Should I do the Hellcat lifters and cam now?

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Byron Stallman

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So I have a 2014 1500 5.7 67k miles, I’m nervous about the known lifter issue. So should I spend the money now? I could wait and just see if mine actually gets affected? I will be keeping the truck forever as it was my best friends. Thoughts? Thanks guys!
 

Mleads310

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Not unless you have a reason to believe your having cam and lifter issues now. That's a lot of money to throw at something that hasn't given you an problem yet. As long as your using the oil that has been discussed on this forum, that has been proven to possibly prevent any issues, you should be ok. I just replaced a whole motor due to the issue, instead of replacing the lifters/cams, because of the cost to benefit of it.
 

DirtyWipers

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If its going to be your daily driver, I'd do it whenever the extra money was available just so you never have to worry about it ever again. You said you was gonna keep it forever so I'd guess you would be bound to eventually have the problem anyway. Forever is a long while.
 

Burla

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Lately a huge % of people who put brand new lifters in start ticking, just read the last 20 pages in engine section. No I wouldn't do that. If you are worried get a used oil analysis and see how the wear is. Look into redline oil or lubegard biotech and a high moly oil like qsud, truck and gas or amsoil. If you spent even a year rolling around this forum, you would never even think putting in new lifters is a good idea unless your cam was wiped. Redline 5w30 is about the best tick killer the forum has found over a decade of testing different things.

The largest number of hemi's never have the issue, so play the odds anyhow is the smart move.
 

NOV87

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Like others said, you don't have any issues with lifters/camshaft now. The truck will not self-destruct if the problem happens. You can always get it done. Proactively replacing them may not go smooth. Why risk opening that can of worms...
 

Adamcr68

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So I have a 2014 1500 5.7 67k miles, I’m nervous about the known lifter issue. So should I spend the money now? I could wait and just see if mine actually gets affected? I will be keeping the truck forever as it was my best friends. Thoughts? Thanks guys!
The red is my boss’s -a 14- with 114k all original except front struts runs great D6FB5F05-C082-4540-866E-B7C3CB8F8063.jpeg
 

Wild one

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So I have a 2014 1500 5.7 67k miles, I’m nervous about the known lifter issue. So should I spend the money now? I could wait and just see if mine actually gets affected? I will be keeping the truck forever as it was my best friends. Thoughts? Thanks guys!

If you have any intentions of slightly modding the truck with cam/headers/tune etc.,then spend the money,but if not ,wait till it has issues ,then do it as stated above.Follow Burla's oil reconmendations,he's researched oils more then most,and knows what he's talking about
 

Fast69Mopar

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Lately a huge % of people who put brand new lifters in start ticking, just read the last 20 pages in engine section. No I wouldn't do that. If you are worried get a used oil analysis and see how the wear is. Look into redline oil or lubegard biotech and a high moly oil like qsud, truck and gas or amsoil. If you spent even a year rolling around this forum, you would never even think putting in new lifters is a good idea unless your cam was wiped. Redline 5w30 is about the best tick killer the forum has found over a decade of testing different things.

The largest number of hemi's never have the issue, so play the odds anyhow is the smart move.
I actually have one of the sets of Hellcat lifters that have been making noise since the word go. Right now they have about 5,300 miles on them and they are slowly getting worse. I had the top end of this motor apart doing some other work and swapping cams again and I decided to put this new set of Hellcat lifters in while I was in there. They had been sitting on the shelf from a previous build so in they went. These are getting replaced with a set of Johnson lifters tomorrow along with a fresh set of pushrods.
 

Fast69Mopar

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I actually have one of the sets of Hellcat lifters that have been making noise since the word go. Right now they have about 5,300 miles on them and they are slowly getting worse. I had the top end of this motor apart doing some other work and swapping cams again and I decided to put this new set of Hellcat lifters in while I was in there. They had been sitting on the shelf from a previous build so in they went. These are getting replaced with a set of Johnson lifters tomorrow along with a fresh set of pushrods.
I meant to add something at the end of my previous post. This is the first and only set of Hellcat lifters that I have had make noise. I went back through my receipts to see how many sets I have purchased for use in a customer's vehicle. I found 83 sets of Hellcat lifters that went into a customer's motor from this year alone and even more from 2019.
 
