Isuzu Rodeo,Direct Injected??

Hey guys,

My wife had an old 95.5 I think Rodeo that was rather unremarkable in the couple of years she drove it. I had a friend at work that swore by them,and would buy a manual transmission equipped one ever 2-3 years. Well today I was behind one that looked to be maybe a 2004-2005 judging by the body style,but I could be wrong. It had a tag on the back that read Direct Injected. Is that really the case,or did someone add it as a joke? I ask because I didn't think DI was commonplace on cars until maybe 07 or so. Is this an Isuzu engine,or something sourced from GM,Honda,other? If it is real,are they any good?

Chris

do they put diesels in them?

From Wikipedia:

In 2004, Isuzu dropped the 4-cylinder engine and added the optional 3.5L V6 Gasoline Direct Injection engine with 250 hp (186 kW) and 246 ft·lbf (334 N·m) of torque. Isuzu was the first to offer Gasoline Direct Injection in a vehicle priced under $100,000.

They really did have a gasoline direct injected V6 in the last years of the Rodeo and Trooper. Jensenman will be in here shortly I'm sure to comment more.

I always liked Isuzus, never had the occasion to get one, though.

Was it still based upon the old chevy 60* V6 like their prior engines?

No, as of 1993 I think they stopped using the GM 3.1 and started using a V6 of their own design, 3.2 and 3.5, both SOHC and DOHC, and later it added DI

Yup, here I am. The Rodeo and Axiom V6's were all direct injected in the last 10 months or so of production. By that time the Trooper was gone and had been 'replaced' by the Trailblazer based Ascender which used the 4200 GM I6 and V8's.

At the time, only Isuzu and Mercedes offered direct gasoline injection in the US market. Those Rodeo/Axiom engines were completely designed and engineered by Isuzu, they had no GM connection at all. The basic engine architecture first came here in 1992 with the Trooper in both SOHC and DOHC forms, in 1993 Isuzu began using a variant of the SOHC in the Rodeo. Isuzu also designed the Duramax diesel for GM, in truth it's an Isuzu engine.

The DI motors were based on the DOHC version which had big cylinder head design changes in 1998. DI was good for around a 20HP increase, I don't remember the torque figure but along with that power increase came a roughly 12% jump in gas mileage. Then GM finished pulling the plug on AIMI (Isuzu's North American operations) and the rest is history.

The very first 1992-1993 V6's had a reputation for oil leaks which was fixed for '94, the 1998-2000 DOHC motors had PCV systems which could lead to heavy oil consumption if not maintained regularly. That was changed for the '01 model year, those are tough and reliable motors. Even the '98-00 are tough as nails if you keep after the oil changes and PCV valve replacements.

I thought the 3.2 from mid-late '90's was a Honda engine. If it's not, I have lied to a LOT of people. Damn.

What's the bellhousing pattern on those suckers?

Jensenman -

What's the best year of the Trooper as far as durability/reliability? I see a lot of them for sale around here for very reasonable prices (thank you , Consumer Reports!), and have always liked them. I figure it'd make a fine camping/hunting/winter/off road vehicle.

92-97 are all tough as nails, 98-00 are good as long as the PCV has been maintained along with oil changes. 01-up had a modified PCV system which cleared up the 98-00 oil consumption. Some 98-00 have been retrofitted, look at the left valve cover: plastic PCV valve = old type, threaded metal = new type. Other than that, they are all rough tough vehicles. Isuzu really did their homework on these things.

The TOD (Torque On Demand) available from 98 on is a full time AWD system, it works very well with minimal problems. They do tend to get less gas mileage than the part time setups. The last two years of production were available as 2WD.