I recently helped my sister-in-law by replacing the leaking water pump in her 1998 Dodge Intrepid with the 2.7L engine. It’s a terribly designed engine in that when the water pump shaft seal goes (as they are prone to do), the leak dumps coolant into the crankcase and fouls the oil. Chrysler seams to think that a simple weep hole is sufficient to catch any leakage and dump it outside, but, I’ve read too many stories about that being inadequate. BTW — the weep hole location is on the left side of the engine block, near the front, about half way up the block. It’s easiest to locate when looking from underneath the car.
The following is not meant to be a complete step-by-step on how to do the job. I intend it to be informational with things that I learned along the way that might help others. I would not attempt this without some kind of service manual(s). I have omitted many important details that are covered in a service manual (like torque procedures). If nothing else, after reading this you should get a good sense for the amount of work involved and why a mechanic is going to charge you north of $500 in labor to do the job.
Tools that you absolutely must have that might not be in the average tool box:
- 12 mm allen wrench
- 3/8″ breaker bar — for cam shaft positioning. DO NOT use a socket ratchet!
- 3-jaw puller
- Set of Torx bits (for the coil-over-plug removal)
- Torque wrench (duh!)
Recommend, but, I managed without them:
- Chain style locking “pliers” to hold crankshaft pulley when removing/installing crankshaft pulley bolt.
- Crankshaft pulley installer
Enough lead in, let’s get started with the tear down:
- Remove the intake Plenum — Disconnect all wires and hoses to the plenum, including the EGR tube. Disconnect the throttle cable(s). Unbolt and remove the plenum with the throttle body attached. Stuff rags into the intake ports to prevent anything from getting dropped in. Use a couple of zip ties to hold the wire bundles over the center of the engine
Remove the valve covers — Remove the coil-over-plug assemblies. I used a sharpened putty knife to carefully slip between the head and the cover to loosen it enough to pop it free without damaging the cover gasket. The cover gaskets are rubberized and reusable if care is taken.
- Remove the cross-member above the radiator.
- Drain the cooling system and remove the upper radiator hose.
- Remove the fan assembly.
- Remove the drive belts.
- Remove the power steering pump — There’s no need to disconnect any hoses or drain the system. It simply has to be pulled aside. Take note that there are only 3 bolts holding the pump in place and ALL of them are accessible with a socket wrench through the holes in the pump pulley. If you are struggling to get at one of the bolts, most likely the bolt is holding only the bracket and not the pump. The farthest inside bolt has a spacer that is pressed through the bracket and against the pump. This spacer needs to be pried away from the pump in order to free the pump enough to remove it from the bracket.
- Now that the pump is out of the way, all the power steering pump idler bracket bolts are a cinch to get at. Remove the bracket.
- Remove the bolt in the crankshaft holding the main pulley in place. If you don’t have a proper tool to hold the pulley, you can manage by using the tab at the bottom of the timing chain cover as a prop for a screwdriver through the pulley spoke.
- Remove the crankshaft pulley using a 3-jaw puller.
- Remove the timing chain cover.
- Remove the spark plugs to ease rotating the crankshaft.
- Rotate the crankshaft around until “colored” links of the timing chain are oriented with the respective sprockets as shown in the photo’s below. Additionally, align the crankshaft position with the arrow on the crank case (it’s actually the oil pump housing) on the left side of the engine. I found the “dark colored” links to be very difficult to see. Also note that from the factory, the timing chain marks on this engine were NOT lined up with the chain — they were all off by 6 teeth in every location (the photos below show the correct line-up used during assembly).
Note that the crank position does not look correct in this picture — partly due to the camera angle, and partly because it really is off by a little bit…
- With everything in alignment, remove the timing chain tensioner. Take note of the extension of the timing chain tensioner before removing it. This will be useful for gauging the wear of the cam chain later.
Remove all the timing chain guides. Note that this requires removing the large plugs in the front of the heads using a 12mm allen key. I did not have one and my local hardware store was conveniently out of stock when I needed it, so, I made one from a long coupling nut as shown on the right. The coupling nut was 1/2″ wrench size with a little work on the grinder reduce it down to make it ~12MM. No sir, I’m not too proud to admit any of this!
