Hey guys (and gals if there are any)

A co-worker just recently bought an '00 Intrepid. He was complaining about some water vapor in the exhaust, so I went out to take a look at it and saw that it had the 'dreaded' 2.7 V6. It's got something like 127K, and from what I see and hear, the engine runs ok. By the smell of the exhaust, it could probably use a tuneup, but I can't see any indication that it's having issues other than that. It may have been a city car or a police application because there are strobes in the headlight housing.

I don't know any history at all behind it, so I was figuring he could start on the preventative maintenance now. Do you guys think an ATF (engine) flush would help if there is any sludge build up? Or would it be better to just start now a high quality synthetic (Mobil 1 or something) and let the synthetic oil additives do the cleaning?

 

Well, I took a closer look at it, and the oil looks clean (he said he had it changed about 2000 miles ago), and from what little bit I could see by looking inside the oil cap, it looks ok. Stuck my finger in, and got nothing but oil on it, so that's good. I told him I would help him with an engine flush, (something that would benefit any engine with over 100,000 miles), and that he should put good quality synthetic (Like Mobil 1) in and he should be ok. I also told him he should change it every 3000 on the dot.

The 2.7 looks, sounds, and feels like a competent powerplant. It's just a shame it's got such a bad rap.

 

I would skip the engine flush and change the oil and filter using the Mobil 1.