The oil consumption issue, as others have said, is hit or miss. Some VX's burn a LOT others don't burn any. My VX used to burn 3/4 or a quart of oil every +/-350 miles. I say "used to" because I had to replace my engine at about 130k miles, but not because it starved itself of oil. Like just about everyone here I would check my oil at EVERY gas fill up and top it off as needed. I ended up burning a couple of valves in cylinder three of my old engine which is why I had to replace it.
The leading theory on the oil consumption is that in the original 3.5L engines Isuzu did not drill enough/ large enough oil drain back holes in the pistons so the oil couldn't get back into the engine on the piston down stroke and would just get burned up during the combustion stroke. Crazy thing is that, to my knowledge, none of us see the tell tale blue smoke of an oil burning engine (or get the burned oil smell for that matter).
The fix for all of this, IF your VX is burning oil, is to either replace the engine with a new 3.5L engine which has bigger/more oil drain back holes drilled in the pistons, tear down your existing (or a used) 3.5L engine and drill the holes in the pistons yourself, install a 3.2L engine (used or otherwise), or do a complete engine swap for something else (diesel, V8, etc.).
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$engine?
Originally Posted by MSHardeman
