how long to live

[oompalompa]

hi guys
have the 95 bighorn 3.1 TD plasair 4gj2. 270,000 km and the turbo is going to poo itself soon. couple of oil leaks, one from under the intake maifold. new turbo is $1000 + fitting. asked the machinic to give it a look at before wasting money on a lost cause. machinic told the wife when she took it for me for wof that it would cost alot as time passes. he admitted isuzus are not his fav brand but said he was being proffesnial in his apprasial as he does alot of work for my brothers company.

how much is a compression test, would this be definitive answer?

how many kms do you think these engines and gearboxes can do. it has been used for offroading, mostly by the previous owner ( bought a lemon in that sence)

i love the truck but commonsense has to provail (and the couch is not that nice to sleep on) but dont want to make the wrong descion. help

[benny]

My turbo has been whistling for two years now my mechanic said dont worry about it until it stops whistling, as they are'nt an immediate threat to the engine when they blow. In saying that I would'nt drive any further than home if it did blow.

[geeves]

The million dollar question. Ill pay my dollar for a ticket to answer.
Any answers given here are based on a lot of unknowns and the balls might come out of the lotto machine just right but they might not as well. There are lots of things that we dont know so this is little more than a guess.
In general if a bighorn engine gets past 160000km its going to get to 400000km providing normal maintenance is done and no calamities befall the engine ie blown heater hose. The auto might not last quite that well but they are not too bad to fix as autos go Still another 1000 job though. This engine can crack heads but this can happen at any age. You could have problems with the electronic fuel pump which could be expensive but not all of them have problems.
Failures on these engines are just as likely to be bearings as rings and a compression test wont show much that cant be observed from the engine. Does it make many crankcase fumes.
With all the extras it should sell for a decent price now but what will you replace it with. Even broken it will sell quite easily but not for as much.
Ive just had to do the same exercise with my toyota carib I decided to spend over 1000 on a car that in good condition would only get a tradein of 500 but all the other cars around were junk in comparison. I will tell you in 2 years if I made the right choice.

[oompalompa]

by crankcase fumes, do you mean pull the dipstick out to check for smoke? not to sure from memeroy, will check in the morning. it seems to start well in the mornings, wee puff of smoke from the exhast but with 270km i dont expect perfection.

prob wont replace it without adding money i dont have would just be buying more problems. spend to much on a truck and would never want to get it dirty or scratch it in bush

[geeves]

easier to take the oil filler cap off. I looked at a pajero once (it had a pto winch) with 200k on it Was fine cold but once hot it nearly blew the cap out of my hand. I was thinking of a price but luckily before a used it he told me he had already turned down double the offer I was going to make. I found a convenient spot of rust to reject the vehicle.

[slightlydodgy]

I'm in the same spot except its warrant isues (bushes lights exhaust etc and now the door hinge is buggered) Can anyone recomend some some good general purpose shocks while we are here? My wife and the kind folks on here have pointed out that I could buy another one and be back in the same situation in the near future or give it a birthday and replace it when it actually dies. This advice doe not extend to quad bikes when they start to fall to bits they do it in a big way. The parts alone for our last one were twice the value of the bike

[geeves]

notsocheap sell kyb at reasonable prices ripco and bnt sell gabrials Both adequate shocks but nothing fancy