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Finally retiring its older 3.6 Liter V6 engines, Chrysler has taken warps off the new 3.0 Liter V6 engines of the Pentastar series. The earlier series of the V6 Pentastar engines from Chrysler did not leave the customers much stranded. In fact, there was a time when over 1300 vehicles were reported to be affected whilst there were 500 new cases developing each week. The good news is that replacing the old engines is a brand new 3.0 liter Pentastar which is accounted to be the tinniest of all the Pentastar engines till date. Generating quite some decent amount of power and torque this engine can be seen festooning the Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee models shipped to China, that is, vehicles ranging from Ram 1500 to the Dodge Challenger.

The all new Pentastar 3.0 Liter V6 engine is rated at 230 horsepower at 6,350 rpm. The peak torque supplied is 210 pound-feet at 4,400 rpm. The 3.0 liter Pentastar is based on the same compact 60-degree architecture as that of the acclaimed 3.6 liter V6 Pentastar body. Like its older and bigger Pentastar siblings, the 3.0 has a die cast aluminum cylinder block, structural winged tray and oil pan. There are directly mounted accessories and timing drive with inverted teeth. The engine also sports select fit pistons with polymer graphite coated skirts.  Among the Ward’s 10 best engines for three years running, this larger port-injected engine delivers top fuel economy in a lot of segments that it competes in.

Chrysler proudly boasts that its Pentastar performs much better that its competitors who use the direct fuel injection technology which is much costlier. Used across eleven different vehicle segments, Pentastar engines are used in sixteen vehicles. The earlier 3.6 liter engines helped Chrysler acquire seven percent improvement in fuel economy across the board. The current 3.0 liter engines with 2,997 cc capacity narrowly avoid the higher taxation levied upon the big Pentastar engines along with a better fuel economy. Also by the end of this year, another Pentastar engine will make its way to the forefront. There is this all-new Jeep Cherokee compact SUB that debuts with a 3.2 liter Pentastar engine generating 270 horsepower. Fuel economy of this engine is going to be one thing to look forward to since it is said to be thirty percent more than its non Pentastar predecessor.

Since the oil supplies are limited in Europe and China for various reasons like lack of domestic production, vehicles and engines with 3.0 liter or more are penalized with higher taxes and to avoid these displacement taxes is the primary purpose of the new Pentastar engines which is variant designed to be 2.997 liters just falling below the cutoff and saving the day, just like Bob Lee, vice president of Engine, Powertrain and Electrified Propulsion Systems Engineering for Chrysler Group, says, “When Pentastar was conceived, we started with a clean sheet of paper and the goal of producing an engine that made the most sense for the customer and for us.”