Excellent detective work -I learned quite a bit.

Are the 3.5's pistons aluminum or steel?
Also, has anyone tried replacing the scraper ring with one that is .003 thicker, so that it doesn't move so much with the ring land?

I'd like to see oil consumption measures rated by the hour, rather than by the mile. I think that the stop and go nature of some driving contributes more to the pumping phenomena than anything else.