'01 Sebring Convertible with dead 2.7L

Once the snickering is out of the way I have some questions. Vigo probably has some answers.

A buddy picked up a very clean '01 Sebring convertible with the dead 2.7 in it. He got it for about the price of the new tires on the car.

I know '01 isn't the high water mark for the 2.7l. Allegedly the later motors addressed some of the self destructive tendencies of the earlier ones. What's not clear is what changed, and what later car is a good donor for an "improved" 2.7. The used engine supply yards are only giving me results for a plug & play replacement. Which are all the same cars that need an engine.

Getting to the point, what model year is the starting point to look for a good engine, and what needs to be carried over from the old engine to make the later one compatible in the '01? Do the ones from the Charger/300 swap over to the FWD cars, or did they do something funky with the mounting bosses on the blocks?

When I looked, the short blocks, at the very least, are the same across the years.

For what they cost, I would put in a complete new reman in and forget about it. And change the oil every 3k.

Oh and what changed was the fact they "cared" about making them compared to previous years.

Thanks Ranger. He's not committed to the car enough for a reman. He'd sell it off first.

Rob_Mopar wrote: Thanks Ranger. He's not committed to the car enough for a reman. He'd sell it off first.

Then what was the purpose of buying the car??

I suggest you set it on fire.

I actually don't know much about the 2.7 changes. I might have known it at one point and it just didn't stick. I had a 2.7 in our 06 Magnum that made it to ~115k before ending up in the junkyard due to a series of tragic events. I am pretty sure there were no serious 2.7 issues by the time the LX cars came out in 05.

As for what swaps between fwd/rwd, i dont know.

Do you know anyone with a registered shop business? If it were me, i'd get a used motor for a major supplier offering a labor warranty and have my friend the shop owner write it up as if it went through the business so that i could get the labor warranty payout if it broke again.

Rob_Mopar wrote: Thanks Ranger. He's not committed to the car enough for a reman. He'd sell it off first.

Bummer. Once you have a "good used" 2.7 and have paid for it, you are at reman prices.

Plus to add to my precious posts, I have found that the fwd configuration is what kills a lot of the 2.7's off. Even when mounted longitudinally, that right side has heat related problems.

pres589 wrote:

Rob_Mopar wrote: Thanks Ranger. He's not committed to the car enough for a reman. He'd sell it off first.

Then what was the purpose of buying the car?? I suggest you set it on fire.

Price was right. Well below Challenge money. If he sold off the new tires on the car it would be $0.00 and scrapping would be profit. Rest of the car is very clean. As in too shameful to scrap. Original plan was to swap out the motor for a good used one, drive it some, then maybe put it up for sale in the spring.

Vigo wrote: I actually don't know much about the 2.7 changes. I might have known it at one point and it just didn't stick. I had a 2.7 in our 06 Magnum that made it to ~115k before ending up in the junkyard due to a series of tragic events. I am pretty sure there were no serious 2.7 issues by the time the LX cars came out in 05. As for what swaps between fwd/rwd, i dont know. Do you know anyone with a registered shop business? If it were me, i'd get a used motor for a major supplier offering a labor warranty and have my friend the shop owner write it up as if it went through the business so that i could get the labor warranty payout if it broke again.

Yea I have the shop. That's why he called me. I called my supplier today. They had exactly 1 to choose from. But if it's not a 1:1 swap, their system doesn't show it as available. That's why I'm curious to see if an LX one will work with swapping the manifolds, accessory drive, etc., from the dead motor over.

Ranger50 wrote:

Rob_Mopar wrote: Thanks Ranger. He's not committed to the car enough for a reman. He'd sell it off first.

Bummer. Once you have a "good used" 2.7 and have paid for it, you are at reman prices. Plus to add to my precious posts, I have found that the fwd configuration is what kills a lot of the 2.7's off. Even when mounted longitudinally, that right side has heat related problems.

You are right about the reman vs. the used with warranty price. Found that out late today. Shame since it's a nice car. Previous owner should have spent some money on oil changes though...

You could always put in a 3.5.... Lol

LS swap it and RWD.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: LS swap it and RWD.

Nah. LS4/F40.

I've heard one guy made a 3.5 work, but it stuck through the hood. And if I were going to encourage a RWD conversion it would go 6.1 Hemi. Lucky for him my buddy is more sane than this lot. He's saving his money to have me work on his '58 Buick Roadmonster.

Yea I have the shop. That's why he called me.

I literally JUST noticed your sig line. Or maybe i noticed it in the past and forgot. Eesh..

I know somewhere around 2001 or 2002 the computer system was changed from SBEC to NGC the two systems are different, the engines cannot be interchanged.

For my money I would put a 2.4 engine in as the 2.7 is a flaming pile of dog E36 M3. Yes I am mopar guy myself, I have seen well cared for engine just poo poo the bed for no good reason.

SRT-4 swap? that would be different.

The stratus was available with a 4-cylinder, so that would be my vote as well after fighting my ex-wife's v-6 one for years.

+1 on the SRT swap.

I think the 2.7 was the only option in 2001 in the convertible. Not sure if the chassis is related to the Mitsu based coupe, or the cloud car 4-doors. Or neither. If a 2.4 swap was straight forward I'd encourage it. A SRT4 swap could be fun. Trying to encourage another friend to do that with his wife's 2.0/5-speed Stratus when it expires. That one is approaching 300K now.

Donebrokeit wrote: +1 on the SRT swap.

I was gonna say this as well. The cloud cars came with the turbo motor overseas, it has to be possible.

Actually, the Turbo Stratus R/T was down in Mexico.

The convertible is a true Cloud car, much like the Sedan. Those years of "coupes" were actually platform mates with Mitsus.

You could snag a 2.4 Stratus/Cirrus and take most of the parts off of that. There was even a 2.4 Manual Stratus available some years. The Later Stratus R/T (Sedan) was available with a 2.7 and the T-850 Manual out of the SRT. You could mix/match to make this work.

The main problem you might run into is the computer. Unsure as to whether those years use the older computer like a 1gn neon, or the NGC computer as in a 2gn. That would dictate what year 2.4 you'd need due to sensors, etc.

Either way, you could do a NA 2.4 and put in SRT internals, bolt on any 2.4 Turbo manifold and have a blast. It's well within the realm of possibility by mixing and matching stock components.

The only real headache MAY be the transmission. I don't know how involved a swap would be, or whether you'd want to use the SRT T-850 or the Neon/Stratus T-350.

Or just get a PT GT "knockout" most came with the auto trans so you could keep the factory shifter.

PTGT was a 4-speed Auto that was electronically-controlled. Not sure how that will jive. The trans in them was also an odd Getrag unit which doesn't share commonality with anything else that was bolted to the 2.0 or 2.4.

The Later Stratus R/T (coupe) was available with a 2.7 and the T-850 Manual out of the SRT

Not exactly. The r/t coupe was a mitsu car with a mitsu 6g72 sohc 3.0L and mitsu trans. The r/t SEDAN was a chrysler car with a chrysler 2.7L dohc and t850, but the bellhousing is not the same as a 2.4L so the entire transmission casde is different from an srt-4.