- Remove the cam shaft sprockets. Be warned: I had a problem with the cams not staying in the exact location once freed of the chain. Use caution when removing the bolts since the cams may spring violently once the sprocket bolts are removed (ask me why I know about this)! Use a 3/8″ ‘breaker bar’ that has a non-ratchet head so you can ease the spring pressure in either direction after removing the cam sprocket bolts. Do NOT hold the cam shaft with a standard 3/8″ ratchet since it can only apply torque in one direction!
Remove the cam chain enough to clear the water pump.
- Finally, the water pump can be removed. Once I got it free, I found that the gasket was disintegrating. The rubber material was literally crumbling into pieces upon removal. Arielle was very lucky that the gasket had not started leaking coolant into the crankcase.
- I urge you to drain the oil at this point since, undoubtedly, coolant dribbled down into the oil pan upon removing the water pump.
Inspection
Take a close look at the wear on the cam chain guides. Arielle’s engine had been replaced and we don’t know how many miles it has on it. The deepest wear on the worst cam chain guide was only ~0.020″ deep. We decided not to replace the guides.
Installation
Even after reading the procedure in the manual, one of the most confusing things to do was to “reset” the cam chain tensioner before installing it. There’s a special tool that might help you with this, but it is not really required. The trick is to release the check valve ball while compressing the tensioner so that the trapped oil can escape. I used a tiny allen wrench to apply a small amount of pressure on the ball while firmly applying compression to the tensioner body. It’s moderately tricky and you are not done until the tensioner wants to spring back on its own after being released from compression (see UPDATE in step 2). If it does not do this, the problem is most assuredly because it has yet to be compressed enough to fully drain the oil out. This is confusing because once all the oil is removed, it will actually “click” into a fully compressed state and not spring back. However after applying compression again, it should then spring back into the extended position. I’d be wary of using a vise for compression due to the difficult in gauging the force applied (it can easily be done by hand). It’s also very messy and the oils squirts all over — wear eye protection!
- UPDATE: after completely draining the oil from the tensioner (as called for in the service manual I was using), I think this later caused a problem — the timing chain would lose tension at idle when the oil was up to temp. So, I likely screwed something up (also, there was a commenter below that seams to have the same problem). My theory is that releasing the tensioner after installation fills it with air, and that air gets trapped, ruining the hydraulic lock that is probably needed at lower oil pressures during idle. Dennis, did the job and suggested only compressing the tensioner just enough to reinstall it, thus, leaving nearly all the oil in the tensioner. He reports this has worked great thus far. Thank you, Dennis, for reporting back on this.
- Install the water pump. Follow the torque procedure in the manual.
- Install the cam chain and cam shaft sprockets. Get the chain alignment with in a tooth or two, but, don’t sweat it just yet.
- Now the really fun part — aligning the cam chain to the sprockets while installing the guides. Start installing the cam chain guides one at a time. For better or worse, I started with the one on the right side of the engine (i.e. the side with the tensioner), then the two around the water pump, and finally the left side. I knew the crankshaft was very close to the correct position, so, I correctly aligned the right-side cam to the chain and found a spot that it would rest at without constantly holding the cam. After installing the guides around the water pump, it took a bit of cam positioning to get the chain aligned with the left-side cam shaft. This one did not want to stay in position on its own and I had to use the 3/8″ breaker bar (as mentioned above, do NOT use a normal 3/8″ ratchet for this!) to hold the cam in the correct position while also positioning the chain around the crank shaft sprocket and also installing the final guide on the left of the engine. It really helped to have an extra set of hands for this operation.
- Once the chain and sprockets are aligned, install the cam chain tensioner. Once installed, compress it with a small pry bar and it should spring out against the guide.
- I then took the opportunity to spin the crankshaft around by hand for several revolutions to make sure nothing clanged.
- Install the timing chain cover and torque appropriately.
