2001 Prado Has Oil-Eating Engine Fault

[Floydwiseman]

Dear Landcruiser friends,

I have a 2001 Landcruiser Prado with the 2.8 Diesel motor in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Though it starts instantly and does not smoke excessively, it has rather suddenly begun drinking as much oil as fuel (one gallon motor oil every 20-gal. tank of fuel) Some mechanics have told me this was a design flaw and they all do this. THe motor is original, was well-maintained by us and original owner, and has 170K Kilometers. We plan to be in this country for 5 more years, so we need the jeep to be economical and reliable. My two potential plans are to rebuild the motor completely, or to see if I can replace it with one of the new D-4-D motors (?) that are being used in the pickups, the highlanders, and the new Prados. Those motors sound very quiet and smooth. I do NOT want to rebuild the motor so it can fail again, if the design flaw (?) has not been resolved, but if the motor is better than the new ones, I will rebuild it, relying on its past of good maintenance to take well to a renovation.

Any thoughts?

Also, given that the motor has good compression (i.e., starts on the first crank cold or hot) I have also read that the oil-eating may be through the turbo. Is this true? Does engine oil circulate through the turbo and could be lost through bad seals in turbo? How would I know?

Thank you all in advance!

Michael