When to give up?

[Howard and Pat Warren <warrenwood@domain.elided>]

Of my three Alfas, my favorite commuter car is my 1988 Milano Platinum 
(automatic tranny.)  I've owned it for two years, and the odo just rolled 
164,400 miles at lunch today.  The body is still in beautiful shape, and 
the car has been perfectly reliable (except for a dead fuel pump once.) 
 I've put 24,000 miles on her in two years.  But I've hit a predicament:

Over the past year my oil consumption has been climbing.  Right now I'm 
burning a quart in less than 500 miles, but the exhaust is generally 
"clear" in color.  Upon acceleration one sees a puff of blue smoke come out 
of the exhaust.  A couple of days ago I put on a new exhaust.  Now that the 
car is MUCH quieter I can hear a knocking noise in the engine upon 
acceleration.  I use name-brand gas, and going to 92 octane has not helped.

While under the car, I also found other problems: a rear brake caliper is 
leaking, and the power steering rack is seeping.  And going through the 
car's records, the water pump is 90k miles old (how's that! <g>) the power 
steering rack and brake calipers are original.

And the worst: while driving home today, I stopped next to a black SUV. 
 Against the black paint, I could see wisps of blue smoke coming from my 
engine bay.  I double checked the headers to cat and there are no cracks. 
 I double checked my exhaust fitting, and it's on fine.

A full engine rebuild (heads and lower) is between $1500~2000 here.  I 
don't have the skills to do it myself.  Add in $700~800 for the steering 
rack and brake caliper.  Add in $500 for a timing belt and water pump. 
 Worst case I'm looking at over $3000 for a car that's worth only $3000. 
 And Murphy's Law implies that if I *DO* spend the money, either the 
automatic tranny or the ABS pump will blow next (they're 164k miles old, 
too.)

I'm not complaining about the quality of this car: how many 160k automatics 
(of any make) are running without significant rebuilds?  But there is also 
a point where "reality" sets in.  When do we stop pouring money into a car? 
 While the car hasn't really "broken down" I have changed out some parts 
over time and a lot of those parts can go into my GTV-6 project.

I guess my next course of action is to have my Alfa mechanic run a 
compression test and listen to the knock.  Fortunately he is a good man I 
can trust.

What about y'all?  When do you give up on a car?

Howard K. Warren, Little Rock, AR
1988 Milano, "SnowHawk", 164k miles (grounded with a Do Not Resusitate 
order)
1991 164L, "Peregrine", 63k miles
1984 GTV-6, "Falconi", 132k miles (suddenly promoted to daily driver)

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