The modern iteration of the Dodge Dart was a cheap, unreliable, epic fail. Needless to say, not quite Civic or Corolla material. But a fair few of them are still on the road. One of which was purchased by the YouTube DIY guru WatchJRGo. His Dart spent much of its life as a rental car, and it shows.
JR and a mechanic buddy set about opening the hood of the Dart to see just what kind of horrors lie underneath in the engine bay. They needn't do much but take the plastic engine cover off to start to find trouble. Thin slicks of oil had stained themselves onto various bits and pieces of the valve covers.
Clearly, more work was needed. The valve cover was finally removed after much frustration trying to get off the two-liter Chrysler Tigershark four-cylinder engine. What they found is liable to make any car owner weak at the knees in fear. A thick lining of oil sludge, dirt, debris, and other nonsense had found its way into the underside of the valve cover.
Even removing the old gasket required two strong men to get the job done. The two spent some time dragging their gloved fingers across the surface of the inner valve cover. The trail of sludge left by their finger was evidence that the rental company that owned this car didn't care an iota about maintenance.
It's possible that this Dart could have run for the rest of its life in this state. But, being a mid-2010's Chrysler product means that at 120,000 miles, this car is likely near or at the end of its life. Still, JR and his buddy spent time cleaning and regasketing the valve cover to try and get things as squeaky as possible.
The end result is a car that still doesn't run perfectly but at least isn't going to consume a lifetime's worth of engine sludge every time the driver switches the engine on. "It's still a Dart," one of the two that saved the car's life says showing resignation, towards the end of the video. Way to go JR, you breathed maybe a few months to a year more of life out of your Dart.
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