- Install the crankshaft pulley. The correct way to do this is with a special tool that threads into the crankshaft and then pushes the pulley onto the shaft. I tried getting one from the local auto parts store, but, they didn’t have one with the correct threads for the crankshaft. Naturally, the bolt that holds the pulley on the crank is too short to be of any help for the task. I wound up heating the pulley in the oven to ~250 degrees and then tapped it onto the shaft using baby sledge hammer. Not exactly elegant, but I was out of options on a Sunday afternoon and had to proceed. Before you scream at me, remember that this is done in very cramped space and I could only get about a 3 inch swing of the hammer, so, there was no heavy pounding involved — even though it was a 3 lb hammer. I used a backing board against the radiator to prevent damaging it during the backward swing.
- The rest of the installation is the reverse of the the tear down.
- Don’t forget to connect the hood latch release cable when installing the radiator cross member — yeah, that was an “ohh sh!t” for me (managed to connect it in place, but, twas a pain).
- Also, don’t forget to refill all the fluids — engine oil (you did drain it, didn’t you!?!) and coolant.
When it’s time to start the engine the first time, be prepared for quite a racket until the oil pressure comes up — the cam chain tensioner needs to be “pumped up” with oil before it will hold the correct slack on the chain.
If you found this helpful, please leave a comment saying so. Enjoy!
I gotta thank you, bud…. I’ve been researching the 2.7 rebuild and you answered a bunch of burning questions that had failed to find satisfaction elsewhere. Appreciate your enrichment of the ether out here!!!
this is very nice! i wish there was one for a 3.2L as well
Hey, thanks for the advice! I had the EXACT same thing happen to my Wife’s 2002 intrepid. Her engine wasn’t nearly as clean, however. I’ve heard horror stories about the sludge build-up in the 2.7L, but sort of brushed them aside….until I took the valve covers off! We’re now going to run Mobil 1 full syntetic w/ sludge protection and change it at 1500 miles or so for the next few oil changes. I’ll inspect the engine again and see if I can post an update as to if it got any cleaner.
-K
THANKS FOR THE EFFORT IN DETAILING THIS PROCEDURE,
IT WAS VERY HELPFUL AS MY TENSIONER DOES NOT HOLD TENSION AT IDLE. POSSIBLY WORN TENSIONER GUIDES, (OIL LIGHT NOT ON) OR WEAK TENSIONER. JUST HAPPENED LAST WEEK, I GUESS I WILL BE TEARING IT DOWN.
Hello John!
Could you tell me how to change termostate on 2.7L Intrepid by myself? Should I tale off air intake?
Thank you very much!
mechanic at nissan
doing side work water pump on 2.7 chrysler
did not know where timing marks were?
you are a lifesaver and this website
THANK YOU and may GOD BLESS YOU.
John,
I’ve got a leaking water pump seal in my 03′ 2.7 liter intrepid- mechanics want $440 labor to replace the pump- which it is probably worth it.
However, I don’t mind a little work to save $440 so I will attempt it myself.
I have a Haynes manual but your photos and tips made the difference in my attempting this repair on my own.
I’ll let you know how it turned out.
Thanks- Matt. Matt.Whitehead@GraphicPkg.com (Macon, GA.)
Thanks for the detailed procedure! The explanation and photos are great.
The 2.7L in my 1998 Intrepid (103,xxx miles) is probably due for a water pump replacement soon. But rather than do it now, I’m going to continue checking the weep hole, and keep checking the oil for any sign of coolant contamination.
That’s a LOT of labor to replace a water pump. Mostly because it’s driven by the timing chain, requiring the removal of the valve covers and the timing chain cover. No wonder the dealer wants $$$ to replace it.
John, I haven’t done the replaceing of the water pump yet but my 1998 Intrepid just went over 100,000 miles and I justhave a bad feeling about it. So I was glad to see that you posted all the information that I would need including the correct tools. That is the biggest headache when doing a job yourself, not haven’t the correct tools. One question ccan you use a 1/2 breaker bar with a 3/8 reducing adapter instead of a 3/8 bar or will the work space be too confinding.
