2000 Trooper Oil Usage and Piston Rings

[LEM]

My 2000 Trooper (4WD; 120,000 miles) uses an inordinate amount of oil; about 1 quart every 500 miles. I've cleaned out the EGR valve and tube which also cleaned up my tailpipe...for about a day or so. Anyway, I'm considering replacing the timing belt and was wondering what you thought of the idea of having new rings installed at the same time.

I read a post by another 2000 Trooper owner in which someone mentioned a Sea Foam soak? What's that all about? I've had the BG intake service done without any improvement and I've used a half dozen cans of Sea Foam. I add up to one full can of Sea Foam to the oil, run the vehicle for about 30 - 60 minutes, then change the oil; still no improvement. Is the soak performed differently?

Your thoughts are very much appreciated, especially about the rings.

Thanks,

Larry

[amigo-2k]

the soak is done by pulling the plugs and dumping some seafoam in. Let is sit over night. The start the engine, with the plugs out yet to prevent hydro lock.

[rodeo02]

Larry, from what I understand, new rings wont do it. It has to do with oil drain-back holes in the oil control ring land area (machined into the pistons). These holes plug up. I have yet to hear anyone post back as to if an overnight cylinder soak worked or not!?! It's super easy and cheap to do!!! If anything will clear those drain-back holes, a cylinder soak will. $$$ fuel system cleaners will do nothing for this. Seafoam is good stuff, but any thin/solvent type cleaner will do for a cylinder soak. If you can r/r spark plugs, you can do this! C'mon Larry! for the sake of science (and fellow isuzu'ers) try it & post back!

G/luck
Joel

[LEM]

Sounds simple enough, but how much Sea Foam do I put into each cylinder?

I'll give it a try this weekend if not sooner and let you all you how it turns out.

Thanks.

[rodeo02]

I would pour atleast 1-2 ounces thru each plug hole. Be sure to throw some rags over the valve covers so when you turn the engine over w/ plugs removed the rags catch the spray & you dont blast dirty seafoam everywhere! This process might take more than one application to fully clean the drain back holes and ring packs. Keep in mind some seafoam and junk will drain past the pistons and into the oil sump. No biggie as this stuff is fine to run in the engine oil, but not a bad idea to change the oil after anyway.

Thanks Larry! Keep us posted

Joel

[LEM]

Thanks for the advice Joel. I'll try it this weekend. When you say that it may take a couple of tries, are you suggesting that I try it twice back-to-back, or wait a bit between soaks? If the latter, how much time should elapse between soaks?

Thanks

Larry

[rodeo02]

Larry what I would do if your 3.5L (or 3.2L) burns oil is: Add an ounce or two to each cylinder & let it soak over night. Next day, bump the starter over for a second to cycle the pistons & valves, then add more seafoam to each cylinder & let it sit again for as long as time allows. Button everything up, change oil and filter, run your truck normally for a week or two to track oil consumption. Hopefully it slows or stops. If oil consumption does not improve, I'd try a cleaning product one more time. If it still doesn't help after that, atleast we tried!!
G/luck
Joel

[LEM]

I removed the plugs and poured about 3-4 ounces of Seafoam into each cylinder on Friday afternoon and let it set until Saturday afternoon. I then cranked the engine for about 5 seconds, and added another 3-4 ounces of Seafoam into each cylinder. I took the spark plugs and soaked them in Seafoam too. I let all this set until Sunday after church. I cranked the engine, brushed the plugs, and installed them. I changed the oil and buttoned everything up.

When I started the engine, it took a few cranks to finally turnover, but I expected that. What I didn't expect was the incredible volume of white smoke that came out of the tailpipe...I effectively hid my whole driveway in a cloud of smoke. Of course the check engine light (CEL) came on. So I ran the engine for a couple of minutes to see if the smoke would diminish...it didn't. I turned the engine off and disconnected the battery to clear the CEL.

I let is set for about 2 hours then drove it to church last evening; it didn't smoke immediately, but after a couple of minutes it smoked moderately, nothing like it had at first. We drove it to and from church, about 22 miles total. The vehicle still smokes, but just a little bit and it seems to be decreaseing with time; I'm guessing that it's burning off the Seafoam residue.

The jury is still out on whether this helped the oili consumption, but I'll monitor it for a while and let you know how it turns out.

[rodeo02]

Seafoam will cause HUGE plumes of white smoke. It sounds like the seafoam got into all the nooks and crannies it was supposed to! It probably will take a highway run to clear the smoke completely as some cleaner would have blown into the exhaust system as well. CEL light was probably a misfire code. So far so good! Keeping my fingers crossed!
Thanks Lem.
Joel

[Superskeet]

All that work? All you had to do was go to WalMart and get a bottle of CD2 Oil Detergent for less than $3 and pour it in the crankcase. Fixed the oil usage is both of my '99 Troopers and since I started posting my results on another Trooper Forum, others are also seeing good results. I'm only using 1 quart every 3000 miles now, was using 1 quart every 500 miles.

