Here is a post from another site addressed toward my VX.


Your engine is young. If you do the right stuff now It may never get the oil burning problem. I sold my 2000 Trooper over it because at the time it was not well understood. The oil burning is caused by the fact that the pistons in the early 3.5 only have 4 small return holes under the oil ring. If these get gummed up the oil scraped off the cylinder walls goes into the combustion chamber instead of back into the block. Eventually the the rings can stick compressed in the ring land. There is a lot of write up on this on the planet. Main thing is run rotella synth diesel oil and periodically clean the entire EGR tract and tubing and run seafoam through the engine. If you keep it clean before it starts you should be fine. After the rings get gummed it's hard to free them again without an overhaul. Other than that is a fine powerful engine.

Here is a pic from an engine that was past cleaning. See the stuck oil ring?