Paul –
Yes, you have plenty of room to use a reducing adapter. If you look at the left and right cam alignment photos, you’ll see the square drive “socket” hole in the center of each shaft. In fact, you’ll likely need a small extension to reach in past the sprocket.
John,
I don’t know if you still lurk around or not, but I really need some help aligning my cams after replacing a water pump on a 2.7L, please e-mail so I can send some pics of what the problem is, thanks in advance!
Great articale,my brother’s 01 intrepid just went,cept his has quite a gush of coolant in that area,they want a thousand plus $ to do water pump and chain,so i will be doing it for him,thing is after they told him for sure it was water pump,the 3/4 mile he drove it back home,the motor quit running,and absolutly,will not start back up,none of the electronic’s or coil’s were wet.Does this sometimes happen when the pump goes?…..anyway’s thank’s for posting all this valuble information,and great pictures,iv’e got a manuel,and plenty of tool’s.
Great write up. Was trying to figure out why coolant was leaking from my friend’s Sebring and after much labor to remove alternator and ac compressor, noticed that “weep hole.” Your article did a great job of explaining what you’re up against in doing this job.
John – thank you. I have a 2002 Sebring convt. that died on the road. Low coolant. It rested, I re-filled it. Long story short – there was coolant in the oil pan. I could drive it, but it was plain that something was very wrong. I haven’t worked on engines for 20 years. My mechanic diagnosed the car as one of the Chrysler basket cases, and quickly pronounced; “blown head gasket / cracked block”. Researching the abundance of sludge-related 2.7L engine failures led me to your article. It gave me the confidence necessary to take one last step: I decided to rip apart the engine in a last-ditch effort to confirm the loss this car was going to cost me. I also bought the Haynes manual. With both, I was able to confirm that my water pump main shaft seal was *very* shot. I may be able to resurrect this engine.
One note: your timing chaine was *not* 6 teeth off on the left cam. All timing chain links will line up correctly if you rotate the chain another 4 (or so) full rotations!
Again many, many thanks.
-David
RE: David –
Glad to have helped.
Just to be clear: as written above, the chain was off by 6 teeth on *all* sprockets. I ran it around several times, and it seamed to keep coming back to the same offset each time. Perhaps it did need a few more revolutions, but, it isn’t particularly important so long as the offset is consistent all around.
Thanks for the help. I’m in the middle of a water pump replacement, and I don’t think I would have figured out how to reset the tensioner without your experience. I’m also taking this opportunity to replace the intake valve stem seals. I replaced the exhaust stem seals quite a while ago (without removing the primary timing chain) and stopped most of the smoke and oil consumption.
Very nice write-up John. Good text and photos.
Be sure to keep this up as long as you can; there are quite a few people out there that need this info.
Great write up! The pictures are awsome! Cleaner than my engine. I’m in the middle of a timing chain replacement. I had a question about gaskets. I alumunum gaskets with a rubber seals built in. I was wondering if I should use RTV on this type of gasket or if I should use it without any sealer.
Thanks in advance.
Rich
John I have a question for you. It looks like you did this repair way back in 2006. How well has the engine held up for your sister-in-law… ??
I have a 1999 interpid with 126,000 Km (78,000 Miles) The timing chain is rattling and I’m contemplating going deep into the enging to replace the chain tensioner and guides.
sir,i would like to thank you for all the infomation on this water pump replacement process.wright to the point. thanks again ,wish you and family all the good things in life to come.sincerly,the ngiramulei’s
great detail. a big hassle. If I had known intrepids were so hard to do it your self i would never have bought one. do you know anything about changing the TCM? I read somewhere that you have to take your new TCM to a repair shop so that they can program it for your specific car, is this true? what happens if you don’t do it?
thanx,
jlsoto
RE: jlsoto — Yeah, it’s quite a hassle. I can’t say that I know anything about changing the TCM.
I just had my mechanic replace the water pump. Chrylser now makes a kit which inludes the waterpump, timing chain and a tensioner arm (I think that was it). Anyway, they got everything installed, but now it wont start. They said something about grounding and teh injectors adn plugs not firing. Any ideas what to check? Tehy have been looking through wiring diagrams all day.
