To address a few questions and offer a little context to the situation...
Both valve covers are baffled, the driver side bank by the breather, passanger side by the PCV.
I have pulled both covers off off recently (new gaskets) and replaced the spark plugs at that time. For the record old set of plugs came out looking pretty 'good'.
The car/motor is nearly 30 years old by now. It has many miles on on it, probably over 10000. No idea what break in procedure was followed. (I was busy playing with Matchbox cars back then.
)
But it hadn't been run or maintained at all for the aforementioned 15 years or so. So last winter went through and drained old fuel and
oil. (Fresh gas, new filter, and Valvoline w ZDDP modifier) Disassembled and rebuilt Holley carb - all new gaskets. New plugs, and valve cover gaskets. Replaced a few old brittle hoses, cleaned some grounds and had some other essential chassis maintenance performed then as well.
With all that she now seems to start and run just as well as she ever has. The
oil consumption just came as a bit of a surprise.
Next time weather and free time line up I'll plug the PCV and put some miles on it. Hopefully later this week.