Dodge Spirit/Plymouth Acclaim/Chrysler LeBaron-same car different trim and all sold here and in Canada. 2.2L and 2.5L were all-American, based off a Volkswagon design. I owned a BUNCH of both. And the only time I heard a knock or rattle was when they first fired up-like all cars did back then. But my Acclaim has the Mitsubishi designed 3.0L V6. As has been mentioned, 4 or 6 cyl, if you change the oil regularly and keep them topped off, they will last damn near forever.

 

wasnt it the sundance and duster not the lebaron?... The lebaron was sligtly bigger I thought...maybe I have it backwards..
I do remeber of all the friends knew that had them they ran great but he factory stereos were all broken or replaced... seems that was a weakness of Chrysler back then.

Ugly1 I totally know what yor saying... I'm just saying theres no real magic fix to make these trucks perform like a newer one would... and he EPA changed the way they rate gas mileage after being scolded by the gov.... the new estimates are no longer just wind tunnel ones..I have newer injectors gen 3 in mine still working out the bugs since my truck was screwed up prior to me putting them in so... but the better spray pattern was out for years dodge just went cheap... the vettes and camaros have been using better spraying injectors since the 80's..

I agree about the payments... although my truck is far from reliable... it has cost me about $4,000 in repair parts in the last 5,000 miles...fix one thing and something else immediately breaks...And it gets babied?... I believe it had a rough life before me though.

 

i guess it depends on how long you have had the truck. $4000 may not be too bad if you have had the truck long enough even though you have only put 5000 miles on it. if you buy a new truck the increase in insurance and the monthly or bi-weekly payments would would add up to that $4000 quickly. plus you have to keep making payments whether you drive it or not.

i bought my truck for the looks. it doesn't get as good of gas mileage as i would like but i make enough to keep my tank full. this summer i am hoping to spend about $1000 on it to get it a transmission with overdrive and an rv cam. even if it was to only get me another 3mpg it would pay for itself in less than 43 fuel ups.

 

at 49 psi they would flow no more than 24. Most likely less.

 

It makes sense if you know about SCTs. They redo the shift points. For example, instead of shifting to OD at 45 MPH, SCT makes it shift at 40 mph. That means you are not chugging along trying to go up a hill with your foot to the floor at 45 mph.

people think that because they are in OD that they are getting better mileage. But you are going to pull a lot more vac in OD and not on the Highway going above 55 mph.

The SCT helped me get more power when I first installed it and bumped my gas mileage from 8.9 to 10.1.

 

actually 253 cc and 24.06lbs vs 248.4cc and 23.64 on the stock injectors..(I found a calculator).but I also found that injectors can have unpredicatable behavior when operated outside of the parameters they are rated for... I found gas in my oil today so I may likely have some bad injectors in the 8 rebuilt ones I just bought.

 

not trying to be a smartass, but how do you find gas in your oil? Gas dissolves in oil. Is there some type of chemical test?

 

The Shadow/Sundance were the compact cars made on the K platform. I owned 2 of those, too. (:

 

Oil dissolves in gas..... get enough gas in the oil, and you can smell it. Running excessively rich will do that for ya.

 

yup... and when the oil is an inch and a half above the "full" mark on the dip stick it verifies somethings wrong. since its not milky at all it must be gas...the smell gives it away too...