New Project

[Leon R]

Some info on my engine if anyone is interested. The previous/original owner ran the engine out of oil. It had 1000 miles on the oil change when it happened. The intermediate gears that drive the cam gears seized in the heads locking all 4 cams, which in turn striped the teeth off the timing belt at the crank. The crank turned over freely. After disassembling the engine I found where all the oil went. the oil rings on all 6 pistons were completely constricted to the same size as the pistons. So oil was going past the oil rings to the compression rings (which were fine) & just burning it, in all 6 cyls. The cyl. walls were coated with oil like a protective film. The cyls. are in perfect condition with no ridge built up at all. I took a couple rod caps off & the rod bearings looked brand new with literally no wear. Until I got to the #1 rod bearing, it had VERY slight signs of oiling problems. Then with the main bearings it was the same. The #1 main bearing was pretty worn, if it had run much longer it would have ruined the crank & possibly the block. I have the crank at the machine shop now determining if it can just be polished (I think it can) or if it will need to be reground. As soon as I know for sure I'll be ordering a re-ring kit & a new oil pump. I'm amazed that really the only thing that got hurt badly were the heads! There was basically NO oil in this engine when I went to drain the pan. Maybe 4ozs., if that.
My theory on why the oil rings did this is carbon buildup. The ring lands are carboned badly. Why, I really don't know. The engine looks like it had regular maint. with no sludge. I've see a post or 2 about drilling more holes in the lands of the pistons. Don't know if that would actually stop this from happening or not. I might try it, but chances are I would never know if it cures the issue or not. This engine had just under 127K on it when it met it's demise.

What did you end up doing with the crank? Were heads salvageable, or did you have to get new heads? Did you drill the extra holes in pistons (for good measure)?

Nice job resurrecting a VX!

[ohiovx]

The crank wasn't hurt, just needed polished. The heads were junk. So the guy at work that used to be the Isuzu tech sold me a pair of used heads. Had the heads rebuilt by a local shop. I had the block bored & got new NPR pistons. & yes I drilled the extra holes in the new pistons. New oil pump, timing belt, tensioner. It's all new.

[Otwobme]

Great Work... i bought mine with the same exact issue. and i did the same thing you did to yours... ive put about 6k on mine sense the rebuild. runs strong.

[ohiovx]

I got a spare set of diff brackets off of a trooper. Just dropped them off at the fabricator. I'll post some pics when I get them back.

[Mile High VX]

Here is Superstang460

[ohiovx]

I contacted him when I was doing mine. I wanted to redo the control arms instead of just cranking the T-bars. But didn't get it done. I didn't like the way he had the lower control arms done. I have an extra set of trooper arms, I still may have them done some day.