Holden rodeo with the 3.5 v6 engine.

tiny15, Mar 6, 4:10am
Thinking of buying a rodeo on a budget (I'm in aussie) but it appears these engines have a bit of a bad reputation . anyone had a good run out of one?

tamarillo, Mar 6, 4:56am
Isn't it the 3.6 holden alloytech as per the commodore in a Isuzu D-max rebadged as a holden.
Whilst ford lovers will find heaps wrong that's a pretty sturdy unit and easy to fix in Aussie!

NZTools, Mar 6, 4:58am
More like 3.5l as in isuzu bighorn/jackaroo

mugenb20b, Mar 6, 11:24am
No, nothing like it. It's Isuzu's own engine.

mugenb20b, Mar 6, 11:25am
Not really and no.

mugenb20b, Mar 6, 11:31am
They appear to be OK but I've come across one once that was using more oil than fuel and yet the exhaust smoke always loooked clean and not a single oil leak to be found which was rather strange. However, it was easy to work on / service, cambelt was easy to replace too.

thunderbolt, Mar 6, 12:23pm
It had less torque than the 3.8 it replaced and the early ones needed 3k worth or timing chain replacement every 100k. Very sturdy!?

tamarillo, Mar 6, 2:19pm
Ta, got confused with later ones. After 2005 they used holdens 3.6 but before was their own 3.5. Apologies.
OP briefest look online checking this bought up that buyers were not all happy with the 3.5 and wasn't great design, but even poor engines can give good service if well serviced and checked.

Holdens 3.6, well PRETTY STURDY was the comment not VERY. with all cars made using them reckon PRETTY is ok description surely.

petermcg, Mar 6, 9:59pm
I thought they were 3.2, it was the auto trans you needed to look out for on the older Isuzu.

a.woodrow, Mar 7, 1:05am
TBH I wasn't aware that the 3.5v6 had that bad a rep, we never saw many issues with them other than their impressive ability to empty the fuel tank fast and used a little oil. Police were using them as special purpose vehicles as they didn't want diesel 4wds (before they got captivas) some of those got quite a thrashing and never any issues other than oil consumption.

3tomany, Mar 7, 1:12am
don't use the police as an example they do not buy cars for reliability it is simply the cheapest wins.

a.woodrow, Mar 7, 1:30am
I never said they bought them for reliability, I said they thrashed them and there were minimal problems.

tiny15, May 12, 11:13am
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/321683902725?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
I was looking for something like this. its had an engine transplant 'down' to an older 3.2L engine, I have been seeing a few for sale that have had the 3.5L engine replaced with a 3.2L , spoke to a mechanic a little while ago that reckoned sludge build up from short running was the down fall of the 3.5 engine