Turns out that Chrysler makes several of these several of these kits for this engine and the parts folks sent my mechanic the wrong kit which puts everything off. Had to get the correct kit and tear it down again.
I just finished replacing the water pump in my 1999 Dodge Intrepid 2.7 .It started right up and purred like a kitten after it warm up it started making a knocking noise. Was wondering if you could help with this?
note: when you align the timing should the mark along with the one tooth on the crankshaft pulley align with the mark on the oil pan. just curious having a problem trying to get the engine to turn over….can you help me……
Wow, thanks for the awesome detail – I guess I’ll keep the 97 Intrepid 3.3 – I can do that water pump in an hour, maybe even blindfolded. Apparently the bargain 98 2.7 that only needs a water pump isn’t such a great idea!
I’m changing the water pump before I install a replacement 2.7 and Chrysler has redesigned the water pump and gasket. No more 1/4 in wide sealing gasket, it now covers the entire mounting surface. I’m using a 2005 2.7 in a 2001 Sebring Convertible. Should be done in about a week as I work on it as I have the time. I offer my email for anyone that needs some help. servic51@verizon.net
This is about the best set of instructions that i could ever use after i thought that it would be a dilemma on paying for it or doing it myself.. i think i can finish this without any regret..Thanks Dude.. you the man..
I think I goofed. I turn the car on and it idles at 4000 RPM. HELP PLEASE!
Great directions. It was a vacuum leak causing high RPM!
Thank you very much.
Glad to hear it worked out and it was something simple as I had suspected! Thanks for the follow-up.
My 2.7L Sebring was a little harder. I had to replace head gaskets. Since it was all apart, I replaced timing chain and water pump but not guides or tensioner. 5000 miles later there is a clanging noise behind the timing chain cover. Used a screwdriver and my ear to verify. Clanging does get faster when I rev up the engine. I only hear it driving real slow and in park. I am going to replace the tensioner and see it that helps.
I have a 2002 Dodge Stratus with a 2.7L engine. I replaced the water pump. When I went to start the car, it took a few minutes to turn over…once it did turn over it was idleing very high…as if someone was reving up the engine. I am thinking that the timing may not be right, can you give me any suggestions? Thanks.
Im helping a friend try and align the cams after the right one spun once he pulled the sprocket off. According to him there is no reference (keyway) to tell you which way the sprocket goes on the cam. Do you have any tips for getting the sprocket back onto the cam correctly?
Thanks
Jeff
I am currently in the middle of desludging and replacing parts on a 2.7 Stratus ( 2004) with 85000 miles.
I have the Alldata online service manual and the Haynes and the factory Chrysler manual and none of them are as well written and clear as yours. Thank you
tips:
Napa makes a 5 gallon carb cleaner( $120.00, not available in CA) that will desludge a head overnight. you will have to replace valve seals. expensive but saves a ton of time scrubbing and cleans the oil passages real well. You can get the same 5 gallon can from Autozone under the Berryman Chem Dip brand for @ 50.00. I have not used that brand so not sure if it works as well as the Napa
You have to float the cam sprockets on the end of the camshafts and turn the cams to line up the bolt holes.
You should only have to turn one camshaft (left side facing timing chain on mine) and you should not have to turn it much. Dipping the chain in carb cleaner worked great to make the marks visible, just be sure to soak in oil before installing
tricky sounding and I have not gotten there yet
I highly suggest if your engine shows any heavy sludge build up to do a complete sludge removal and replace your
tensioner, chain guides, oil pump and water pump.
the tensioner gets plugged easily and the oil pump needs very little wear to be ineffective and produce low pressure.
oil starvation and jumped timing chains kill these engines
and sludge is the culprit ( usually due to coolant )
I plan to use an adapter and small electric pump to preprime the engine with oil @ 80psi before buttoning up
you can get the pumps on ebay for @ 30.00 under carbonator pump
Thanks for the info. So glad I am not the only one with these problems. I truly wish I had found your info. sooner. My car ran fine up until recently. When it started acting up, it went quickly. Once the mechanic started taking the engine apart he found antifreeze and water mixed with oil. Long story cut really short….He is in the process of reassembling my 2002 Chrysler Concorde. Stated that synthetic blend may have saved the engine. I really hope so as I cannot afford a new vehicle at this time. Will let you know the outcome. I will never buy another Chrysler after this fiasco.
