The Intrepid Project

[CMG]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you say it came from a 300M didn't you?

Aren't those 10 to 1 compression and 250+ horsepower?

Isn't the gearing steeper in a 2.7 car?

[Intrepidation]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you say it came from a 300M didn't you?

Aren't those 10 to 1 compression and 250+ horsepower?

Isn't the gearing steeper in a 2.7 car?

I believe it's 9.9:1 (so almost) and yeah they made 250 horsepower and 250 ft.-lb. of torque.

Which is a nice upgrade from 200 horsepower and 188 ft.-lb. of torque the 2.7 had.

The Special might have different gearing, but otherwise the 2.7's gearing is 3.89 VS all other 3.2/3.5 gearing of 3.66. So I get a gear ratio advantage.

[Intrepidation]

Seriously, though...I would love to see that thing with the 3.5 Swap on summer tires with some suspension work.

It could be the perfect touring car...better handling than most modern Luxury cars (at 200k, it probably still is anyways) good looking, unique, et al.

This to me is the saddest part of the whole Daimer deal. Chryco had great road feel in their cars before the whole Daimler thing, esp. LH and Neon.

Chris

Down the road it'll get Special suspension parts, and upgraded brakes. :wink:

[CMG]

I believe it's 9.9:1 (so almost) and yeah they made 250 horsepower and 250 ft.-lb. of torque.

Which is a nice upgrade from 200 horsepower and 188 ft.-lb. of torque the 2.7 had.

The Special might have different gearing, but otherwise the 2.7's gearing is 3.89 VS all other 3.2/3.5 gearing of 3.66. So I get a gear ratio advantage.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

I gotta feeling I need to keep my eyes open here for the first road test! The 300M were decent performance numbers, a bit more gear might be just the spice needed for a few extra smiles....

Keep posting pics and updates!!!!!!

[Intrepidation]

Well that doesn't have fail painted all over it at all.

[Intrepidation]

So the engine is in, only part left to get is the throttle cable and it can finish going back together.

[Intrepidation]

*glee*

I got to hear it run today! Got the last few parts together...I can't wait!

A photo of how it looks today:

[Justin Bimmer]

Nice! Looks BIGGER!

[Intrepidation]

I looks right at home in the engine bay.

[FAPTurbo]

Looks great. Can't wait to hear the driving impressions.

[Camino LS6]

*glee*

I got to hear it run today! Got the last few parts together...I can't wait!

A photo of how it looks today:

"glee" ?

J/K, DF.

Looks like it was made to be there - congrats.

[A Horse With No Name]

Looking forward to seeing her after you get her home, cleaned up, and detailed.

Sweet...

That's the same 3.5 they used in the Prowler, yes?

Wondering if there are any aftermarket speed parts...also...are you chaning the exhaust? Think you said you were changing the exhaust but I can't remember.

Chris

[Intrepidation]

Looking forward to seeing her after you get her home, cleaned up, and detailed.

Sweet...

That's the same 3.5 they used in the Prowler, yes?

Wondering if there are any aftermarket speed parts...also...are you chaning the exhaust? Think you said you were changing the exhaust but I can't remember.

Chris

There hasn't been much for the 3.5 up until recently, now that the LX cars have been out. I've heard one guy getting 400 horsepower out of his.

The exhaust will stay sock for now, but it will eventually become dual.

[A Horse With No Name]

Methinks a mild, muted, mellow, muscular rumble from the rear would be a fine finishing touch.

Sorry to post slut in your Intrepic thread...but I'm glad this thing is coming together!

Looking forward to more news.

Chris

[Intrepidation]

Nothing wrong with posting dude.

I've heard them with true duals and yes they have a nice snarl to them. I don't want mine to be so loud as to drone on the highway though.

Something to look deeper into when the time comes.

[A Horse With No Name]

Sounds profoundly stupid perhaps but you might try HEMI mufflers. I've known a few guys to use them on street rods and Mustangs...nice, very low, quiet rumble.

I'm talking about the repops of what Chryco put on the "real" Hemi cars back in the 1960's-70's. Think they are available from JEGS IIRC for not a lot of scratch, and IIRC they are stainless, so they last forever.

And yes, I'm not kidding...a HEMI muffler would be a nice "heritage" touch for a MOPAR.

You also might consider a low restriction CAT as well. IIRC one of the local Fox body Mustang guys lost like 4/10 in the quarter with just a free-flow cat on an older car. After 200k, yours is probably shot.

Another idea...a local shop here will coat exhaust manifolds at a very reasonable cost with a high temp coating that lasts seemingly forever.

All this for your car is prob. better than what one local shop does...motorcycle mufflers on Miatas. Although that sounds good in a very different way.

Always nice to have other people spend your money for you, isn't it?

