My understanding is the 2.7L is about as high strung as it can get performance wise already (being approx 1.2 HP/IN^3).

You might be able to get a little freer flowing exhaust, a bigger throttle body (e.g. all the typical stuff), etc... From what I've seen aftermarket cold air intakes are basically bogus (and I think the trep already intakes cold air).

Some of these mods might be applicable:

https://www.300cforums.com/threads/chrysler-300-2-7l-performance-mods.65737/

From my understanding, if you want much bigger power you're looking at some kind of forced induction together with a higher flow fuel pump, injectors, and (quite possibly) stronger pistons.

One of these might not be too incredibly difficult to adapt:

You'll certainly want to make sure your trans is serviced with the RIGHT fluid (ATF+4) and perhaps beefed up a bit to handle the power.

Speaking of trans, I recall reading here somewhere that a higher stall torque converter is a nice addition to these considering how much of a dog they are off the line and all. IIRC the part was around $700 and then there's the time of putting it in (e.g. pull the engine or trans because it lives in between).

 

Actually, I am thinking of switching out the whole engine and putting in a 2002 Dodge Intrepid 3.5. I read somewhere it has to be the same year & make. Just got to find one at a junkyard & find someone with a truck to haul it. And...maybe call my ex boyfriend to see if he would help put it in. Or some crazy friend. lol
I, also, read somewhere that you can switch out the automatic transmission with a manual transmission. I have a lot of work to read up on. A lot of prices to sift through.

 

Wow, never heard of jet chips. Looks like I may have to look around for them. Still, the engine swap is #1 on my list.

 

Merged my car with a 300M Special; with the factory 300M special performance advantages; all the options available except Uconnect; plus paint and wheels; 2.7-3.2 swap; too much to list;

 

How did you merge them? Kept your original car body & switched everything under the hood? Nice car!

 

Sweet! And here I was only considering swapping out the 2.7 and putting in a 3.5 from an Intrepid (same year). You have given me more ideas to consider. My car has been running pretty good for 5 years. I think I will check the junkyard for parts (maybe seats and other interior) to start off. I would like to get it painted a medium to dark blue.
Mine is a 2002 Dodge Intrepid SE.

 

Personally I wouldn't swap a 2.7 for a 3.2/.5. The 2.7 is a much more efficient, advanced and lighter engine for the power output. It can be reliable if caught early before getting gunked/messed up and carefully managed/modded.

Here are some discussions/ideas from another forum that made sense to me:

https://www.chargerforumz.com/threads/you-want-more-power-for-your-2-7l-look-here.122564/

Those chips might only be available for the NGC.

 

Very true. The 2.7 was a mighty little engine. Built very well really; except for the one area they screwed up---the water pump.

The LH 2.7's were much worse off than the ones put in the LX cars; they received several updates to the water pump and timing chain, as well as the oiling system; so they were better off.

I've seen the worst designs; 98-01 model years basically, if properly taken care of; last 400K miles. That means spending some major cash and upgrading the water pump, oil pickup, PCV system, and changing oil with full synthetic every 3k miles.

That being said, the 3.2/3.5 was much more fun power wise than the 2.7. The efficiency wasnt really that much worse with the 3.x. As far as the LX cars are concerned, IMO, the 2.7 was a dog; car was way too big, and it made it very slow; but yes, efficient.

Best thing they ever did IMO was replace them all in the LX cars and move to the pentastar. Impressive little V6 in everything they put it in. I had a Ram 1500 with that engine and it kept north of 26 MPG.

Considering the design, 3.2/5 was best for the LH IMO. It should have been discontinued for the LX. It was more suited to smaller cars; cloud cars, or Dart/200 if they wanted to.

So many people swapped to a 3.2/5 because it was much cheaper than fixing or replacing their 2.7, and gave more power and performance.

If I had a 2.7, I'd keep it up, for a DD, or a beater car really.

 

kevinfish,

I found a chip for a 2002 Dodge Intrepid: https://www.carid.com/2002-dodge-in...nce-chips/jet-v-force-plus-performance-programmer-172961859.html?parentsubmodel[]=ENGINE|2.7L

More info to look into! There are some good ideas at the sight you suggested.

Sometime before Thanksgiving I will have the water pump changed. It was too hot today to look under the hood. Last week had the gas leak fixed along with an oil change. The price was $219.76. The receipt said: Replace leaking 90 degree fitting at rear of intake manifold (leaking fuel). Parts replaced: Fuel Repair Elbow, Nylon tubing, connector and fuel line repair kit-nyl plus the oil change where they check fluid levels and filters. Not sure if that is a good price but the car is happy.

