Hello folks, new here. Drove a dodge 97' intrepid for just over ten years till the tranny ground itself up at 175,000 miles. Found a reliable vehicle for the same price as a tranny for the intrepid, so intrepid left.

Just aquired a 02 stratus with the typical rod or main bearing failure the 2.7L is plagued with. This one made it to 150,000 miles though before the catastrophic "knock" started.

The car ran flawless before knock and I was going to just do a in-car crank/bearing job myself. Was going to install an engine oil cooler also and replace water,oil pumps and all timing chains, gears since I will be in the neighborhood too.

Anybody attempt such a task on a stratus??? Any help/info would be appreciated.

 

Well, based on my girlfriend's 97 you might be out of luck (sorry). To do an in-car bearing replacement you have to take the oil pan off and the '97 has an engine cross-member (frame) below the pan. Not to mention that doing an in-car bearing change does not allow you to recondition the connecting rods (would have to take of heads & pull pistons/rods).

I would suggest pulling the whole motor since it will make your life A LOT easier in the long run. If you are tight for cash, look for a low mileage used motor on www.car-part.com.

Just my 2-cents

 

FYI- I tried an in-car rod bearing replacement once and it lasted all of 2 miles and locked up the motor.

 

Hello purplebeeper, Been a while since I have looked or posted here, been busy.

Yes, after fully diving into this project and having the oil pan off, I have commenced to yarding the engine/tranny out of the car. It will most certainly make life easier in the full scope of what must be done.

The engine will get a freshly done crank w/bearings, new timing components and new pumps for the fluids. Luckily, all the rods are good.

I scored on a full set of factory manuals for the 02' stratus covering everything from bumper to bumper, that has been very helpful in different spots. And also have managed to find other ways of moving things out of the way such as the a/c stuff with out breaking the lines and loosing freon, manual states to evacuate freon into service unit and then remove lines and condenser. I do not own an a/c service unit and would rather not open a perfectly fine working a/c system and risk contamination.

Also not having the car on a hoist just big wood blocks and stands, I need to figger out some lift points to lower the engine/tranny out and from car after completely disconnecting EVERYTHING.... Read some where a fella used the exhaust manifolds and other points somehow.

 

O.K, got the engine out of the car after darn near completely dismantling the front of the car and got the engine apart.

Compression was excellent, sludge was minimal but present.

Water pump was barely leaking but looked to me the weep hole was in good working order with the start of some "orange fuzz" at the opening

There was a oil film coating, the kind that oil turns into when it gets cooked covering ALL internals that had been touched by oil. After reading threw the factory repair manual, the reason for this is the frigg'n 220 degrees the engine must be BEFORE the fans come on and 208 degrees when fans kick off. Um DUH, no wonder sludge is an issue with the 2.7. Don't need a leaky water pump to make oil sludge at those temps, it will just happen. This car had very regular service intervals to boot.

The old rod bearings were shot but the mains looked like they could run longer.

The hydraulic timing chain tensioner was just floating around in its hole, the clip being broke and the o-ring gone. Amazingly, the timing was still on. The complete set up looked like a joke to me all considered, not having provisions to keep the chain from slacking to much. I think a timing belt set up would be better than this set-up.

SO, I did a little surf'n and found an engine shop called perfect engine that had some 2.7 savvy. After talking to PE, they were most helpful on problems associated with these engines. Most importantly, they told me of a little device they use that keeps the timing chain from backing off to much and jumping for when not if, the adjuster gives out. They HIGHLY recommended installing one calling it there 15 dollar insurance policy, So I bought one from them along with a crank kit, timing kit, water pump, oil pump and gaskets.

Parts Geek had the best deal on a nice engine oil cooler kit by Hayden. An engine that MUST run that hot, should come standard with an engine oil cooler. I guess some did, but they all should have an engine oil cooler.

I put the crank, water pump and oil pump in last night, Next is the timing stuffs when I gots more time.

 

Has been a long time since last posted.

The 2.7 rebuild went rather good. Installed all timing stuffs plus a little device that only lets the primary timing chain slack so far when the hyd. tensioner quits, and crank, bearings, water pump and a high pressure engine oil pump.

Got the engine/tranny shoved back in the stratus and after cycling the fuel pump a few times to pressurize the system, the engine started and purred like a kitten.

I also installed a eng. oil cooler. It was a simple install done while installing the engine. The stratus takes a little longer to warm up and does run a little cooler, but I think it will be by far worth it. These engines literally "cook" the oil because of the temps they run at.... I will also change the oil every 3G, with no apologies, Oil is cheap maintenance.

All has been real good the last 1000 miles, starts, runs and gets right on down the road FAST when ask too