now i'm positive it's the timing chain tensioner. Started it up the other day to put air in the tires. Ran till it was fully up to temp and around the block a few times. Motor didn't have any noise at all so the tensioner was obviously working correctly that day.

I think i'll end up going the route where i pull the right valve cover, and clean it up similar to what i did on the left side. Should also give me access to the tensioner, which hopefully i have enough clearance to remove and replace. IMO it's worth the $50 gamble the tensioner costs to get a year or so out of it...

but again...it's not the only issue to fix so...dunno

 

I didn't read all the posts but can tell you cleaning the top end is going to do NOTHING for your low oil pressure issue.

The ONLY real fix is pull the motor, fully dismantle it....you get the picture.

What is causing the low oil pressure is a clogged pick up screen in the oil pan.

You can clean the oil pan / pickup tube but it will just clog again.

 

oil pressure as far as i can tell is fine - it's just the pressure sensor being clogged that causes the issue with the warning light.

 

Just stumbled across this. I'm really surprised to hear that any 2.7Ls are left in this world... a few years ago in these parts you could spot a 2.7L by the cloud of blue smoke it left at traffic lights. Now I don't see any of that generation of cars on the road anymore. My parents' 1999 Intrepid with the 2.7L suffered similar failure and scored the **** out of one of the cylinders, oil always changed every 5,000 KM.

That said $50 to keep any car on the road for a year is reasonable. I vote replace the tensioner and run some kerosene through it or something

 

I still see a few 98-04 Intrepids/Concordes around here (mostly ES, SXT, and R/T models with the 3.2L/3.5L or LXI, Limited, and LHS in the case of the Concorde) but there numbers have dwindled significantly, a few years ago I would usually see them pretty much every day, now maybe one every few weeks. I imagine most of these are probably on their second/third transmission since the 42LE wasn't exactly reliable either, but with all the dead 2.7Ls there are plenty of cheap used transmissions out there for these.


I'm sure it is part actual 2.7L failures and part people deciding not to spend money on other repairs knowing the 2.7L's reputation for failure. If my Intrepid had a 3.2L/3.5L I would have probably replaced the transmission when it failed, but I couldn't even justify the cost of a used transmission (including labor, I was in college at the time so I would have had to have a shop install it) knowing that the 2.7L grenade could fail at any time.