oil COnsumption until 1 qt low

Dang. What I would do now is to double-check the data to verify that .0045-.005 piston-to-bore number and the kit. I just don't have the data in front of me and don't want to mistakenly mislead you into wrong and very discouraging conclusion.

If it really looks like hyper pistons in a .0045-.005 clearance was done, then I would pull a head and measure the bore diameters. That would tell you the story for sure. Then there is the question of why, with .003"-004" of extra clearance, the oil use is still so high. It may be that the piston rocking may have prevented the initial ring seal. And, if that bore size mistake was indeed made (a pretty incredible error to make), then the whole bore and honing finish situation is questionable in my mind.

And if the bores were too large to start with, then the only ways I see to to fix that are:
1) to see if a forged piston will fit properly in the existing bores, and check the bore finish and put in that new forged set of pistons with rings. But this probably won't work because you typically don't find forged pistons as light as hypers, and if the piston weights don't match, the engine will be out of balance.
2) Rebore to .040" for new pistons either hypers or forged.

Dang....