Worst engine ever (almost). Back in 2000 I worked at a dodge dealer and we swapped them out more than all the other engines put together. Oil change intervals and oil type made no difference. Mopar kept updating them and supposedly fixed the problem they maintained did not exist. Even now in my own repair shop we still replace them frequently in stratus and sebrings and even magnums. Most would die around 100,000. I have heard of but never seen one with 200,000.

The water pump in the timing cover is a joke! Every water pump from every maker will seep a little over time. This one seeps in the oil, slowly so you don't see it. It builds up acid and sludge in your oil and thats all she wrote. No timing chain gimmick will fix it, bigger oil return holes will not fix it. Timing chains 500 feet long stretch out (especially with antifreeze contaminating your oil) and jump the gears. I have seen them jump one tooth and bend valves in a 2.7. Other engines with similar design will behave similarily, I have a friend big into BMWs and their V8 has the same issues, he always has one torn apart in his shop. Some reason after 125 years of making cars water pumps still leak, even if it is not enough to be a bad pump it should not dump in the oil. Piston to valve clearance should not be that tight either. They could have avoided the whole debacle if they had kept the timing belt that the 3.5 and 3.2 used with the same basic engine. Another case of an engineer "changing or inventing" something just to make himself apear usefull.

Last I checked Jasper on a 2.7 it was almost double that.