My wife's 2000 Intrepid almost seized at around 110,000 miles. I stopped the car. Had it towed to the house. Put CRC engine flush in. Drained oil. Put fresh oil in. Nothing. So I took it to the dealer, where they told me that this is a common problem with this engine. The oil gallery had a 90 degree bend that accumulated sludge. Kasper engines redesigned to fix the problem. But at $4000, it didn't justify the cost. They professionally flushed it 6 times. Still didn't get oil to the head. Had it towed back home. Put another can of CRC in. It knocked loose what ever was in the oil gallery. I used Amsoil for the next few oil changes. Now I use Mobil One Synthetic. Not a problem since. The funny thing is, I used Castrol GTX Since I bought the car. So much for sludge...lol. The car now has 150,000 miles. Still runs good...knock on wood.

 

I agree with the people using a 5/40 diesel oil . Actually if you read the back of the bottle it is SF/SG rated for spark ignition gas engines.
The detergents are so much better than any oil with just an SM rating.
Not to get overly technical but the majority of the reason that passenger car oils lost that diesel rating CF/CG/CE ect. was strictly due to emissions.
Some of the latest model car manufacturers claim it's harmfull to a catalytic converter.
I'm not going to endorce any brands here but any oil with a diesel rating will
keep your motor cleaner. Run a premium filter not the common orange one.

A slightly different question / comment on the 2.7 motor--------
I had to make a personal emergency trip the other night and I've never
hammered on this car like this before. The car was to the floor and revved out as far as it would go in every gear ,,,, not trying to brag as the situation was not funny.
Has anyone ever had a 2.7 come apart or seen damage from this type of abuse ? As far as I know this engine has never seen those kind of rpm's and
I was actually somewhat impressed by the performance.

 

Castrol Syntec 5w-30/Wix filter every 4,000. Bought the car with 30,000- now has 130,000. No sludge. 2002 2.7 L

 

Got a really nice intrepid for xmas this weekend. Drove it back from nashville without a hitch. Little shimmy in the steering but that's an easy fix. All fun and games untill, this evening, I started looking into what to do about oilsmell every time the car has been sitting in front of traffic light for a minute. I suspect the pcv valve is gone and dumping oil somewhere it shouldnt be.

And then I started reading about the dreaded 2.7l motor? WTF? lawsuits? euh? This thing goes like a firetruck! 159k on the thing?

father in law not only gave us the car, he just put some 1000 worth of new tires on it and its overall in great shape and Id like to keep it running for a while. so.

What to do. First check and make sure the pcv is ok. Replace anyway right?

Then. Do I flush the thing? the school of thought seems to be a little devided between kerosine trick, seafoam (?!) and several other products, or just start using mobil1 synthetic?

New panseal, valve covers (little metal doohamahickey clogging up pcv..)

As you may or may not be able to tell by now, my head is kinda running over. Any advice would be more than appreciated to keep this kermit green beauty on the road..

 

Please refer to the beginning of this thread. That problem was resolved too.

 

When I bought the car, I read these posts, and thanks to everyone, no issues. I got the engine flushed and used Valvoline Full Syntethic Oil. Drove the car on road trips totalling 1500 miles one way and car runs smooth.

 

Well I just purchased a 2001 Intrepid today with 114,3xxx on the clock, 1 owner and after reading about the sludge monster I'm not sure about my purchase

I will try to like it now that I have it

 

I have a 2002 Dodge Intrepid with a 2.7L at 100500 miles and I was fortunate not to have a real problem with oil sludge. Unfortunately the water pump gasket blew POURING antifreeze all over the ground from the drivers side of the engine. Fortunately I caught the problem as my wife was pulling out of the driveway. We caught it in time so the engine didn't blow...yet. After replacing the water pump and timing chains the car drove good for +/- 10 minutes until a valve broke blowing 4 of the 6 cylinders. IDK what happened but if you have a Dodge Intrepid over 100k miles, CHANGE THE WATER PUMP! they have a new redesigned water pump that is supposed to redirect coolant overflows to the weep hole instead of into your oil pan like the previous model which would blow your engine. A rebuilt engine cost 3000 plus install but the car is only worth 3500 with a good engine which is why its sitting in my garage right now.

 

I have 2 intrepids both wiht bad 2.7's teh nice one is one owner, 120K, CLEAN enging. No sludge. just hd oil changed at jiffy lube. went aobut 400 miles and it started to knock. I pulled teh enigne and #3 is junk. This is the 4th 2.7 wiht the exact saim prolem WHAT IS THE FIX to prevent futur failure?

 

If people are having so many problems with sludge the just seafoam the thing! But be careful because if you do it wrong then I hear you can spin bearings. Not good!