Trying to prolong the life of my 2.7l intrepid

Hey I've got a 2003 dodge intrepid with 88,000 miles on it, bought it at 70,000. Anyway I've heard this engine is known for having oil sludge problems and mine seems to consume a lot of oil for a fairly new engine, around a quart every 1500 miles. It has a warranty up to 118k miles and i'm still paying it off, so I was wondering if anyone has an idea on how to make this thing last at least a couple more years till its paid off. I've been changing the oil every 3,000 miles with synthetic and a good filter. And I check on the fluid levels often, I cant afford another car and I have 2 years of college left and a job thats 30 miles away, so I really need this thing to last. the 2.7 in the late 90s and early 00s was prone to sludge. but do u know if your engine has it? u can check by taking off the oil cap and look into the valve train. if the parts are clean, sludge aint a problem. if they look like there covered with pudding thats sludge.

even if u do got sludge, it wouldnt cause the car to use more oil. if its using more oil then it should, its either leaking out or burning in the combustion chamber. u can check for leaks just by looking around the engine, especialy toward the bottom. if its burning oil, u may or may not see blue smoke from the tail pipe, depending on how much its burning. but one thing u can try is let the engine idle for a few minutes. then stand behind the car and have a helper punch the gas pedal real quick then let it go back to idle while u watch the tail pipe. if u see a puff of blue smoke, its burning oil.

u can allso try changing the pcv valve, especialy if u see oil in the air intake. other then that, fixing a leak or burning issue can get real expensive. if u just need the car a couple more years, your best bet may be to just keep the oil full and keep up with regular maintenance. Try a different motor oil, Personally im not a fan of synthetic unless its had it its whole life, and have witnessed oil consumption issues with synthetic before. Worth a shot on your next LOF The oil looked fine, nothing that looked like pudding, However I pulled off that little rubber tube that connects to the PCV valve and it has a thick layer of black greasy goo around it, so I'm going to replace the PCV valve and try to clean that thing out the best I can. besides replacing the pcv valve and cleaning out the hose, the pcv system has another hose that runs from the valve cover to the air intake hose, near the air cleaner. make sure that hose is clear allso, and make sure there aint no oil inside the air intake. allso disconnect the air intake hose from the throttle body and look inside the throttle body with a flashlite to be sure no oil got sucked into there.Car Repair Talk's forum.