Howdy all. So, my wife's 01 Concorde with the 2.7l wouldn't start. I got it to start, but had to pump the gas, which was strange. Drove it a couple blocks home, no heat issue, but it was 0 degrees outside and a short drive. Made a whining noise off and on for the couple blocks. Popped the hood, no coolant in the reservoir and it was in the oil. Oh crap, head gasket probably went. Added some coolant to see where it went and it poured right out the weep hole. So I hoped maybe just the water pump blew out.

Tore off front of engine, water pump was shot, bearing barely turned. Thought oh good that was it. Put timing chain back on following the proper procedure of realigning cams, the dots, the colored links and all that jazz (please don't just post the instructions for that as I've already tried it many many times).

The engine turns over without any issue, but occasionally spits/coughs flames out the intake and won't actually run. I've spent hours trying to figure this out and it has to be something other than the timing, right? I'm not insane?

Thanks for any help/advice you can provide.

 

Sounds like your wife's water pump has killed her engine by leaking coolant into the oil and turning it into sludge. A very common problem with this engine. Hundreds of not thousands of 2.7 Litre owners have seen their engines die around 70,000 miles. More than one class action lawsuits have been filed against Chrysler. Just Google "Chrysler 2.7 V6 oil sludge" and you will discover lots of hits and even You Tube videos. Have you ever replaced the water pump before now? How many miles are on the engine? Chrysler had a lot of problems with the original water pump, and it caused a lot of the engine failures. It was not the only villain, though. You can read online posts about the host of reasons. Although Chrysler never provided a recommendation re the mileage point at which the water pump should be changed, Chrysler recommends that the timing chain be changed at 100,000 miles. You can buy a good remanufactured engine from Dahmer Engines (of Lees Summit, Mo.) for about $2700, but you will have to buy new hoses, belts, plugs, engine mounts, thermostat, thermostat gasket, etc plus pay a mechanic to pull the old engine and install the remanufactured engine. The Dahmer engine comes with a 36,000 mile/36 month warranty, I believe. Good luck.