buddy bought a 99 ram 1500,5.9 says it gulps oil and gas,nothing coming out the tailpipe or engine external leaks,my guess is the plenum leaking causing it to suck up oil,my question is will it running lean with the intake leak make the computer feed it more fuel to compensate for the lean condition,runs great,pulls great,6-7 mpg around town sounds wrong,will sucking that much oil thru the engine cause the convertor to plug causing poor fuel mileage?he says 100-150 miles to a qt of oil

I'd do that lower intake pan gasket, and put a new 195 thermo in there while you're at it. After that, put a cheapo scanner on it and see if all is well with fuel mixture etc at running temp.

Agreed. Fix it soonest!

R.

Sounds just like my 99 Dakota with 5.2, it is getting fixed soon.