My 2000 VP is consuming about 2 qts per 3K miles. I checked for visible leaks, and could not find anything. There is no smoke at start up either. Any ideas?

 

Check compression to make sure it's not burning through the piston rings. If compression is still good, it's probably your valve seals on your head.

 

This is new territory for me. What would a mechanic charge to do these checks/repairs? Is it worth doing on a vehicle with 130K? I plan to keep the car until it dies. Will fixing give me more 'life' from the car?

 

Some shops have the stuff for a compression test but it's really something you can do yourself. You can rent the tool from autozone and use the instructions on the forum to do it yourself. (use the search button to find how to do the compression test.)

You can also do valve seals yourself but you need special tools and it's a more advanced thing. I'm not sure what a fair price at a shop would be.

 

Could it be my pcv?

 

Apprently yes, it could be your pcv, also it could be carbon buildup on your oil control rings. There are some good writeups on de-carboning using things like Seafoam, piston soaks, and water in the intake( aka steam cleaning the pistons). Things like compression test and leak down testing can help with diagnosing here.

hth