Any comments on the Mopar 2.7 engine

[VicR]

Possibly found a good used car for the wife. Its a 2001 Concorde w/ 16,000 miles. I can get it for a very good price. Only (potential) downside is it has the Chrysler 2. 7 liter engine. The engine has a bad rep on a lot of non-technical whiney web sites - just wondered if anyone here had any first hand experience with this motor.



Thanks,



-Vic

 

[Wayne M.]

I know some local techs and the motor has never come up as being bad in conversation. Is ALLPAR.com in that list of websites you mention? If not, they have good resources in my opinion. I would be more worried about other problems (like electrical, trans or flood) with this car.

 

[Philip]

I think the 2. 7 engine you are talking about is the same one they used in my wifes 99 Intrepid. If it is we have had very little problems with ours. It has around 130k on it now.

 

[VicR]

Yep - thats the same 2. 7. The sites that usually bash Chrysler (consumer reports.com, edmunds, etc) were not kind to the engine. Apparently it is prone to some kind of sludge build up causing an oil circulation failure. There is even one group putting together a class action lawsuit.



This post, from the squeakywheel.com kind of sums up the problem:



"My 1999 Dodge Intrepid needed to have the timing chain tensioner replaced at 65,000 miles which cost $1,300. At 69,000 miles the block cracked and I had to replace the engine at a cost of $5,500. Both problems were due to engine sludge throughout the oil channels in the engine despite regular oil changes every 3,000 to 5,000 miles. There has been no company notices, no warranty, no recall on this faulty design which causes the oil to overheat and clog the lubrication channels.

A possible solution for those who haven't blown an engine yet is to use synthetic oil, which won't burn like the petroleum oils. "



Philip - what kind of MPG's is your wife getting on hers?



Wayne - haven't tried ALLPAR yet but will go there next - thanks,



-Vic

 

[Philip]

Most of the time she is getting around 24 to 26 MPG on the road. It depends on A/C use.



The sludge problem is most likely people that go by milage only. 3k of city miles will give you sludge problems with any engine. MY wifes car drives 25 miles one way to work every day. It has no sludge buildup at all. The oil gets changed at 2. 5k intervills. We don't use Kendal or quaker state brands eather.



Cracked block. HHHHMMMMM sounds like an overheat problem to me. Run it hot it will crack.



The only issue we had was the trans started slipping going into OD at 92k. This is a known issue on this model trans. I droped it out and had it rebuilt.

 

[VicR]

Thanks - 24 to 26 MPG is pretty good for a car that size. I think we'll probalby go ahead and get it and keep up on the regular maint.



-Vic