired up cold. I have 129,000 miles.

Losing 2 quarts in a couple of days with a 3 hour drive? That sounds like something serious. Your talking what less than 300 miles and losing 2 quarts of oil?

yea thats alot. i lose about a quart every 2 weeks i think its from my dist. o ring.  you dont see any oil leaks anywhere?

I changed the fuel pump filled er up and seems to be holding just fine now for about 3 days. The oil pan seems to be seeping, but not enough to drip so I think the 6 hours of driving at 3500 probably sucked out a lot. My new concern is how noisy this thing is when I drive it cold. I know its best to warm things up fully but I have never had a rig that sounds this bad when cold. Are these rigs commonly noisy when cold? Is it associated to piston slap? Im just trying to figure out if its 'normal' or not.

mines loud when its cold it cold idle is at 2600 rpms for about 30 secs then drops to 1300 for a little over a minute and idles at 900 when finally warm. do you have a compression tester?  or even check your sparkplugs see if there oily and what color is your exhaust when its warm? 

did u get my email i hope it works for ya