I have to ask you a question if you don’t mind, I am working on the same style motor just different car. Dodge Stratus, 2001, 2.7 liter, dohc and am facing the same problems with the tensioner (Do you refill it with oil?)and also with the timing of the motor. The timing I do understand that you have to align all the marks with the colored links of the chain, but my hanes manual says the timing marks have to be set 90 degrees from the mating surface of the head. to me this does not make sense, I have tried everything to set the timing as they explained, but its almost like the chain is too short. If you have any time to comment back on this, that would be great. Thanks by the way, also I didn’t think anyone would be crazy enough to tear apart this poorly designed motor.
Hi again, according to the picture I see from the left bank and the right bank you have the timing marks (^)(^) straight up, is that the correct way to time it. LB RB
the hayne manual say this is the correct way to time it.
(\) (/) See how the timing marks would be 90 degrees with
V the head. The V stands for the shape of the block, The \/ represent the timing marks. Again thanks for your help if you have any time thankyou.
That didn’t work out as well as I thought(as far as explaining that, hopfully this helps).\ / these marks signify the timing markes in coresponse with the the head, in the shape of a V.
Matt–
I’ve put all the information I know in my posting. I think I used a Chilton’s manual and the factory service manual when I did that project. I don’t recall any mention about the marks being 90* to anything. In the photos, you can see that the marks end up being at the literal “top” of the sprockets, which is certainly NOT 90* to the mating surface of the head.
I don’t know of any way to “refill” the tensioner, other than to apply engine oil pressure after installation.
Hope you get it sorted out,
~john
I have an 04 Sebring convertible with 2.7L engine. It was overheating so I brought it to the shop. They changed the thermostat housing, water pump and some hoses. When I picked up the car it ran fine. After about 10 minutes on the way home the oil light went on and the engine is noisy like the oil isn’t circulating. The oil level is full! What do I do? I was gonna drain the oil and refill it with Mobil 1 to see if there might be a void somewhere that is stopping the oil flow. If that don’t work maybe check oil pressure and change oil pump. Any advice? email: effinboss@gmail.com Thanks
Just a helpful hint… if you have gotten the haynes manual for this or any other car, use it in your fireplace or otherwise. The Chilton book is far better.One commentor said he could not find timing marks,they are ***not*** shown at all in the haynes manual they are in the chilton. I found that the chilton book was a great deal of help when I replaced my thermostat and water pump.You can find the Chilton book at Orielly auto parts.
What I’m doing is a little more intensive than replacing a water pump, i’m actually rebuilding the hole engine. But I can’t find the torque specification in any manual including Chilton. The one I desperately need is the crankshaft main bearing cap torque specification. If anyone could help me with some advice, the engine size is 2.7 dohc 24 valves.
i did water pump now motor only turns a little bite when i took timing chain off it did jump violently like you said could i have messed up a valve. thank you.
I just went through the whole changing the water pump on a 2.7 l 01 intrepid and when i filled the coolant up it just started leaking out the weep hole again in the same place under the thermostat housing on the left side of the block. PLEASE HELP! Haven’t started the car yet just put fluid to see if any leaks.
now when you set up your TDC on my car the line is not set to TDC if i take a rod into#1 piston is not TDC tank if i put it on TDC then it jam up what is it what I’m doing that is not right
the concorde off on timing i know the lower part did not move but line do not line up
i have the chain out and trying to line up the timeing are the two line on the over head cam need to be at 12 clock also
John, your a lifesaver, been woring at it for a while taking apart and marking everything and found this site and you answered all the questions I was needing answers to. Hope it all goes back together right or my Ex will be looking for a new car.lol thnx again