A few years ago I installed a SE Big Bore kit on an '09 touring. At that time I gapped and aligned the rings as per the service manual like always. Then about 15K later I took it apart to change heads. But before I did I did some checking. I was told the oil consumption was about a 1 qt or less in 5000 miles. I checked the compression hot and got 198 front and 201 rear. Once I got the cylinders off I saw that the rings were in a totally different position than when I aligned them. They all rotated. I decided to experiment. Since the cylinder walls looked fine I decided to realign the rings and assemble the engine without replacing the rings or honing the cylinder walls. I did check the gapping though. It was well within tolerance. It all went back nicely and ran great. Then after about 30K miles I noticed that the oil consumption dropped to less than 1/2 qt in 5000 miles. I also did a hot compression test and got 211 front and 216 rear. Did it again and got the same results within 2 or 3 psi. Checked out the inside of the cylinders with a borescope and saw very little carbon. Just a super thin coating on the piston tops. The cyl walls did have some vertical markings but the honed hash marks were still visible beneath them. So nothing significant there. I used all stock gaskets so no changes there either.The engine itself runs excellent. No missing. No pinging. Idles nice and smooth. So I wonder why the rings reseated themselves in such a way as to make a better compression and oil seal. And if they did what caused that to happen? Like I said, it's just an observation. I'm not recommending not replacing rings or honing the cylinders. But it makes me wonder if there's more here.

 

Interesting; no brilliant can I offer. Sounds to me like the rings did not seat the first 15k miles but, for some reason, did in the 5k miles after the rebuild. Did you change oil brand, type or weight? Rings will always rotate, nothing new there.