[amigo-2k]

sounds good to me too:

here is a write up on Sea Foam:

http://members.nuvox.net/~on.roz/cars/z28/seafoam.html

and a quote from the article:
"Enjoy the fogging of your neighborhood"

[rodeo02]

Originally Posted by Superskeet

All that work? All you had to do was go to WalMart and get a bottle of CD2 Oil Detergent for less than $3 and pour it in the crankcase. Fixed the oil usage is both of my '99 Troopers....

I'm all for a quick, easy and cheap fix! I've just heard too many reports over the years of oil adds/cleaners not doing a thing for the 1998+ oil usage. A cylinder soak is a tried and true, proven method that works for most applications. Even better if CD2 does the trick just by adding it to the oil sump!

Thanks
Joel

[Superskeet]

Originally Posted by rodeo02

I'm all for a quick, easy and cheap fix! I've just heard too many reports over the years of oil adds/cleaners not doing a thing for the 1998+ oil usage. A cylinder soak is a tried and true, proven method that works for most applications. Even better if CD2 does the trick just by adding it to the oil sump!

Thanks
Joel

I know about every other oil additive claimed to fix the oil usage problem and I tried them all, along with cleaning the EGR and PVC systems. But I'm here to tell all that the CD2 WORKS!! Within 5000 miles and 2 treatments I went from 1 quart every 500 miles to 1 quart every 3000 miles in both of my '99 Troopers, both with over 100k. Both were bought used with about 40k miles and had never before done better than 1 quart every 1000 miles. I use dino 10w30.

[pr99trooper]

Originally Posted by rodeo02

Larry, from what I understand, new rings wont do it. It has to do with oil drain-back holes in the oil control ring land area (machined into the pistons). These holes plug up. I have yet to hear anyone post back as to if an overnight cylinder soak worked or not!?! It's super easy and cheap to do!!! If anything will clear those drain-back holes, a cylinder soak will. $$$ fuel system cleaners will do nothing for this. Seafoam is good stuff, but any thin/solvent type cleaner will do for a cylinder soak. If you can r/r spark plugs, you can do this! C'mon Larry! for the sake of science (and fellow isuzu'ers) try it & post back!

G/luck
Joel

Joel, I had my Isuzu dealer perform this overnight soak on my 99 Tropper after a 10K oil consumption test. The results after was an increase in oil consumption!! When my motor was taken apart 3 months later, it was found to be clean. In fact the rings and drain back holes were not clogged. I held the pistons in my own hands and I know which holes that you are refering to. The machine shop doing the measurements said that there was very little wear on the cylinder walls and that the original machining marks were visible. I don't think that there is a problem with the drainback holes as claimed. What we did find was a mismatch of piston/ring sizes for the cylinders that they were installed. There was another Trooper owner (2001) getting this oil consumption test done at the same time. His results after the tear down were the same. The problem that they found was that the cylinders were over bored, for the size of pistons and rings used. Before they did a warranty short block replacement, the dealer had to see if larger oversize rings were available to try to fix the problem. No such rings were available. They had found from other dealers that tried after market rings, were not successul in fixing the problem.

Now that I have a new motor, my oil consumption has been near zero. It is now much like our Honda in terms of oil consumption. Normal, even after 25K.

I am very thankful that someone posted on another site, a link to a Russian website that had the complete service manual for my Trooper. With this information, I knew what to expect when the dealer took apart my motor. They (the dealer) could not hide the facts about the cylinder sizes and coresponding pistons to be used. Infact, the dealer used this information to help me get my new motor from Isuzu rather than just replace the rings.

This is my 2 cents on the matter.

Patrick

[rodeo02]

Originally Posted by pr99trooper

...... The problem that they found was that the cylinders were over bored, for the size of pistons and rings used. Before they did a warranty short block replacement, the dealer had to see if larger oversize rings were available to try to fix the problem. No such rings were available. They had found from other dealers that tried after market rings, were not successul in fixing the problem.

This is my 2 cents on the matter.

Patrick

That's the first I've heard of that! It's a wonder you didn't have low compression & excessive blowby (crank case pressure) with the over-bore condition?? Plus i'm not sure why they didn't just press new (tighter) sleeves into the block?! A whole new engine was a better deal anyhoo. If the cylinders were overbored, you would have oil consumption from day one . Good to hear isuzu took care of it for you.

G/luck
Joel