I did my first oil change at about 1200 miles, and noticed it only took about 7.5 quarts to fill up. I think it is because I didn't allow the oil to drain long enough. On my next change at about 6000 or so, I allowed it to drain much longer and it took 8 to fill. I used about 1 quart between those changes. I never add oil unless it is to the bottom mark on the stick to prevent over filling. I am about 3000 miles into this cycle and I am down about 1/2 a quart, again I will not add until or unless it gets to the bottom mark before I change it again in about 2000 miles. I am using Castrol 5w50 synthetic.
I drive quite a bit of highway/ back road on my 2 1/2 hour weekly trip to and from work. There are a lot of 4th gear upper end of rev range passes done on the 2 lane roads. I also put my car on the track for a session or 2 every few weeks, a nice perk working at a race track, and the remainder of the time are what I would consider normal little trips around town. Also, during the week when at work I have a very short 2.2 mile commute to the track, barely enough time to even get warm. I would say my car sees every possible type of driving situation you can encounter.
My personal opinion on the head warp issue is that the cars are operating in too high of a temp range for extended times. We all know the enemy of aluminum is heat. Are the guys running Boss 302S grills blowing motors? Or those that have swapped to a higher capacity radiator? How about oil separators? Are the blown cars equipped with them or not?
I think we need more info from those that have blown up as to miles, type of miles, oil, oil usage, any and all changes from stock, etc, to get the real picture on why these motors are being lost. Ford was pretty confident that we couldn't blow these things up, and I was too. I love my car, but hate the uneasy feeling I get reading about blown motors.