Thrown rod!!!

[kelledee]

OK soooooo.....I am depressed and mortified that my VX threw a rod. :madp: I need suggestions on what to do!

What would price be to sell outright and not fix? Is a green 2001 and has 91,000 miles and no other defects.

Where and for how much $ can I get a new engine/motor to fix? I had a mechanic look at it and he told me $4200! I think that is NUTS!!!!! Am I wrong? Would axion or rodeo motor/engine fit?

Pleaes send me suggestions! We went ahead and bought a van due to having kids and all but I miss my VX and want to see what my options to fix are before we sell it outright as is.

[Chopper]

Depending on your willingness/ability/and luck, the fix could be as cheap as several hundred bucks (A lucky junkyard find that you drop in yourself) to four or five grand (a reman block and you pay a good mechanic) I'm guessing your heads are ok, but I'd do them at the same time anyway. A decent remanufactured is probably 1800-2500 bucks. (A new crate engine is gonna go several grand) Rodeo/ Amigo/Axiom 3.5 will certainly work. The direct injected engine in newer Axioms will not....not as a direct swap anyway. That would require swapping the ECU, and some other things would have to be done as well, making it a real project. If the car is in otherwise good shape, consider this; you'd get next to nothing for it as a cripple...certainly not enough to get any kind of reliable vehicle (unless you know someone taking up crack as their new past time). Putting an engine in, is still gonna be cheaper than the above mentioned 1998 Honda. The sad reality is...you'd make much more cutting it up, and selling the pieces/parts on here, than you'd ever get for it as it sits now. Wait'll Isuzu disappears altogether from the US in a couple years...The value will really tank. Fix it and go another 100thousand in it. Seems the most reasonable answer.

[Pepino]

there are two on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/3-5-I...=p4506.c0.m245

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Isuzu...=p4506.c0.m245

[pbkid]

i had the same horrible experience and its very very very expensive compared to what the vehicle is worth...i got a remanufactured block with everything else new..ended up costing me around $4,500 to fix it.....

everyone i talked to (no offense chopper) told me that without modification to electrical, motor mounts, transmission adapters the only motor was the 3.5 vx motor...

basically they did their research for me and most of the problem was all the connections with TOD, tranny and motor...nothing was a direct swap....

they ended up finding a motor out of california that sold the remanned block for around 2500 i believe with me giving them my *#$*$ed up block...

granted, i replaced basically everything else in the motor that even had a chance of going bad so that i wouldnt have to worry about this for a long time...

if your interested in going this route ill be happy to give you the name of the company in california that has remanned VX blocks..

thats my 2 cents...

[Chopper]

There are connector issues, but the engine is the same....even the Jap/Euro 3.2 is essentially the same.

[nfpgasmask]

Wow, that sucks. Do you know what caused it? Did you burn outta oil? Please be honest and let us know if you think it was no oil.

Bart

[kelledee]

No wasn't out of oil. Had just had oil changed about 1 month prior. Was coming off the interstate and it started knocking. Thank goodness I only live about a mile off interstate so I drove it home. Never lost power or anything. Just the terrible knocking. It has been sitting and hasn't been started since other than when the mechanic looked at it.

[Scott Harness]

No wasn't out of oil. Had just had oil changed about 1 month prior. Was coming off the interstate and it started knocking. Thank goodness I only live about a mile off interstate so I drove it home. Never lost power or anything. Just the terrible knocking. It has been sitting and hasn't been started since other than when the mechanic looked at it.

Did you ever check the oil after the oil change? Sometimes those places don't get it right!

[MSHardeman]

Actually Scott has a good point.

I had a friend who had his oil changed at a shop and they either forgot to install a new filter, or didn't tighten it down enough, and when his engine siezed he somehow proved that it was due to the shops negligence and they ended up buying his new engine.

[nfpgasmask]

No wasn't out of oil. Had just had oil changed about 1 month prior.

Well, 1 month is a long time to not check your oil level if you had the oil burning problem that a lot of VXes have. After you blew the engine, did a bunch of oil spew out from the bottom (did the rod blow a hole underneath) or can you still check the oil now and see what registers on the dip stick?

I only ask these questions because I find it hard to believe that a blown engine will occur without some sort of preexisting condition, such as burning oil.

I blew the engine on my 2000 Xterra. It was 100% due to my neglect. I literally didn't check the oil for way to long and had the exact experience you mentioned, rod knock, then break down (except I was like 600 miles from home).

Bart

[VehiGAZ]

I find it hard to believe that a blown engine will occur without some sort of preexisting condition

Or perhaps a brief over-rev to 7500 rpm?

[kelledee]

Nope never had a problem with burning oil. Believe me I am stumped! Anyone live near Dyersburg, TN and want to come check it out for me? LOL No one around here has ever seen one and I sure as he** am not going to let them try to fix it! Would rather haul it back to hometown 5 hours away to mechanic and have him fix it. At least I know he knows what he is doing.

[tom4bren]

I'll be in Johnson City next month but know nothing about blown engines - sorry.

[LittleBeast]

http://www.pamsauto.com/pc-355774-68...8th-digit.aspx

[Triathlete]

Maybe Lisa's (VXCrazy) VX can live on...
All her damage is on the side. I know she took GREAT care and babied her VX. Maybe it could be bought back from the insurance company and the engine swapped! Might be worth talking to her or Tone.