'95 Trooper Lifters Knocking, Knocking at my door.

[Literate Trooper]

Greetings: My '95 3.2 SOHC Trooper suffers from Early-90's-Lifter-Noise Syndrome. It has a mere 125,000 miles on it, has had oil changes all its life, and has enjoyed a rich synthetic bath (Amsoil 5w30 and recently 0w30) since 55,000 miles. Must I replace the lifters? If so, should I replace more than just the lifters? (The problem would most likely be a result of a pushrod deficiency, wouldn't you all say?) It seems the TSB on "cleaning" the lifters is a waste of time. (All that labor -- may as well replace the offending parts.) So I have thought of three solutions:

1) Mess w/ the head and replace lifters and rods.

2) Replace the wimpy 3.2 SOHC w/ a 3.5 DOHC. (Is this possible w/ a 5spd manual tranny?)

3) (Dreaming here) Import a turbodiesel engine from Out There and attempt to retrofit it to my American Trooper. If anybody knows if this is possible, I would prefer this option, as I would be able to go up hill (I live at nearly 3000 meters in Colorado) a little better and maybe even pull a small river dory behind me.

Thank you for your time, as this (and I) is a bit long-winded.

P.S. Is there any truth to the notion that Isuzu manufactured (or bought) a cam with a slightly defunct (soft) lobe, which messes up the lifters one by one over time. Or perhaps a pushrod (hollow?) is also of a too-soft alloy, which in turn causes the lifter to starve for oil and eventually start this ridiculous knocking? The Isuzu TSB of course accuses the customer of too infrequent oil changes, which is bollocks. Thanks again.

[garyS - NJ]

I have the 3.2 with same problem. suggest the easiest thing might be to add a solvent cleaner (I like valve medic) and then change the oil. otherwise a lot of isuzu people talk about seafoam additive. you probably have clogged lifters that need to be changed. you can't put in a 3.5L w/o changing tranny & ignition/fuel electronics.

[Literate Trooper]

Originally Posted by garyS - NJ

I have the 3.2 with same problem. suggest the easiest thing might be to add a solvent cleaner (I like valve medic) and then change the oil. otherwise a lot of isuzu people talk about seafoam additive. you probably have clogged lifters that need to be changed. you can't put in a 3.5L w/o changing tranny & ignition/fuel electronics.

I have gone the solvent route -- worked okay for about 3000 miles. Knock never really went away completely. I'm guessing the most sane thing to do at this point is to replace lifters and whatnot. I've been running synthetic since 50,000, so the Isuzu tech bulletin seems incorrect. This thing only has 130,000 on it, so it should go well into the 200's. I'll probably part ways with it before I see two bills, though. It's way under powered. Yo.

[ComicDom1]

Originally Posted by Literate Trooper

Greetings: My '95 3.2 SOHC Trooper suffers from Early-90's-Lifter-Noise Syndrome. It has a mere 125,000 miles on it, has had oil changes all its life, and has enjoyed a rich synthetic bath (Amsoil 5w30 and recently 0w30) since 55,000 miles. Must I replace the lifters? If so, should I replace more than just the lifters? (The problem would most likely be a result of a pushrod deficiency, wouldn't you all say?) It seems the TSB on "cleaning" the lifters is a waste of time. (All that labor -- may as well replace the offending parts.) So I have thought of three solutions:

1) Mess w/ the head and replace lifters and rods.

2) Replace the wimpy 3.2 SOHC w/ a 3.5 DOHC. (Is this possible w/ a 5spd manual tranny?)

3) (Dreaming here) Import a turbodiesel engine from Out There and attempt to retrofit it to my American Trooper. If anybody knows if this is possible, I would prefer this option, as I would be able to go up hill (I live at nearly 3000 meters in Colorado) a little better and maybe even pull a small river dory behind me.

Thank you for your time, as this (and I) is a bit long-winded.

P.S. Is there any truth to the notion that Isuzu manufactured (or bought) a cam with a slightly defunct (soft) lobe, which messes up the lifters one by one over time. Or perhaps a pushrod (hollow?) is also of a too-soft alloy, which in turn causes the lifter to starve for oil and eventually start this ridiculous knocking? The Isuzu TSB of course accuses the customer of too infrequent oil changes, which is bollocks. Thanks again.

If you have the 3.2 SOHC engine then you do not have any lifters. What you have is overhead cams on each head with rocker type arms and cam followers that open and close the valves.

Jason