Intrepid 2.6L oil sludge

[mcbockalds]

Recently heard about engine failures in this engine due to oil sludge building up apparently around the timing chain and the engine blowing ( Should I switch to a synthetic?
One third of the miles have been short trips 5 to 10 miles and the other 2/3's are highway miles at 55 to 70mph.
Any experience with flushing or treatments would be helpful since I have never done this before.
Cheers
John

 

[Steelhead]

sure engine isn't the 2.7L V6?
http://www.oilsludge.com/
http://www.carcomplaints.com/Dodge/Intrepid/2002/engine/oil_sludge_resulting_in_engine_failure.shtml

send in oil sample after 2k>3k miles on oil for UOA
I would trade or sell the car

start using Auto RX
replace the timing chain and remove the pan to check for sludge plugging the oil pump pickup

 

[rshaw125]

It seems owners with the 2.7 that want the engine to last do 3,000 mile oil max changes with synthetic. Mobil 1 high mileage is the latest choice. I bought a 2.7 last month and it is going through it's first autorx. It will eventually be run on Maxlife or Mobil 1 HM at 3,000 miles intervals. Change and clean the PVC asap!

 

[Donald]

While a UOA is a good thing to get on a periodic basis, it probably is not a great indicator of sludge. Sludge forms in several places, but under the valve cover may be the easiest place to determine if you have sludge. You might ask a dealer about problems with a broken timing chain on that engine. The timing chain is a pretty rugged item and a little hard to believe that sludge would cause it to break. If you have sludge you should go for a double treatment with Auto-Rx, then maint doses with Auto-Rx. As for whether to replace the timing chain, you need to see how much sludge you have and how many engines a dealer has seen with timing chain problems and then decide.

 

[mcbockalds]

Thanks for the replies. Yup 2.7L not 2.6L When you get into your 60's you can even start forgetting your own phone number! I call it "forgetzheimers" not Alzheimers.

 

[ThirdeYe]

Or you could call it sometimers!

 

[mcbockalds]

Anyone have any experience with putting in a quart of transmission fluid in place of a quart of oil and running it for 3,000 miles before changing?

 

[bobfather99]

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Anyone have any experience with putting in a quart of transmission fluid in place of a quart of oil and running it for 3,000 miles before changing?

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Dont do it!!!!!!!!!!
From what Ive read here, the best route on these engines is to keep to a frequent OCI, use A-RX, and possibly consider a syn oil.

Transmission fluid will not clean anything, in fact it may harm things.

Bob

 

[va3ux]

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replace the timing chain and remove the pan to check for sludge plugging the oil pump pickup

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It usually isn't the chain itself that's the problem. Loss of oil pressure to the main chain tensioner is what causes the chain to start slapping around and either break, or jump one or more teeth. Loss of adequate oil pressure at the main tensioner occurs primarily due to deposit formation (high temp sludge) in the gallery feeding the main tensioner. A failing con rod bearing will also cause the same thing to happen since this causes a system-wide loss of oil pressure. Yet another potential cause of loss of system-wide oil pressure comes from the internal water pump leaking into the crankcase, which forms a mayonnaise-like muck with the oil, which doesn't pump, and....same thing again.

In most cases, the broken chain is actually a casualty rather than the root cause. But when the failed engines are disassembled, the broken chain is immediately obvious and it is instantly labelled as the cause of the failure. Rarely does anyone think any further to ask what caused the chain to break. If the main tensioner or oil pressure to the tensioner hadn't failed, the chain probably would never have broken.

I've Auto-RX'd mine 3 times during the past 12 months. I also ran LC periodically and even did some so-called "flushes" with 20% LC in the crankcase. I also started using synthetic oil on a regular basis 24 months ago (other than during the ARX treatments). At this time next week, I'll have 322,500 km on it, which is an even 200K miles. That is not a huge number for some of the engines from other manufacturers, but it definitely is a big number for the 2.7.

Standard automotive oil analysis isn't much good at predicting or indicating varnish/sludge formation. The closest indicator that *I* know how to use is Oxidation. And even then I don't much about that. I know that the amount of varnish and varnish precursors increases with increasing Oxidation. So I've simply experimented with oils and OCIs that produce the lowest oxidation number possible in this engine. You can see all the data from my engine in the UOA section. The homework has already been done there; just use the data to choose from a variety of oils and OCIs.

Good luck....Phil

 

[[email protected]]

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The timing chain is a pretty rugged item and a little hard to believe that sludge would cause it to break.

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Very widespread problem. 2.7L engines are sludge monsters. Google "2.7 problems" or Dodge intrepid problems.

I had one in my 2004 Sebring and liked the engine but sold it with 10,000 miles and bought my Envoy

The sludge itself doesnt break the timing chain, but it does block alot of oil passages and causes lack of lubrication to the timing chain which breaks it. Its a domino effect.

Next time you are out driving, look for the last style intrepid (1999+). Count how many are burning oil. See if you can get next to one at a red light. Odds are 8 out of 10 will be burning oil stronger than a 3.0L mitsu V6 with 200,000 miles and bad valve seals/guides AND sounding like a wheat thrasher going through a rock field. Everytime I see an Intrepid these days I can almost bet money on either BAD engine noise or its burning enough oil that its producing thick blue clouds.

OH and despite owners having tons of documentation of oil changes EVEN at the dealer, Chrysler still denied hundreds of claims for the 2.7 engine failures. Like I said, google it, go to ebay and search "Dodge needs". You WILL find intrepids or other similar body styles that share that engine with "blown engine" or "needs engine" in the description. Almost always have under 75,000 miles too!

 

[va3ux]

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Next time you are out driving, look for the last style intrepid (1999+). Count how many are burning oil. See if you can get next to one at a red light. Odds are 8 out of 10 will be burning oil stronger than a 3.0L mitsu V6 with 200,000 miles and bad valve seals/guides AND sounding like a wheat thrasher going through a rock field. Everytime I see an Intrepid these days I can almost bet money on either BAD engine noise or its burning enough oil that its producing thick blue clouds.

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Strange but I've never seen or heard anything like you're talking about here. Being an Intrepid owner (I had 3 of them as company cars before this one I own now), I eyeball every Intrepid I see. I see no smoke; I hear no strange sounds. From any of them. Or from my sister's '99 Intrepid (2.7) with 90K or my Dad's '03 Intrepid with 105K. And no smoke or strange sounds from mine with nearly 200K !

Perhaps it's a Canadian thing. Since the Intrepids were built in Canada, maybe we sent all the Monday and Friday built units into the U.S. with Dodge labels, and kept all the Tuesday to Thursday built ones here in Canada with Chrysler labels.

Cheers.