"Not surprisingly, almost 95% of newer cars have interference engines."
It's not quite that bad. You can find a Gates timing belt chart that shows all engines that have a belt and if they are of the interference type or not. You may find it interesting that almost no Toyotas (none except for a couple of their newest) are interference engines, but ALL Hondas are, no exceptions. Most other brands are well mixed. IMO, it's not worth the small MPG improvement to have an interference engine, especially when it's a timing belt that drives a water pump. The money saved in gasoline will not replace a new engine.
BTW, anybody who has a timing belt in a car should download this chart from Gates. It's important to know if an engine is of the interference type. It's explained at the bottom of this file:
see here. And download the "Timing Belt Replacement Guide". It's a PDF file
I would like to find such a chart for timing chains (not belts) if such exists. I had the timing chain break in cars and then simply junked them, where if I knew for sure they were NOT interference engines I would have repaired them myself. I just assume the worse case.
While the timing belt may be better than V-belts, it has the heaviest load and is often the very first belt to break in an engine. BTW, some old Chevy engines used nylon teeth on the timing chain sprockets so the timing chain would fall off when the teeth wore down. This happened to me TWICE! At least most people (or at least many people) know to change timing belts at 60K or whenever recommended, but not many even think about dealing with timing chains in a vehicle that is running fine.
BTW, what type of Dodge engine was that, year and size? How do you know it bent the valves? Sometimes, I hear of interference engines that did not get damaged, when the belt breaks at slow speeds.
-Don-
I've read on other automotive forums also that Mobile 1 is the gold standard when it comes to synthetics, so it's probably the best for all your vehicles.
