I'm about to tear into the 2.7L in my wife's daily driver (2004 Intrepid)

There is a head gasket leak which is causing combustion gasses to percolate into the cooling system which creates a bubble and an overheat situation if not paying close attention to the gauge.

I bought the Fel-Pro gasket kit and Fel-Pro head bolts.

I'm hoping to get it torn apart sunday then take the heads into the machine shop first thing monday morning to be magnaflux'd and deck's checked as well as new valve guide seals (which come in the kit). Hopfully they'll have a quick turn around time.


Any tips from someone who's done this job? I've already put an OEM water pump on it about 18 months ago which wasn't all that hard, just a lot of disassembly & reassembly for what should have been a simple job.

Check all the chains-guides-tensioners etc as long as it's all apart I guess. Big job, silly engine. Went through all this on a 3.2(belt) Intrepid 10 years ago, and those are bad enough.

I have not but on a new/complicated assy I would take pics/notes of each move I make.

I just did all the chains and guides and the waterpump on my buddies car. It was hard for me because of my bad back and knees as I can only work about an hr at the most a day as after that I hurt so bad I can hardly walk. So I do a little a day as he is a good friend and I wanted to help him. Here is a pic as I did engines and head gaskets and shortblocks in them when I worked at the dealer. Biggest thing I hated about working on them was acesability in getting to things. And on one side the exh pipe bolts were tight to get at to unhook the exh pipe from the exh manifold as I bought a real nice 5 ft 1/2 drive ext that has 3/8 on the socket end so you can use a skinny socket to get in at the bolts/nuts easier. But its not a real bad job just a pain getting at some of it to me. Good luck with it. Ron

Replace the water pump again. Do not use the oem. Cardone does a great job on this stuff. No china rebuild stuff. Change to full synthetic oil. It will hold up much better to the heat from the converters.

I have done dozens and dozens of head gasket jobs on Neons and such over the years. But I started a timing chain job on a 2.7 once and got so frustrated with that complicated sludged-up piece of crap that I gave up and junked the car.

Only time I have ever done that.

Good luck with yours!

this car has been an ok car at best, luckily I bought it cheap, but no matter how much I take care of it, dumb things on it fall apart and it's almost as if it was designed to make it as hard as possible to work on. This car is the reason why I'll never buy a modern Chrysler vehicle again.

I've read that the "old" 2.7L Mopar engines suffered short lifespans because of all the tiny oil passages. They sludged-up & just died out. I don't think it's worth rebuilding.

that's half correct....they sludged up due to people continuing to drive them with a weeping water pump. The water pump is an internal design, so WHEN it leaks, it leaks coolant into the engine case.

this car is a 2004 with the latest design water pump and is immaculate, I'd rather buy my wife a nice 2-3 year old ford edge, but $$ is short right now due to having to pay for hurricane harvey damage to my house, so I gotta fix this car and get another 6 months out of it.

If you've done chains , water pump and gears you already know the worst part.
The res it a piece of cake compared to that.

FYI, the exhaust manifold to head pipe clamps are one time use only

Don't lump all of Mopar's newer offerings together with the 2.7s.

The new Hemis have been very good engines. The 3.3s and 3.8s in the minivans have a stellar record. And the 3.2s and 3.5s in the sedans were much better than the 2.7s.

The 2.7s were as poor an engine as Mopar has had in recent memory. Not all of them, but enough that a person is really rolling the dice with one.

It's easier than that...

Step one:. Remove engine

Step two:. Install replacement engine

I wouldn't spend a dime on any repairs on the 2.7. you'll get the heads on and spin a bearing in 2 weeks...

No as my son and I did all the chains and guides with the waterpump about 10 months ago on a friends 2.7 with 112k on it. I told him I dont like to see him put to much money in it with that mileage but he said he wanted us to do it. The car ran like new when we were done and he has been driving it 10 months and about 15k more miles since then. Ron

Hope it all works out & I feel for ya on the hurricane stuff - nobody needed that! I bought a 43,000 mile 2001 300M from an old couple in Naples 3 years ago while on a business trip down there. Granted it's a 3.5L & not a 2.7L, but the car was so nice & the price was right. It has 95,000 on it now & has been a great second car with minimal issues. On anything older like this, we do have to roll the dice to some extent. I always liked the 98-2004 Intrepids - good luck on the rebuild.

I just finished getting the heads off and stripped....what a PITA...thank goodness for motrin...I'm going to take the heads into the machine shop first thing in the AM....I'm tempted to call out out-of-work (due to the hurricane) mechanic buddy and asking him if I can pay him mechanic time to help me on the re-assembly.