So I have a 2002 with a new tophat motor 40k ago. It has lately been a little too territorial about marking its spot. I bought a pan gasket set and plan to inspect the line going to the oil cooler. Will also snug up the valve covers.

Are there any other obvious places to look?

 

Take ya pick Zuke, engine, autobox, transfer box, front and rear diffs or maybe the gallon of oil spilt in the luggage area now leaking through.

 

I've read that the valve cover gaskets are notorious for leaking every couple of years. This may be bad info or not. I don't personally have enough experience.

 

Your main culprits for oil leakage will be the valve covers and front crankshaft seal. The rear crank seal will go too, but not much you can do about that 1. It will take you about 4-5 hours to "snug up" the VC bolts; Since they are buried underneath the intake manifold it's best to replace the valve covers, wires, coil packs & so forth. I don't know if you have removed the intake manifold but it's fairly tedious, especially if your engine is equipped with emissions setup. If all or most of the oil isn't leaking from there, you will most likely find that the whole sump is covered due to oil blowback from the front cover seal: also not the easiest/quickest piece to replace.