I had a 2002 Intrepid 2.7 3 years ago and I never had any engine problems. I knew about these engines so When I bought it in '04 it had 25,000 miles, I used synthetic every 3,000 (Castrol GTX) and replaced my PCV valve at 30,000. It ran perfectly until the day I sold it January '07 with 93,000 and the ONLY reason why I sold it was because the evaporator was leaking freon faster than I could recharge it.

When I used to work for Dodge, we had to constantly tell customers to ignore the factory recommend 7500 mile oil change interval, and go with the 3 month/3,000 mile interval. So many times people let it go 2 to 3 thousand over and repeated overages in the "severe" oil change category will lead to engine failures. You can run straight conventional, just don't go over; it's best to be under not over.

 

I am just curious. I have a 2001 Sebring Convertible. Is it possible to put a 3.0L in place of the 2.7 or is it not possible?

 

Doing an engine flush is a fantastic way to break all that garbage loose and pack it inside your oil pump p/u screen and starve your bearings for oil and sieze your engine.

That's called condensation mixed with PCV system oil vapor. You never had a sludge problem. 4.7L don't have sludge problems. That oil fill spout isn't even part of the internal engine.

 

Another spammer, what a surprise.

 

mmmmm......fried spam sandwich

 

No, the Sebring/Stratus coupe are built on the same platform as the Mitsubishi PS platform (Galant/Eclipse) and use different powertrains. If you were to make that work, be prepared to spend a LOT of money converting stuff from Chrysler to Mitsubishi


You never had a sludge problem. 4.7L don't have sludge problems. That oil fill spout isn't even part of the internal engine.[/quote]

I'm not sure about your area, but 4.7's sludge up in the upper cylinder heads quite frequently. At my Mitsubishi dealership, we have had several Raider V8's with 90,000+ miles and have had to take the heads off, because it sludged up.

 

Well it looks like I too made the big mistake of buying a dodge Intrepid with a 2.7 engine. I previously owned a jeep which served well but was rear ended on the FWY and the Jeep was totaled. Desperate to get another car to get back in business I bought what looked like a good deal on a 98 Intrepid. I have never owned a car that spun a rod bearing but this one did. I repaired it once with a shim to last 4 months then goes out again. I just went and bought a crank shaft used and may put it in over next few days. I have never had any car cause as many problems as this 2.7 Intrepid. The car has around 150k. The biggest issue to watch for I believe is your coolant level. If your loosing coolant and have no leaks its going in the oil which will cause sludge. I would suggest if your having problems to switch to a 3.5 liter but you also need to switch the tranny due to higher HP. Supposedly there's a water pump with an external weep hole (dodge fix). The water pump is internal which is one of the reasons for sludge but another I just read about said it was also caused by the engine ventilation system causing too many hydrocarbons into the oil and destroying the oil additives. Fixed around 2002-04. I personally have spent enough time trying to keep the car running with 2 broken rods and now a crank replace, I doubt I'll be buying another Dodge any time soon. LOL.