Engine failure poll?

[CoastieCosta567]

i have a 99' ironman with 117.000 miles on it and it has never had engine trouble in the past and its clean now too.

[mrtew]

The failures are horrible and everytime someone posts here I get that "there but for the grace of God, go I" feeling, but so far this thread documents 38/6000 of VX engines going bye-bye. Obviously there must be some that didn't get posted here, but a 1% failure rate would be over 600 engines. It looks like we have somewhere between a one-in-a-hundred and one-in-a-thousand chance of problems with a VX which is not enough to justify either that feeling of dread that I get when my oil is a touch low or brown, or the feeling that others get that maybe they shouldn't buy a used one. Right? What are the figures for other cars?

[Voxicross]

My '99 just blew out at 66000 miles. In searching for an engine I found 2 Troopers for sale on ebay with the same engine which needed engine replacement. They want $3500 for a USED 3.5, which is about $2000 more than for similar engines. This leads me to believe a lot of them fail and there are not many good ones available to replace them with.

[Junster]

Obviously there must be some that didn't get posted here, but a 1% failure rate would be over 600 engines.

From you, Sry just a little anal about math.

I'm still sold on buying a VX btw. All cars have some failures, one thing I noticed if it's true, hard to tell from just pics. Does the PCV valve lay on it's side? They need to be straight up to really work right. Also are there really no rocker arms? I'm curious how the cams actuate the valves. And how you adjust the valves. Has anyone just put the 02 oil rings on the 99-01 pistons? This oil usage thing has me curious. Isuzu is know for good quality engines generally.

[VX KAT]

Does the PCV valve lay on it's side? They need to be straight up to really work right.

No, it's upright.

[deermagnet]

Also are there really no rocker arms?

That's correct. We don't need no stinkin' rocker arms!

I'm curious how the cams actuate the valves.

Our camshafts are driven by internal idler gears instead of a chain. We also have a spring loaded sub-gear assembly that takes up the back lash in the gears to provide high-precision valve timing and reduced noise. Valve action is controlled through an inverted bucket type tappet that rides against the camshaft lobe.

And how you adjust the valves.

Valve adjustment is made by increasing or decreasing the thickness of the shim until the correct amount of valve clearance is obtained.

This is a very rare Isuzu Tech video I have for adjusting the valves, if ya really wanna see how it's done.

7:11, 14.1 mb, 320x240, wmv file-
http://www.drivehq.com/file/df.aspx/publish/mgpa/techvids/valvadj.wmv

I'm an original owner with 238,000 miles on my engine. The valves have never been adjusted. It purrs like a kitten and runs like a dream, so I never saw a reason to have that done.

Mark Griffin (a VX lifer)