Hey guys, k, heres the deal. I've got a beater 94 rodeo v6 4x4, picked up cheap a while back, tons of small issues i took care of. Now shes having an oil issue. Heres what it does, then i'll list issues that may or may not be associated with causing it.


Shes fine for whipping around town for about 1/2 hour. Then the oil pressue gauge starts acting spuratic and she'll begin to overheat. May be half hour, maybe 10 minutes, right about the time the tempeture gauge reaches 1/2 point.


It first did this a week ago after treating myself to a premium octain fill up, jumping on the freeway and flooring it, (no, i dont usually floor it, but figured it would help break stuff up with the premium grade) i noticed it lacked the power she usually had, not by much, but a little, though it may just be me, a few minutes later after next exit, I began noticing the oil pressure gauge acting spuratic, and could feel the engine vibrate odd, tempeture began to climb, pressure gauge only spuratic when stopped or stopping, not when accellerating. Stopped where I had to go, few minutes later came out, and rodeo wouldnt start, seemed like a clogged gas line or something (which may or may not even be related, may have just been 2 issues at same time, cause my fuel lines are corroded, and some leaking in rear (i'll get to it soon....., had problems when going cross country not long ago, and pulled fuel filter and straight pipped it at 4 am in the morning in the mountains after having fuel problems, never got around to replacing it, so I just figured some rust particles slipped into the injectors and were causing that problem).


1/2 hour later, she started up fine again.


I dont drive much, I work 6 minutes away, so many of these issues are never known. That was last week, she's been fine this week, but today, had the same problem.... withthe oil gauge, no fuel problems, but the spuratic oil gauge and wanting to overheat.


Now... at first I thought the oil was getting clogged in thetop end because it takes forever to get an accurate oil check. If i turn the truck off, wait a half hour and check the oil, it's 2 quarts low, I'll put 2 quarts in, and the next day, i'm 2 quarts over. Lately, shes shown some overheating problems which always seems to equate to low oil again, she doesnt leak, but last month I had to put 5 more quarts in her, so figure i'm loosing a quart a week.


Dont know if any or all of the above info is related, may or may not be, just think spuratic oil gauge and go from there. Really appreciate it gents, thanks alot. Eric


(Does that old trick of throwing a quart of tranny fluid in the engine before an oil change really help unclogg and degum stuff, or is that just on older rides, can it hurt... Oil change and filter change after ofcourse)

 

about the oil thing, i'l tell you what happened to mine and hopefully it will help, mine had about 190k to 210k on it (not sure odometer quit working), and i was having oil pressure problems, i threw some heavier wieght oil in and that took care of it, for awhile, then it came back, and soon i could do nothing to stop it, about a month of my oil pressure dropping, it started to flutter between 0 and 10 psi, soon after i was on the highway and it pagged to 0 and it started making all kinds of noise. I let it sit about 4 hours, started back up and the oil pressure was ok again, for about 5 min, then pegged at 0 and i lost a lot of power.

I took the truck off the road and pulled the motor, in mine, i spun the #5 rod bearing, and #3 and #4 were in very bad shape, bad enough the piston hit my spark plug shooting it out of the head.

Now, with that said, i have another 94 rodeo witha 3.2, now it is begining to loose oil pressure and i have 175k on it, i am assuming this is the same thing, so i put 4 quarts of mobil 1 and 2 quarts of lucas heavy duty oil stabalizer and my engine has not given me any crap for about 1 year now. So i think that may help, also i have found that isuzu's dont care much for cheap oil filters, fram, stp, puralator, super tech, valucraft, all of those didnt do me any good, the one it seems to do the best with is a WIX filter, next a Mobil 1 and third a K&N filter, putting the better oil and filter on this truck i think may have helped it too.

With the fuel thing, i have always had to keep fuel injector cleaner in my truck about every other tank, i have had to do this with both 94 rodeo's and a 86 trooper, if i didnt, it would seem to loose power and it would stumble or hesitate alot, i recommend either amzoil, or lucas fuel injector cleaner, and i would definatly get that fuel filter back on ASAP.

With overheating, the only experience i have had with mine, is the thermostat, and i flushed the coolant at the same time, and i got a lot of crap out of my engine and radiator which helped my truck quite abit, i hope some of this will help you out!!! good luck!!

