I just purchashed this 05 chrysler Sebring convertible 2 days ago with almost 160,000 miles. I was doing research and found these are really bad engines that will fail. I really like the body and condition of the car and was wondering is there any other engine that is less likely to fail that can be swapped? Thanks in advance for any info.

 

There is no other engine that will drop in easily. If you want to go through a lot of work, you can put any engine you want in there. Putting an oddball engine in will destroy the resale value of the car, so if that's important to you, don't go there.
Your best bet is to maintain the engine carefully, and keep an eye out for things like a bad water pump by checking the oil regularly. If the oil starts looking like chocolate milk, then your water pump has gone bad.
Some early 2.7L engines (2001-2002) had oil sludge problems, later ones like yours, not so much.
They are nice cars. I've got a 2001 with 105k miles on the clock, original engine, no major problems. Enjoy the ride.

 

I've been reading the hundreds of reviews of people having problems with this engine and I just am trying to be prepared for the inevitable. I am not worried about resell value as no one will probably buy this vehicle if they have done any research. I unfortunately bought it spur of the moment and only paid 2300 so I'm not worried about resell I just wanted to know of any engine that could be replaced for the least trouble and cost.

 

The two main trouble spots with the 2.7 engine are the water pump as mentioned and the hydraulic timing chain tensioner. There is a mechanical tensioner that can be installed to prevent the chain from jumping should the hydraulic tensioner fail. Other than that if the engine has been properly maintained it should last 200K miles or more. The later 2.7 that is in your car didn't have the oiling issue that the earlier ones had.

John

 

You have read "hundreds of reviews" of people that have had problems. Chrysler built hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of these engines. People who don't have problems don't write nasty reviews.

 

I have only read hundreds because I don't have time to read the who knows how many that are out there. Anyways I came across this on a website dedicated to the sludge problem.

"If you decide to fix your blown 2.7L V6 engine, do not put in another defective 2.7L engine. Find a mechanic to swap up to a 3.2/3.5L engine instead. Here’s why:

The 3.2/3.5L engine doesn’t have the design defect that causes oil sludge to form in the 2.7L V6.
The 3.2/3.5L engines are less expensive than the 2.7L, sometimes by $1,000 or more.
The 2.7L to 3.x swap is fairly straightforward & does not require any custom parts or other major components be replaced."

This is the type of information I was looking for.

 

Good luck with that. The Concorde engines are intended to be mounted longitudinally. If you can get one transversely into a Sebring, that's great. You might be well advised to wait until the 2.7L engine fails to replace it, maintaining it properly in the meantime.

If you decide to go ahead with this project, come back and report how it came out. Post up some pictures, too.

 

Listen to the people here. Sludge can be avoided. Change the water pump, and seals in there every 40,000 miles to be extra safe. Check your coolant and oil every 2 to 3 weeks if its leaking internally. this was the main sludge problem and can be avoided and it should last over 200,000 miles. I seen it myself. They do burn oil when they get older but its really no big deal. do regular oil changes every 3,000 miles. you don't need synthetic.

 

Changing the water pump every 40,000 miles sounds pretty excessive and very expensive. It's a big job requiring removal of the timing chains and pretty much everything on that end of the engine. When it fails, fix it right away.

 

I'm definitely not going to do anything with the engine untill I have to. At this point my car is running really well besides a minor oil leak and I just got an oil change and 3 days later the oil is low. I'm at 160,000 miles so I just want to be prepared. Even if the engine goes out I want to keep my car I really like it and have been putting a lot of work into it. The oil doesn't leak that much so I'm wondering how the oil got so low. Maybe it just circulated through the system after I was driving it or something. Or is this the oil burning thing you were talking about maybe? I got synthetic oil change just because I've heard of people saying it may help.