Dodge Intrepid - First car, what do you think?

[Diamondpilot]

Thanks guys.

The whole transmission cooler needs to be replaced (or so they say). Not sure why...

Maybe I'll have someone else look at it...

If thats the case just buy a aftermarket one that mounts infront of the rad for about $40 and run the lines, maybe $50 and then a fluid change, maybe $40 and be done with it. Did this to two Mopars when the the tranny failed on one and the dealer told me it was the crappy cooler that caused it and on another to increase the cooling capacity for towing.

Chris

 

[clemsonfor]

Driving an old car your gonna have to learn to fix stuff yourself, even if your dad cant and does not. I taught myself, this was really before the cheap fast internet and so much self posted stuff. I read books and watched shows and asked questions and most importantly tore into in. You cant really be scared but you need to know your limits. You probly dont want to get into timing chains or head work right now but a cooler is easy. May not look that way but is.

You can buy an after market one like Cris said for less than $75 cheaper online like ebay or amazon. But that factory line is probly less than $100 like the one guy said but i would just put a large aftermarket one on if they said its shot. It will cool better and heat is a tranny's enemy. This is a one hour job, maybe 2 cause you might not be familiar with it. But you NEED to do it ASAP. BROWN fluid is really already to late!! I would cut the lines back to metal where there good, flare them and buy the rubber bulk tranny cooler hose at the parts store, its like 3/8. DO NOT get fuel line get Trans cooler line. USE the small hose clamps to clamp onto the metal then all you do is use the special zip tie things and run them through your Condesor and radiator and then tighten the cooler down infront of it all.


I have done this job on the same s10 and it was not bad.

 

[arrow]

Good luck with your new ride CTF. Unfortunately there are inherent problems to the early 2.7 motor as it relates to sludge build up. TB Donnely is quite correct in his thread and about his advice. Oil pan pick up being too small along with high heat stress and design of the heads all contributed to this. Allegedly Chrysler fixed these problems for 2001 and later 2.7's. Chrysler never really admitted to company design flaws about the early 2.7's. however there are a couple things you can do. These engines run hot. They are supposed to have 190-195* thermostats but they can run much hotter. You might consider trying to find a 180* thermostat but its not an easy find for these motors. Secondly, if you switch to synthetic oil, you may never encounter this problem. I would not run an oil beyond 5w20 if you are using dino oil. The good news is that the car has 130,000 miles on it so whatever your uncle was doing oil wise, you may want to continue. Some of these engines failed within the warranty period. Hopefully you have a good one. These Intrepids were considered one of the most handsome cars on the road at the time and many have proved quite durable.

 

[clemsonfor]

Building on what Arrow said, you can buy a can of Seafoam. Follow the bottle and add it to your oil and drive it one day, then that afternoon while oil is still hot, right after you cut the car off pull the oil plug and dump the oil. Then run a cheaper regular oil for say 1500 miles and then dump the oil again and then switch to a good Syn oil, and good filter. Then run this oil say 4k miles and dump, see what it looks like if still amber i would go to at least 6k miles on the oil, and do the same thing you being the judge on how long to go. Syn oil can easily go to at least 9K my opinion on regular Syn oil, they have some extended ones but i personally dont want to go that long no matter what. Make sure you check your oil level regularly though!!! The syn oil has some benefits. In an engine known to have a sludge problem, syn wont sludge. Sludge forms from dino oil that is over heated and old/ breaking down and forms a thick gunk that coats everything and constricts pasage ways starving the heads and bearings of oil. Syn also will clean old deposits over time, so in theory the longer you use syn, to a point it will clean up that old engine, this is why you want a quality filter (i use puroloator pure one) as they have more filter media in them, allowing them to catch more crud before they totally plug up.

 

[deerefan]

CTF, I have a solution for you. Convert the car to rear wheel drive, stick a hemi crate motor in it (preferably the 6.1!!) and have fun!! J/k, follow DPs idea....I had to do this with my 94 Chevy 1500. The line leaked at the radiator, so I mounted a large cooler in front of the rad, problem solved.

 

[dodge man]

I'll add to everyones comments. I owned a 2.7l in a 2001 Sebring convertible. The engine never ran hot and it never overheated, but the underhood temps always got really high. I just don't think the airflow was that good in that car, so everything got hot. You could hardly check the oil, the dipstick was too hot to the touch. Lots of good advice here, but I think I'd just stick with regular oil and change it every 3000 miles or 6 months, and I almost never recomend changing the oil that often.

 

[arrow]

CTF, I have a solution for you. Convert the car to rear wheel drive, stick a hemi crate motor in it (preferably the 6.1!!) and have fun!! J/k, follow DPs idea....I had to do this with my 94 Chevy 1500. The line leaked at the radiator, so I mounted a large cooler in front of the rad, problem solved.

I like this idea. The engines were mounted north -south in these to accept a rear wheel drive train for police work. It was never exploited however. What a sleeper one would have with this set up.

 

[deerefan]

I like this idea. The engines were mounted north -south in these to accept a rear wheel drive train for police work. It was never exploited however. What a sleeper one would have with this set up.

Oh yea...kinda what the charger is now I guess.

 

[arrow]

Oh yea...kinda what the charger is now I guess.

Except for one very important fact. People can associate a Charger with a hemi. They would not suspect a thing when you blew their doors off with an Intrepid that was hemied. I gotta look this up. Some motor enthusiast may have done this.. but it would probably cost more than a new Charger to fabricate as not a thing would bolt up. I doubt anyone would take on this challenge unless it was a company like West Coast Customs.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

UPDATE:

Got a second quote on the trans leak from the local Dodge dealer. It was higher (not by much), so we bit the bullet and had the work done for the original quoted price...