 

I am not saying a 2.7 engine is bad. My car does have good power. Makes it up hills pretty good.

 

Can you recommend a good water pump? Are they easy to put on? I can learn.

I found two at the local Auto Zone:

Valucraft Serpentine Water Pump BVC-9103

Duralast Mechanical Water Pump BWP-9103

 

Can you recommend a good water pump? Are they easy to put on? I can learn.

Mopar only. From the Dodge dealer. That is the updated water pump; heavier duty body, and bearings; which was the main failure point on these.

Update timing chain if necessary; but if there are no issues with it, original can be used. Usually the updated chain is only required if the water pump bearing failed and tore up the guides, but not the rest of the engine.

Not a job for someone who has little/no experience; nor for the faint of heart; its about a 10 hour job for an experienced mechanic. There are several critical steps that must be done right or serious engine damage can happen.

See my threads:

https://www.dodgeintrepid.net/18-ge...l-discussion-second-generation/246001-2-7-water-pump-replacement-procedure.html

https://www.dodgeintrepid.net/18-general-discussion-second-generation/171698-info-2-7-owners.html

 

Oh okay, I will have my mechanic look at the timing chain & water pump next time I take the car in. I am not faint of heart, not afraid of hard work, just don't have the experience level you are talking about. Nor the tools. Sad but true.
Maybe I should take my step dad's advice and take mechanic classes...

 

there really aren't that many tools needed, although it is a fairly involved process. I'm sure you could do it if you did your research online (several decent videos on youtube for example) and took your time. A couple of the parts require a bit of stamina and/or strength (like I always wind the engine around by hand until the timing marks come up again to make SURE I'm still dead-nuts on with it -- which seems like it takes forever) so it might be good if you had a strong helper if you aren't that buff.

Also while you're in there you'll probably also want to do the thermostat and lower radiator hose (since they're so hard to get to otherwise). Those can be a challenge especially if you don't have a rack so you can go at it thru the wheel well looking at the bolts from eye level (and you'll need a LONG socket extension -- or a bunch strung together). Getting your hand in there can be really fun (where you might have an actual advantage if you have dantier female hands).

If you can do it in a place that's fairly open and away from neighbors (or wait till its windy) I like to freeze the crank with liquid propane while I'm heating my crank sprocket (and then later my balancer) in the oven so they slide on like butter in spite of the interference fit. I did do one at a friends heating the balancer up on the wood stove and installing it first thing on a frozen winter morning and that worked well also. You can get the crank sprocket really hot (like 500 F in an oven) and it will probably go on pretty easy even in warm weather. You should probably limit the balancer to about 400 F since it has rubber inside and you don't want to burn/ruin it. Of course once you have the balancer on sufficiently to start the threads of the center bolt you could just crank it down by jamming the engine with a couple feet of clothesline in one of the cyls thru the spark plug hole, but then you might need a LONG ratchet and some elbow grease especially if you weren't really quick about it.

 

And as far as power is concerned, yes, they are a bit of a dog off the line (which might be somewhat remedied by the high stall torque converter I mentioned above) but if you hold them into a lower gear and force them to wind, after they get moving a little bit I've found the power to be pretty acceptable (e.g. for passing on the open highway if you do it right, holding back a bit from the car you want to pass and timing it right such that you accelerate straight towards them getting your last little burst of speed by cutting through their slipstream just as you pull out into the opposing lane; of course timing it perfectly such that you do so right after any oncoming traffic just went by). Yes, you may not be able to just tailgate someone then pull out into the oncoming lane and floor it to overtake them but no one should really be passing that way anyway if you give half a wit about your exposure to a head on collision time.

 

“I don't think you can upgrade the pump w/o also upgrading the chain and sprockets as they are quite different beasts (and I'm pretty sure about this cuz I quite literally am in the middle of one right now).”

I was pretty sure you could buy the same upgraded water pump (beefier bearings, the thinner gasket) but with the older-chain sprocket from dealers. I don’t Know for sure if that is still true or not.

 

Actually, I never had a problem passing people on the highway or freeway in this car. I rarely go into the opposite lane to pass unless it is a straightway & legal to do so.
I will look into the water pump and timing chain.
Mostly, I am going to continue to save up for an older motor-home, do some work on it, and pay someone turn it into a 4x4 or 6x6 (depending on the model).

 

Actually, I never had a problem passing people on the highway or freeway in this car. I rarely go into the opposite lane to pass unless it is a straightway & legal to do so...