Chris

[Intrepidation]

Well the $h! has hit the fan and things have taken a turn for the decidedly worse.

Went over today to help put the hood back on the car to mark the completion of the conversion.

There was a minor issue where the plenum was cracked at the base of the PCV hose attachment, but I could just get a replacement for that when I got back from Carlisle.

I got to hear it run and it sounded good besides the little sputter from the crack.

I followed him back to my normal mechanic's shop. I noticed that the exhaust was visible and white-ish gray. Figured maybe it was burn-off or something.

Once we got there and talked with my mechanic, he asked me to give him a ride back, which was not a problem.

I noticed when I revved the car I could hear fluid flowing through the car...the Mercury does that sometimes...dunno what it means.

Came to a stop light after about a mile, and the car hesitated to move. He figured maybe the transmission was low on fluid. Go another half a mile and suddenly the temp gauge has swung up to almost the red line!

I pull off to side street, turn the car off and we pop the hood. At first we don't see anything beside some steam. He opens the coolant reservoir cap, and to our horror, what comes spewing out is a yellow-green soup. I check the dipstick and it is also the same yellow-green soup. So great..oil in the antifreeze and antifreeze in the oil. I mea, I've seen anrifreeze mix with oil, but the oil was still milky brown. Using someone's garden hose, he flushes it with water to cool it down enough, and we limp it the 1/3 mile back to his shop. It's worth noting that the engine never actually overheated. The needle stayed between the 3rd and last marker...but still.

So great, all that work, $945 engine, $1100 for the labor and I'm worse off than I was with the 2.7.

First thought was either cracked block or bad headgasket.

[Intrepidation]

Did the engine come with a warranty?

It does, but the yard requires that the engine be brought back to them. Either wayy It'll end up being another $1,100 to do this again.

[Satty]

Renting a hoist is pretty cheap, yank it yourself.

[Intrepidation]

So the entire time I'm thinking wtf happened? When I looked at this motor the car had just come in. It wasn't even in the yard yet. I looked it over, checked the oil cap and looked down the tube to look for white residue and it was perfectly clean. just oil in there.

The guy called me up a little while ago and had a thought. The used radiator I bought has an oil cooler build into it. This radiator was damaged a bit on top but that's what they had and said it was good. Well maybe not. His theory is that if the radiator was damaged internally, than the leak could be there and not in the engine.

He figures that the car didn't get hot enough and wasn't driven/running long enough for the engine internals to be damaged. So if that's the case than just maybe this mess is savable. We'll see. My spirits are not on the up and up.

He's supposed to call after the car cools off and he does some tests.

[A Horse With No Name]

Damn! Sorry about your luck DF...sometimes life just sucks...and it seems to suck for you right now.

Not being sarcastic, I want to see this thing on the road as bad as anybody...but...DAMMIT MAN...

Chris

[Intrepidation]

Just got a call. It's the radiator. Thank goodness it's not the engine.

[A Horse With No Name]

So you ARE bringing that thing to Columbus for the Mopar nats...if not this year...next maybe?

Jessi may not like me because I want shotgun for the Brice Road Cruise.

Seriously...glad to hear it.

Chris

[Intrepidation]

Yeah I'm not going to Carlisle this year sadly, but if I get everything squared away with my car it'll more than make up for it.

Plus next year I can bring my own car instead of riding with someone.

[A Horse With No Name]

Just think...teething pains....teething pains...

The open road beckons.

It will work itself out.

Chris

[Justin Bimmer]

DF, here is a perscription for you to relax:

First watch this:

Relaxing Video

Then watch this:

Even more relaxing video

Then say goosefraba 17 times

[Camino LS6]

Close call!

Glad it was just the radiator, DF.

[!!!TED!!!]

Its like the Intrepid rejected the donor heart!

I really feel for you, 'cause you know I had simular circumstances with my poor Achieva.

Oil+coolant = satans sludge.

Im hoping that the engine can be saved...and the radiator thrown to the depths of hell.

[Intrepidation]

Ted, you have no idea how badly I wanted to destroy that POS. Complete waste of time and money.

So my old radiator went in and the oil cooler lines were joined together and therefor bypassed.

All the gunk seems to be out of the engine...oil checks nice and pretty. There's still some gunk floating up through the coolant res so for now it's just water and I have to flush it out until no more shows up, and then it'll get a 50% dose of the Chrysler high mileage antifreeze.

Beyond that, the plenum has a crack (which he showed me before the engine went in) so I have to get a replacement Monday, and the a/c will need to be recharged...we'll see if it holds a charge now.

After it cools off and I rinse the reservoir some more, I'm going to take it driving to see how things work, but so far, besides the air leak from the plenum , it runs good.

[A Horse With No Name]

Thank Goddess that thing runs great!

