If you had an opportunity to inherit at next-to-no-cost an early-90's that had recently developed an appetite for oil:
is it safe to assume the engine is on its way out? High mileage, but well-maintained.
if the engine was toast, what would you put in it? Shoestring budget if possible, but has to be reliable and reasonably easy to work on.
Aaaaaand go.
I have opened many high mileage BP motors that still showed its cross-hatching on the cylinder bores. Generally valve stem seals are the weakness and oil burner unless the motor was abused.
The cheapest solution is swapping in another Miata engine. If you have an early Miata, you could get a '94 and latter 1.8 for a little boost in performance.
If for some reason you wanted less performance, you can drop in an early 90's Festiva engine. it's mostly a nuts and bolts type swap with a bit of fabrication and some mild electronic fabrication. My current Miata has this engine in it.
A three cylinder Geo metro 1.0 can be made to fit but the parts to do the conversion are getting hard to find.
Check the basics first. A faulty PCV valve can cause a lot of oil consumption.
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