oil consumption

[mbeach]

There have been many "causes" of oil consumption, but I have only had experience with one of them. I wouldn't say that it's a failure of the 3.5L motor, it's just one of those things that you have to keep up with.

First off, stay away from Dennis Isuzu on Morse Rd. (I used to live in Columbus). They have zero clout with Isuzu, and they really don't care to work on them.

If you're not seeing the typical problems associated with a leak or 'burning' oil (out the tailpipe -blue smoke), there's another way to lose a lot very quickly. Our Dragon blew through a few quarts in one fillup (I check the oil at every gas stop). This just came out of no where -we drove it from Ohio to Alaska and didn't lose a drop. One day, it was just super low.

After jamming my head in between the engine and the firewall (on the passenger side) I found the source of the leak. It was a very high pressure jet of oil, it sprayed 1-3" before hitting the EGR pipe/exhaust manifold area and vaporizing. It made very little smoke. I was only able to see it with a flashlight at night. It was very cold (about 0F) and that helped me to notice the vapor. I also got a bit of hot oil on my hand -not the recommended method of finding a leak. I decided that a valve cover gasket/o-ring had failed. When it was replaced, all oil consumption ceased.

Get a new gasket from Merlin at St. Charles Isuzu -most likely the part will ship from Isuzu's warehouse in Cinci. It'll be on your doorstep in 2 days.

[kpaske]

I discovered a leaking intake manifold gasket by using a trick Tone posted a while back: with the engine running, spray some starting fluid around the edges of the gasket (in this case, where the intake manifold attaches). If the engine revvs up, it's sucking in the starting fluid, indicating where the gasket has failed. Replacing my intake gasket has improved my idle, gas mileage, and for the most part eliminated my oil loss. My loss was about a quart every 1000 miles and although there was some oil on my valve covers, there wasn't enough to directly implicate the intake gasket (I thought most of it was coming from the PCV valve... wrong!). The starting fluid left little doubt in my case. I'm not sure this method would work if it's a leaky valve cover gasket, but it's an easy way to eliminate other potential sources of oil loss. It works for sure on any gaskets on the intake (intake manifold, common chamber, etc).

[TechnoPope]

Hello mbeach,
I recall that you had a bad experience at Hatfield's Isuzu. I thought you had some success at Dennis Isuzu. Was that for your water leak? I am asking because I met another new Columbus owner Sunday and he asked for a recommendation. I think he reads our forums but is not a member.

[mbeach]

Hello mbeach,
I recall that you had a bad experience at Hatfield's Isuzu. I thought you had some success at Dennis Isuzu. Was that for your water leak? I am asking because I met another new Columbus owner Sunday and he asked for a recommendation. I think he reads our forums but is not a member.

Other way around -Hatfield Good, Dennis Bad.
Hatfield took care of my wife's truck while I was up here. Midas renegged on their offer to flush the transmission, so she took it to Hatfield where they squared her away.
Dennis did arrange the fix for my wifes leaking Dragon, but it wasn't Dennis' techs that did the work. They hired some outside contractor to fix the leak, and I quote "the same guys who fix the leaks in all of our cars...".
Kinda makes you wonder about the Chevrolet line...