8-16 Chrysler 11/20/13 9:51 AM Page 8
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Doug Anderson danderson@enginebuildermag.com Photography by Nancy Swafford
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hrysler made some major changes in their engine line-up starting in ’07. They replaced their four cylinder engines in everything but the PT Cruiser in ’07, updated the 4.7L V8 in ’08, added variable valve timing to the Hemi in ’09 and replaced their V6 motors with a new 3.6L DOHC beginning in ’10, so all of their engines were either new or improved by 2013. With that in mind, here’s an overview of all the changes they made along with some detailed information on a couple of them that we haven’t discussed before including the 4.0L SOHC V6 and the dual plug 4.7L. Let’s start with their four cylinder engines. Chrysler teamed up with Mitsubishi and Hyundai to design a whole new family of four cylinder engines that were used by all three companies, although each one modified the basic engine design to fit their needs. They created the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance with five factories in the US, Japan and Korea that built about 2,000,000 engines a year. These were usually called the “GEMA” motors by people in the industry, but Chrysler named theirs the “World Engines” and installed them in most of their front wheel drive vehicles beginning in ’07. There were three different engines in this family including a 1.8L, a 2.0L and a 2.4L with an aluminum block along with an aluminum DOHC head that had “dual electro-hydraulic VVT” on both the intake and exhaust cams. They all had a crank driven module inside the pan that incorporated the oil pump and two counter-rotating balance shafts, too. There weren’t very many of the 1.8L 8 November 2013 | Rebuilding Tech Guide
motors built because they were only available in the base model of the ’07’09 Caliber that usually came with the optional 2.0L that was standard in the small 2WD Jeeps. The most popular “World Engine”
was the 2.4L that was installed in all of their mid-sized cars along with the 4x4 Jeep Compass and Patriot. There were a few of the turbo 2.4L motors installed in the Caliber SRT-4 in ’08-’09, but they were pretty rare. These “World Engines” were often criticized because they were a bit rough and noisy and they didn’t make much power at the low end, but they were cheaper to build than the original 2.0L/2.4L motors and they got better fuel economy, so Chrysler was happy with them for awhile. The chart on page 9 includes the applications, dates and VIN codes we found for each engine. This is our best take on these engines based on the information we
found in a variety of sources that didn’t always agree, so consider it an overview and proceed with caution. We have included it to make sure you know about the “World Engines” that replaced the Chrysler-built 2.0L and 2.4L motors in everything but the PT Cruiser beginning in ’07 (Chrysler continued to use their old 2.4L motor in the PT through ’10). Rebuilding the GEMA motors at a reasonable cost may be a challenge because the parts, including the balance shaft/oil pump module that has to be replaced because it can’t be rebuilt (you can’t even take it apart), are pretty expensive. Chrysler and Hyundai have better access to parts and cores than we do and they’re both selling their rebuilt GEMA engines for around $3,000, so that’s probably a pretty good benchmark to keep in mind. I personally know of one rental car company that spent nearly $5,000 apiece to install five of the remanufactured 2.4L engines in some 2011 Hyundai Sonatas that ended up with the wrong oil filters. That makes me wonder how many customers will be in the market for one of these engines when the time comes. But that’s not the end of the story for the four-cylinder motors. Chrysler bought out their partners in the Global Alliance in September of ’09 and announced that they were going to replace their GEMA engines with a new family of four cylinders that would be better than the existing engines and incorporate the latest technology from Fiat. They’re replacing the 1.8L with either a 1.4L or a 1.8L from Fiat, but they’ve updated their 2.0L and 2.4L with a die-cast aluminum block that has a cast iron bedplate along with a new head that has roller cam followers