Well frankly my dear.... I think its STUFFED!!!

[geoff]

Hi Guys, been looking through this and the old forum and cant quite find a thread to fit the symptoms of my Mu, so thought I'd ask here.......................

My problem seems to be 2 different things so here goes.............

I recently purchased a 1996 wizard 3.1 4JG2 auto deisel in Tauranga. It starts on what seems to be 2 cylinders, chuffs white smoke and after a couple of minute runs smoothly..........well it did.....................

Anyways, picked it up and drove it back to Blenheim, about 800km and noticed that as soon as I put my foot down it changes immediately to a lower gear. Now on a long slow rise I put foot down lightly (100kph) and it will immediately drop out of ODrive, rev hard (around 3500rpm) so I slow it dow a wee bit and as soon as it hits 3000(ish) rpm it will change down again. At the top of a long slow rise I am doing about 60kph and trucks are powering past me.

Thats prob #1

Now, #2

My wife takes this thing up the road and comes back followed by this huge cloud of white smoke. I check everything (oil water etc), radiator is filled with black gungy water, not the nice green antifreeze I put in it. Smoke does not smell oily, but doesnt smell like unburnt deisel either. So, I'm thinkin head or head gasket but not sure. Car still has heaps of power but uses water daily.
A week later I go out top move it and it starts as usual ( 2 then 3 then 4 cyls) the makes this intermittant loud ticking noise kinda like someone smacking a steel with a plastic screwdriver handle. Just intermittantly ok. Thing is theres no smoke!!!! Go back out later and start it and you cant see for the white cloud

There is no water in the oil and that rad has the black oily stuff but not white sludge like I would expect from a blown gasket.
Car has done 290000kms so I'm guessing its past its use by date. Can anyone shed some light on these symptoms?

Cheers
geoff

[geeves]

#2 sounds like cracked head with a crack between a combustion chamber and the water jacket. Only real fix is a new head but they are not very cheap. If you dont want to spend the money you could try Ironite as a temp (under 5 years) repair. Follow instructions to the letter.
#1 sounds like probs in the auto but could be due to the loss of engine power causeing higher throttle positions.
290k is not high

[geoff]

Hi Geeves, Thanks for the reply.
Is ironite available from the likes of repco or supercheap?
I'm thinkin try the ironite, if it works and everything else seems ok then I dont mind spending on a new head as I do like the MU.
I was thinking much along the same lines as you re the auto.
I can get a complete head, gaskets, oil etc off trademe for $1400 or a bare head for around $890.
I dont want to spend on the head only to find that the bottom end is no good.
A completely rebuilt 3.1 on TMe is $3599 with a 2 year warranty. This is for the non- electronic one.
The local holden dealership quoted up to $2000 to fit it tho!

Can you help me identify whether it is the EFI or std deisel? How do I tell? A recon EFI is an xtra $500

Thanks again

Geoff

[justinw]

Non EFI - the throttle cable goes to the fuel pump. EFI - the throttle cable goes to the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) on top of the engine.

[geoff]

Thanks Justinw
Now just have to find ironite.
Is this somethiong you add to the water?

[geeves]

Most auto shops sell it. It comes in an orange bottle. There is quite a procedure to use it. You have to drain and flush the cooling system then put it in with the right portion of water.and idled for a period of time. It doesnt react well with antifreeze. The instructions state that any cracks over half inch wide need to be plugged with steel wool to reduce the gap.
Ive never used it but seen the results on 2 Telstars and a diesel Terrano. All 3 lasted over a year before being sold

[geoff]

Thanks man. I'll let you know how I get on

[Demonic]

One thing I dont like bout using these product is that sometimes they can restrict/plug the water gallerys. I think fixing a problem is better than putting a bandage over it.

[geeves]

I dont like magic liquids either but at 25 for ironite against 1400 for a chinese head plus labour plus gaskets it doesnt sound so bad. It does work

[slightlydodgy]

Isnt that why the good lord created car yards with trade ins?????

[geeves]

You mean like a certain car yard that was advertising 3000 trade in as long as your car went and was wof and rego. Did you notice how all there cars were 3000 more than identical ones elsewhere. Too many people towed there car to 100 meters down the road then drove onto the yard

[geoff]

Kinda have to agree with geeves on this one!

My theory is, give it a try , if it works sweet , it must have been the head, I'll go buy one.
If it dont, oh well too bad only $25 wasted. Better than spending $1400 plus on a head only to find it was a porous cyl liner or something unrelated to the head.
I dont mind spending $3500 on a recon, its the $2000 install bill that kills me

I guess I'm using the stuff to help isolate the problem rather than looking for a long term fix...............................

[geoff]

You mean like a certain car yard that was advertising 3000 trade in as long as your car went and was wof and rego.

LOL, I cant beleive how gullible people are

[geoff]

I'm still hoping to find a good 2nd hand one somewheres

[geeves]

remember to follow the recipe on the bottle. Its as complicated as gorden ramseys creations but wont work if you dont do it by the book

[geoff]

Cool mate , thanks for your help.

[geoff]

Ok, I followed the instructions on the pack.
1st, I flushed the radiator with a cleaner, ran for 20min , (shame really lost 5ltr anti-freeze) ,then flushed with clean water and ran for 20+ minutes.
Emptied radiator/engine and filled with clean water. Radiator capacity was nearly 6ltr so added 48ml irontite
and took her for a spin. The white smoke has disappeared almost immediately as has the black gunge in the water.
Overnight it lost a little water so topped up and drove 1/2 hour to work.
After work tonight I had to add about 500mls water to top up.

I started engine to come home and noticed another problem..... the exhaust manifold is leaking/cracked too.
Dont know if this will affect the power, but if the turbo output is down maybe that has something to do with the auto kicking down way too early as a result of too high a throttle position? I havent noticed any xtra noise as a result though. What are your thoughts on this?

Anyways, the instructions on the irontite say to leave in for 12hrs running or one week whichever comes 1st so I'll update this again after that. Lookin ok so far though.

A couple of Q's if'n you dont mind.................

How much effect can a cracked or leaking exhaust manifold have on the turbo output/throttle position?
Can the kickdown be adjusted looser to change the shift points much like the old fords and holdens? Or are the shift points on these regulated electronically or by manifold pressure?

Cheers

[geeves]

I think yours is an electronically controlled engine in which case its all in the computer and fool proof (and anyone else proof)
If the manifold is leaking enough it will reduce boost and thus power so a higher throttle position tends to be used which will result in earlier kickdown.
If your antifreeze was new you could of kept it in a closed bucket but as it had turned black you didnt realy want to do that

[geoff]

Hi Geeves

I checked the throttle cable and it goes to the pump not the airbox thingy as justinw said.
Does that make it electronically controlled anyway?
Reason I ask is there seems to be a cable going to auto and I assumed it was a kick-down.
I need a workshop manual for this thing lol

Thanks for your help mate

[geeves]

Justin knows this engine better than me and by your description hes correct.
There is a copy of the trooper manual in my gmail account you can grab.
go to gmail.com
login as isuzunz pass 4jb1turbo
You may need to click on view all items
Download the attachments from the 11 ubs emails and place in the same folder on your pc. Download a copy of izark or 7zip from your favourite freeware site (download.com works well) and use this to open the first attachment then save the pdf file that apears. This is the only manual that covers your engine but you might also want the 8 frontera attachments but they are in a diferent format and will only open with 7zip or winrar.
If your on dialup they are very large files.If you have problems send me a pm with a postal address and Ill send on cd