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Byron Stallman

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Well thanks for all the feedback. Sounds like I should just do the oil burla recommends and just see if it even happens. I was under the impression that if i didn’t catch it early the motor would be trashed from all the shavings going through the motor. As always thanks guys!!
 

Fast69Mopar

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Well thanks for all the feedback. Sounds like I should just do the oil burla recommends and just see if it even happens. I was under the impression that if i didn’t catch it early the motor would be trashed from all the shavings going through the motor. As always thanks guys!!
For me, there is a benefit to doing it. I would rather get the original lifters out of the motor than to take the chance for one to fail, wipe out the cam and send the rest of the short block into oblivion. I would spend the money on the Johnson Lifters and be done with it and get the cam in while I am at it along with some port work on the cylinder heads. Things are different for me though because this is what I have done for a living for 20 years.

I put a set of the Johnson lifters in mine 2 days ago and its the quietest this motor has ever been. I also did some work on the oil pump since it was off and I was swapping the cam again.
 

Wild one

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For me, there is a benefit to doing it. I would rather get the original lifters out of the motor than to take the chance for one to fail, wipe out the cam and send the rest of the short block into oblivion. I would spend the money on the Johnson Lifters and be done with it and get the cam in while I am at it along with some port work on the cylinder heads. Things are different for me though because this is what I have done for a living for 20 years.

I put a set of the Johnson lifters in mine 2 days ago and its the quietest this motor has ever been. I also did some work on the oil pump since it was off and I was swapping the cam again.

Quit trying to scare him 69,there's millions of 5.7's on the road that have never had an issue with the cam.If he runs good oil and doesn't let it idle for hours on end,there's a good chance he'll never have an issue.Hell my old original cam is in another truck and is still going strong with close to 80,000 miles on the cam and original lifters now,and that's a cam that started life in one truck,and is in another truck now with no issues
 
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crackerjack1957

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Quit trying to scare him 69,there's millions of 5.7's on the road that have never had an issue with the cam.If he runs good oil and doesn't let it idle for hours on end,there's a good chance he'll never have an issue.Hell my old original cam is in another truck and is still going strong with close to 80,000 miles on the cam and original lifters now,and that's a cam that started life in one truck,and is in another truck now with no issues

You can have my stock cam & lifters if you are missing yours.........LoL
 

Wild one

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You can have my stock cam & lifters if you are missing yours.........LoL

That's okay,besides shipping would kill you to send it to Alberta,lol. If the cam and lifters are in good shape yet,you might be able to sell them to somebody who does need a cam,and doesn't want to spend the money on a new cam and lifters.
 

Fast69Mopar

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Quit trying to scare him 69,there's millions of 5.7's on the road that have never had an issue with the cam.If he runs good oil and doesn't let it idle for hours on end,there's a good chance he'll never have an issue.Hell my old original cam is in another truck and is still going strong with close to 80,000 miles on the cam and original lifters now,and that's a cam that started life in one truck,and is in another truck now with no issues
Come on man! I'm not trying to scare him. I'm expressing my reasoning for tearing down a perfectly good running motor. Everyone here in the forum can make their own decisions and I don't expect anyone to take me seriously on the web. The only time I expect anyone to take me seriously bus when my customers come to me and ask a direct question. I will give them my honest opinion.
 

crackerjack1957

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That's okay,besides shipping would kill you to send it to Alberta,lol. If the cam and lifters are in good shape yet,you might be able to sell them to somebody who does need a cam,and doesn't want to spend the money on a new cam and lifters.
Was just messing with ya........I knew you wouldn't want them
 

Wild one

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Was just messing with ya........I knew you wouldn't want them

I knew that,but honestly if you're old cam/lifters are still good,you could probably get a few bucks for them.I gave my old cam to a young single mother when her cam went south,and the guy that swapped them for her,cut her a hell'va break on labour to help her out,and between the 2 of us,we got her to switch over to 5W-30 Redline,and talked her into not letting the truck idle as much as she had been letting it idle
 
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