Ironman oil update-take two

Well another week of wrangling with the dealer on the fate of my VX. If you are just joining the thread, I bought the '99 off of a used car lot (AutoExchange) and found on the first trip that it was burning a quart of oil every ~350mi.

The dealer has tried a couple of different "fixes" but it is still guzzling. I called again today and the dealer said has been in touch with Isuzu about the "oil consumption program" and Isuzu told him that this program was for the original owners only (at least that is what he told me)

Then to my surprise he said "go ahead and bring it in Monday and we'll get it fixed" I asked what they had planned and he said "we will go ahead and re-ring the engine per Isuzu's bulletin"

So that opens up a whole set of additional questions...

Does anyone have access / knowledge of this bulletin? I can't imagine that just dropping a new set of rings in a 100K mile engine will have a chance of seating. Which would mean at a minimum, rehoning the cylinders...ideally boring and rehoning, but then that would get into new pistons as well. Anybody know if the bulletin call for re-honing the cylinders or any other additional work?

Has anyone had the engine "re-ringed" only? It seems that most of the threads I have read, the engine was just replaced.

The whole process of tearing an engine down, then putting it back together with the same used parts (ie not doing at least honing, crank polishing, new bearings, etc) makes me pretty uneasy.

I don't know how far I will get, but I'm going to press for at least an additional 3K mile warranty on the "re-ringed" engine.

Anyway, what do the great folks on the VX forum think? Anything else I should look out for?

There's never been a recall issued on an Isuzu-produced vehicle, but all manufacturers issue Technical Service Bulletins to update servicers of improved techniques and procedures for maintaining vehicles in the field. In looking up the TSB list for the 1999 VX there is an updated piston ring installation procedure. You can view the list here: Technical Service Bulletins for 1999 Isuzu VehiCROSS.

Unfortunately, you can no longer view TSB's without a subscription. I would imagine they would at least hone the cylinder with a ring job. You can get away with that, and while not the "ideal" way it's often the common way. There's not really much to replacing rings, just pulling heads and the pan to gain access to the rod-ends and pistons. Everything else is just left in place. A good idea would be to get some feedback from other customers if possible to find out the capability of this dealers shop and the mechanics there.

It's truly unfortunate you've got a 6VE1 with problems, but considering the shear number of these engines produced (hundreds of thousands) it's just a matter of odds.

If you can still turn that VX in and get out of the deal, Corey, do it. New rings may fix the problem, but you might find much bigger problems when they open it up. This just happened to a buddy of mine this summer... he was going to replace the head gasket on his GTA to finally fix an oil leak, but they found a groove in one of the cylinders when they opened up the engine. Bad news. His $1000 gasket job turned into a $3500 new-bottom-and-rebuild job.