Let me know if you need anything specific for her, local pick and pull I've been telling you about just got a bunch of new cars, quite a few of them MOPAR.

Chris

[Intrepidation]

Well at the moment I need a plenum.

Hoping the on at Jack's isn't cracked.

F*** Holland's.

[CMG]

Good on ya for getting it done, replace that manifold and report back with the test drives!

Good job Dodgefan!

[Camino LS6]

Glad to know that it's a running machine!

[Robert Hall]

Solid progress...any tally on how many hours has been spent on this endeavour so far? Good to see it back on the road.

[Intrepidation]

I would say, a good week if you don't count the time i spent sitting waiting to be worked on.

Today the coolant system was flushed out with Dawn..the thermostat is a bitch to get to, let me tell ya. I've never had or smelt an engine bay smell so clean.

I drove it around 20 miles or so and checked it around 8. It's much better than it was, but there's still some particles floating around.

Tomorrow morning I'm gonna see about getting a plenum.

[A Horse With No Name]

Actually...I got a reverse powerflush on my Safari Van, and it worked wonders at getting everything out.

Cost me something like 60 bucks and the system was CLEAN after it was done...

Now if we could just get it to do a burnout on Brice Road...we'd be all set...

Chris

[Intrepidation]

So while my tire shine trick looked nice for a day, it already looks faded again. So instead I'm painting it. Primer's on, so next will be the black and several coats of clear.

[A Horse With No Name]

Should be a well detailed machine when it's done!

Chris

[Intrepidation]

If you put acetone on a rag and rub the plemum down well, it eat off the faded plastic and leave the fresh stuff. I've used this trick to bring car trim and old toys back to life, so it should work on your plenum.

That's a cool idea..I'll keep that in mind next time, but I've already got the primer on.

[Camino LS6]

Glad you're sweating the details.

Edited July 19, 2009 by Camino LS6

[Intrepidation]

Glad you're sweating the details.

I won't be satisfied until it purrs like a kitten and looks as good as possible inside and out. :wink:

[A Horse With No Name]

Speaking of which...and you don't want to hear this but...

I think the blue color you've picked is great, but you might also want to consider silver. Today, the EAA had a young eagles event at Bolten Field (our local airport). Three youngest kids went up. We parked next to a really nice family in an Intrepid that was silver and it was beautiful. It was slightly overcast and the car just looked sooo goooood in that light.

And I thought of you and your loyalty to the intrepid when I met the Pilot taking my kids up. Guy named Dick Weatherall, really nice guy, with the same Cessna 172 for 22 years, man and plane had travelled all over North America together.

Methinks loyalty to a machine is a beuatiful thing.

[Intrepidation]

Speaking of which...and you don't want to hear this but...

I think the blue color you've picked is great, but you might also want to consider silver. Today, the EAA had a young eagles event at Bolten Field (our local airport). Three youngest kids went up. We parked next to a really nice family in an Intrepid that was silver and it was beautiful. It was slightly overcast and the car just looked sooo goooood in that light.

And I thought of you and your loyalty to the intrepid when I met the Pilot taking my kids up. Guy named Dick Weatherall, really nice guy, with the same Cessna 172 for 22 years, man and plane had travelled all over North America together.

Methinks loyalty to a machine is a beuatiful thing.

I don't really want silver. It's too common, especially among LH cars.

[A Horse With No Name]

You have made your point sir...however...you do have to admit the LH looks good in silver, yes?

Chris

[Intrepidation]

Yes, yes it does...

[Camino LS6]

I have to say, the LH is one of the best proportioned FWD cars ever.

[Intrepidation]

I have to say, the LH is one of the best proportioned FWD cars ever.

One of the reasons why I love them

I've seen RWD cars with worse proportions!

--

Anyway, first coat of paint is on. Probably gonna do one more before I do several coats of clear.

[Robert Hall]

They look great in silver... I like black also. When I worked at the City of Phoenix earlier this year, there was a black Intrepid R/T and a black Charger R/T on the same floor of the parking garage, and they often parked together. I like the Charger for it's Hemi and RWD, but prefer the Intrepid's sleekness...still love the C-pillar. huge rear window, and upper rear door shape.

[Intrepidation]

I don't like the factory black on LH cars because it's not really black..it's more dark gray. Now a true black would look terrific.

[Robert Hall]

I don't like the factory black on LH cars because it's not really black..it's more dark gray. Now a true black would look terrific.

Yeah, you are right..it's a charcoal...I had 3 rental Intrepids back in '99-01 and they all were that dark gray/black w/ black interior...had an LHS in that same color also. Really liked the LHS also. Had a couple 300M rentals, gold and silver ones. Everytime I flew into Columbus for a few years there, I'd get an LH from Thrifty.

Rob