Meles,

There is a very long thread at this link with discussion about the 3.5L issue... buried in there is this link which has some interesting info from a pretty reliable source. For the record, I don't buy the "low cetane" excuse. And I have never heard of the alleged oil pump issue, that sounds like complete myth to me.

But anyway: Using a quart per 600 miles, you definitely have some damage present. But if it's been the same for the last 110kmi, wow... that's impressive. If it were my car, and otherwise it ran well (good power, MPG, no smoke) then I'd just keep driving it. When the power drops, MPG plummets, smoke increases, or oil consumption gets worse (100-200 miles per quart)... then I'd rebuild it. Make sure you're using good diesel oil (Delvac 15W-40, etc).

The compression numbers can show this problem after the bent rod (or ovaled cylinder wall) gets bad enough. If it doesn't yet show on a compression test, it may not be that bad. Remember that you're only looking for more than a 3 bar drop from the best cylinder, and cyl #1 and/or #6 seem to be the common failures. If you love the car and have the time/$$$, sure, rebuild it now. Otherwise, I'd wait until it gets worse. They can sleeve the block, install the new/updated rods, and new pistons if necessary. Metric should be able to do it for well under $10k.