2000 Chrysler Grand Voyager Engine Disaster

Hello all...

The vehicle in question is a 2000 Chrysler Grand Voyager, equipped with the
3.3L V6 flex-fuel engine. It has 195,570 or so miles on the odometer. It was
going on down the highway one day when it lost power, stalled and rolled to
a stop. Upon going to collect it, we found that the engine would start but
it ran very poorly and seemed to be out of time. (Some of you might remember
my initial post about this approximately one month and some weeks ago.)

In that time, we moved the Honda Prelude off the driveway and put it aside.

With the help of one of my brothers, we dropped the oil pan to see what the
timing chain looked like. The timing chain is there and might be OK. This
concludes the good news portion of our broadcast. Inside the bottom of the
oil pan were three large chunks of metal that as best we can tell are the
remants of the #2 cylinder piston skirt and a wrist pin. The piston is still
connected to the connecting rod and will move when the engine is rotated
manually.

There was a surprising amount of sludge in the oil pan. It came a shock to
see it, since the van has had its oil changed regularly. It was run on
synthetic (Mobil 1) oil of the correct rating. Only occasionally was
conventional oil used, and that was when we did not do the changes
ourselves. (And yes, we checked the dipstick shortly after having any car
lubrication business change the oil.)

So...that leaves me with a few questions. First off, how could this have
happened? Was there something we should have been doing, adjusting or using?
It doesn't seem like it. Secondly, how likely is it to be worthwhile to
repair this or even investigate it further? My brother tried looking up into
the cylinder but I don't think he was able to see a whole lot.

There's a video here if it might help anyone to see what happened and the
sludge that had accumulated in the oil pan:


The failure mode is discovered around the 8th minute.

William

 

It is difficult to understand how that could have happened. I had a
neighbor that drove his 3.3L Dodge Dynasty for over 265,000 miles
before he finally got tired of it.

The 3.3L has a pretty good reputation for longevity.

KM

 

that's a lot of sludge.........how long were you going between oil changes?
and what oil was being used?

 

Hi!

Approximately 3-5,000 miles depending upon how it was being driven.

Mobil 1 synthetic was used just about exclusively with this engine. Only a
few times was non-synthetic oil used.

I am at a complete loss to explain the failure. This van's been driven a lot
(200,000 miles in nine years seems like it to me) but I would swear to you
that it has been maintained well and not mistreated.

William

 

pull a valve cover, take some pics of the sludge if any, then reply back.

 

Is it possible that coolant was maybe getting into the oil?

KM

 

Hi!

I haven't seen any sign of such a thing. The oil in the pan was normal at
first and sludgy further down in the pan without being "milky". (I'd have to
think it would look milky if it had been exposed to coolant.)

I'm at a loss to explain this failure. This van and its engine were running
perfectly well by all accounts and observations. And it died, just like
that, while going down the highway?

William

 

coolant in small amounts wont always change color of the oil. depends on
how much was in there. see it all the time.