95 Intrepid. Stall, no start.

I am considering buying a 95 Intrepid off a coworkers daughter. She was driving and it just died and hasn't started since (Nov 08). I'm not sure if it has the 3.3 or 3.5, but I think they both have timing chains, not belts.
Can a timing chain jump timing or do they just break if they go.
You can see the rockers moving when the engine cranks, so I know the timing chain didn't break. I just don't want to buy it and find out it jumped timing and bent the valves. He wants it out of his driveway, so I can't do much to diagnose it unless I buy it and get it to my house.
Dustin

Correction - I was wrong, the 3.5 has a timing belt. Some of you probably already knew that though. I still need to find out which engine it has. When I posted the thread I had just gotten home from work and was ready to go to bed. I did some more research and found that chains can jump timing too. I'll need to check compression just to be sure.

Are there any sensors that tend to go out on these engines and can I test them with a multimeter. The key was left on, so the battery is dead and any codes are probably gone.

Any info would be appreciated. Dustin

The 3.3 engine looks relatively small in the engine compartment, a 3.5 engine will literally fill the engine compartment up.

There should be cover or stamping on the intake plenum area saying the size of the engine like "3.3 Liter" or "3.5 L 24 Valve".

3.3 L engines have their spark plugs angle out the side of the head on the engine, a 3.5 will have the plugs inserted unto tubes on the rocker covers.

If all else fails, on 93-97 models only, look at the tailpipe, if it has a single pipe coming out the bumper it has a 3.3 engine, if there is a resonator with 2 outlets, then it has a 3.5 engine.

I looked at the car today. It is a 94, not 95. It has the 3.3. Its not getting spark. The battery was dead so we had hook up jumper cables. We checked compression and only got 80 lbs, but it was turning over slow since we just had jumper cables hooked up.
Is there any way to find out for sure if the timing chain jumped without tearing into it?

If it did jump timing is there any way that could cause no spark?

When a crankshaft position sensor goes bad does the car usually miss before it won't run at all, or just die out of nowhere?

Any other ideas?

Dustin

How many miles are on the vehicle? It is possible the chain jumped time especially if it has a lot of miles on it, when the cam and crank sensors are not in sync because of the chain jumping, the PCM will shut down the ignition.

My 96 LHS with the 3.5 had it's water pump fail, when the bearing went the pulley went upwards causing the belt to loosen just enough to make it jump about 3 teeth and the engine instantly died, thankfully it was at an intersection and the engine idling when it went, my valves were fine and a timing belt, water pump, and tensioner pulley later, the car runs fine now.

Really the only way to tell if the timing chain went is to get access to it and see if the the cam sprocket lines up with the timing marks in relation to the crank mark set at TDC, and if it is off get a timing chain set (crank and cam gears and chain) and put it back together.

Get yourself a haynes or chilton manual for it should you decide to get the car and try and resurrect it, you'll need one to work on the vehicle.

BTW, the 3.3 is not an interference engine, the valves should be fine.

Thanks for the info. Right now I'm just waiting to see if she'll drop the price a bit more. She doesn't want to, but her dad wants it out of his driveway.

Dustin

I bought the car. It has 193K. The engine module fuse is blown. If it jumped timing would it blow that fuse in order to shut down?

Thanks,
Dustin