When I swapped the 2.7 from my ‘99 Concorde to my ‘98 Concorde with 3.2, I swapped only the engine, so the 2.7 is coupled to the low ratio transfer chain sprockets. Even now it’s adequate for me on 70 mph I-81 with hills. Full disclosure: I’m 68 y.o., and recently got excited on making a passive turn signal amplifier for my ‘85 F150 by gluing a soft cat food can onto the flasher so I don’t leave the turn signal on when it fails to self cancel. So - yeah - there’s that. :auto_07:

 

My water pump and timing chain are fine right now. I never had a problem with either of them.
I will be putting the car on the back burner as far as interior work, paint, etc. As of right now, I am looking at prices of old motor-homes.

 

yeah, if you watch your coolant level like a hawk you should be fine. You can check the chain stretch by pulling off the intake plenum and passenger side cam cover so you can see how much extension there is on the tensioner. I believe you could also install a chain block at that time which would be a good, cheap, insurance policy that when/if your tensioner ever did stop working there'd be MUCH less chance of your engine jumping time (a very BAD thing).

I've got a 1971 (Dodge) sightseer I'm going to be selling in Northern California (Chico area). I'm gonna want a pretty penny for it tho, considering there's tons of fire victims here looking for something to dry-camp on their burned out properties and this particular RV runs great and is rare as hen's teeth. I don't think a person could lose money on this thing tho considering the running gear is in excellent shape, the shell's decent, and its collectability. Its biggest issues right now I'd say are: something to do with the blackwater tank is leaking (probably the fitting/pipe going from the dump to it), the 12V fuse panel needs replacing, it needs a roof A/C unit (or my preference: a swamp cooler). IIRC it's a dually. I used it to tow an 8500 lb boat and trailer from Stockton (basically sea level) to Magalia (approximately 3000' elevation) a few years ago (mostly at freeway speed) and it did it without so much as a hiccup (well, except, it shut its headlights off in the middle of the night right on the steepest/narrowest part of the trip -- due to the rusty fuse panel or switch most likely; but I was following a friend so I could see from her headlights until I could get it pulled over).

HMU if that's something you might be interested in.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxidmAmnqG8zUUthZ0s3THRLcmc?usp=sharing

(BTW I've upgraded the captain's chairs to nice comfy gray ones out of a dodge minivan, cuz the originals were so trashed; yeah, they're not technically "period correct," but I was going more for comfort/durability/practicality over the long haul and on long trips)

 

B&G Performance offers PCM tuning. This would be the last step after you think you're done with bolt ons (CAI Exhaust etc.)

Chrysler Tuning | BG Chrysler

 

kevinfish,

Very nice photos of your motor-home. I do have a (kind of lowish) price range (savings goal) & that motor-home would be out of it. I am on a fixed income. I am looking for a motor-home that I will be doing some work on, like, putting faux wood flooring (vinyl), redoing closet space with drawers (hidden behind regular closet doors so they don't move while driving) & perhaps a hidden spot for my guitar and uke, etc. So, for me anyway, it doesn't make sense to spend a 'pretty penny' on a motor-home if I am just going to tear it up inside & redo it.
I lived in a fifth wheel for 5 years. Loved it but couldn't be moved because I didn't have a truck. First, had a van (a loaner with an attitude), then the Intrepid.

 

Sounds like a way to bend valves if the cylinder you pick isn't on the compression stroke.

 

well that would be easy enough to arrange if you've got the cam covers off. I've always tried to heat and cool various things off enough that I don't really need to put much torque on the crank with the wrench

 

Going to have my mechanic look at it when it is closer to Thanksgiving. If it needs to be changed, then I will tell him I want the Mopar version.
Most of my tools have to do with wood working, as in saws, hammers, levels, etc. Have a few sockets but they aren't big ones.

 

My goodness @21/24 - turbo quench und bobs your uncle

 

I cant ghey er upto 83 BOOYHA!

fruzenturkey gross

 

In reply to GrayIntrepid04:

Are you looking to swap over to a 3.2L? There is a decent rundown of how hard it would be over here:

2.7 to 3.5L Engine Swap

It's a recent post on the forum here you could check out.

 

In reply to GrayIntrepid04:

Are you looking to swap over to a 3.2L? There is a decent rundown of how hard it would be over here:

2.7 to 3.5L Engine Swap

It's a recent post on the forum here you could check out.

I'm thinking I might when the engine goes out.

 

GrayIntrepid04 - So, in your heart of hearts, are you kind of hoping something happens to the 2.7 as an excuse to up-size to 3.5 or would you be just as happy if, or prefer that, the 2.7 never has a problem (with reasonable maintenance, i.e., replace the water pump and chain tensioner, possibly convert to the newer-design chain, at some reasonable point and keep on trucking)? No wrong answer - just want to know what you're rooting for.