'92 4cyl Tercel, '92 Tercel = oil hog Options

[matquig]

I bought a 1992 4 cylinder Tercel last May, so I have had the car around 1 year now. I bought the car in order to find a good priced, very fuel efficient vehicle, and found all that and more with the little 4 speed model. The car has just over 260,000 miles on it now, and I bought it will a newly rebuilt motor (I believe the man I got if from had bought a new long block for it). The engine is a champ, cruises at a nice speed for what I want and gets over 40 mpg on average. I'm not rough on the motor at all and have been running synthetic oil in it since I purchased it (it's what my family does with their cars), but when it comes time for an oil change I am noticing that the engine is consuming a fairly high amount of oil. There was one change where I only got about 1 quart out when it should hold 3.5. I know engines just use oil in general, but this seems like a bit much. I checked all around the oil pan and valve seals and everything looks fine. I also have gotten down and checked the exhaust and not noticed any smell or color that would make me think oil was being burned excessively. Has anybody else encountered the 4 cylinder eating up extra oil?