 

Hey thanks Nate, i really appreciate your time writing that, unfortunately, last week the engine blew..... too bad, i finally got all the little issues worked out, picked up all the accesories from the junk yard to give it some sharp style, she was running great and looking her best. My oil problem seemed to be that all the oil was getting trapped in the valve covers, thus creating the oil problem and thus, little oil adds friction, and little oil also creates overheating... think about it, just like water, oil is also a fluid which helps disapate heat. I did an oil flush and the problem seem to go away, seems the ports were clogged up with age and the oil was getting stuck in the valve covers, problem went away after a flush, came back again a week later, did another flush (just some flush additive and cheapo oil), went away for a month, came back, did a double shot of the additive the third time, and kept half a quart of the flush in when refilled, never came back, ran nice and quite, no tics, oil problems, etc.
Emptied a can of carb spray in the air intake, and fuel problem went away, must of cleaned the o2's and iac's, etc, ran great, no more issues of any kind except for a electrical drain which i finally traced down to the radio face plate... the night i finally found it, the engine blew the next morning...... go figure... .. lol.... well, back to the auctions for the next cheapo beater... Thanks again nate, apprecaite your time. Eric

 

Hey, sorry to hear that, i know what it feels like to be driving along and then bang, engine is blown, mine stayed together for the most part, just no oil pressure and down a cylinder, good lick hunting for a new car, if you want a beater i have a 89 Pontiac GrandPRix i will sell for 300, i have no use for it, its just taking up space in my driveway, or if you are looking to sell any of the parts off your isuzu let me know, maybe we can work something out, anyways i wish you the best of luck!!

nate

 

Thanks nate, I'm in rochester Ny, dont know where your from, but i've
had great luck on craigslist, plus there was a 93 grand prix on there
last night for a 100 bucks, but bought a 200 dollar beater to get me
by. I'll be getting another SUV as soon as i find a deal, If i can
re-use the running boards from it, and the sunroof, , and the new meaty
tires, i will, other then that, it's worth 90 bucks at the junk yard to
me. If your local, you can grab anything you need before it goes, it
will be here for a couple weeks untill i grab something else. Let me
know.[img]smileys/smiley34.gif[/img]

 

Hey, thats a good deal on the cars, i'll have to check that out sometime, right now i am in Lima, Ohio, i am from GrandRapids Michigan, i'm not sure how far away Rochester is, but depending on the distance i may see if i can make a run up to where you are, i'll see if me and a friend want to make a weekend out of it or something, anyways keep me posted, i'll try to look up about how far away rochester is, THANKS!!!!!!!!

nate

 

Yea, i use to live in Cleveland, your about 5 hours away, it's not worth the hassle for ya, trust me, anything you need you can grab at a junk yard for like 20 bucks, unless it's the tranny ofcourse..... The best thing i can recommend which really made a huge difference in looks, is to grab some fender flares from a honda passport, and you can usually just buy a universal running boards (you cut to what ever length you need), they give you a wider body look and a a lower meaner look. I got bush guard from a montero, fit great and really updated the look, much better then the gay square ones for the rodeo, had to do some welding though. It's not worth your time nate, it's one thing if you were local, but trust me, it's not worth a 10-12 hour round trip ride ya know.... gas, motel.. etc.. good luck though, I'll throw you a pic when i can so you can see what a difference these make.

 

eh, 5 hours doesnt seem too bad, and i probably wouldnt stay in NY for the night i woudl just run back the same day, i talked to my dad back in michigan to see if he still has his car hauler, and if so maybe i could just buy the whole thing from ya??? in my area in michigan it is extremely rare to find one of these in a junkyard, i have some parts from my first rodeo, but i didnt get to take everything i wanted from it, i wanted the axles and interior out of it but it had to roll to transport it and my uncle told me he wanted the interior so i didnt take it out, and he never got to it so it all got junked, its worth it to me if you want to get rid of it for the same price that the junkyard will pay you, i just have to see if i can get a trailer, but its really up to you, i very much appreciate your time and i'll let you knwo if i can get a trialer or not, and if not there is still a chance i may drive up there if its ok with you, anyways, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

Nate

 

nate, I'll let you know on that, though, looking again at craigslist, i see a white trooper on there from SC, no rust, needs lots of parts, but most of them i can just pull off the rodeo, If it was black, i'd jump on it, but not sure about white... still deciding. it's for 300, i offered him 2, waiting to hear back, i've still got to see if the brakes are swapable (the whole damn works... calipers, rotors, etc) my boy hooked up a black one and i t looks sweet, and the measurements work out even better for my tools then the rodeo did. If i dont get it, i'll definatley keep you in mind. But again, i'm really surprized you'd want to go through that much hassle for it, hell, these things only go for around 800-1200 on ebay, there nothing special. because funds are tight, i may throw it on craigslist for 200 with all accesories, if no bites, yea man, you can have it for 100 cause thats what the junk yard would give me, but i got to think about it.... it's got nice wheels on it, wide thick meaty sporty tires new, i would pull the tires, but you've got to have something on it to be able to tow it ya know. my email is lostsoul74@yahoo.com, give me a week or so so I can figure out what i'm really doing with this, i dont want to get rid of it then get another suv that I could of used the tires and running boards from ya know. anyways, talk later. Eric