Lifter Tap

[Bramic71]

Hello all. My 2016 Ram 1500 5.7 sits for up to a few weeks at a time on occasion, and only has 52,000 miles. I know that lifter bleed down is a normal occurrence. My issue is the tapping is loud at startup for a good minute, quietens down some, but continues to tap for another 5min+. It will eventually quieten down to nothing, but I can imagine the damage that can be done in this amount of time.

I have always ran 5/20 Penzoil Platinum, and a good synthetic oil filter. I am thinking it's time to let it go and find something different. I just can't stand the thought of owning it as the camshaft lobes are being flattened.

It's a shame that many Hemi owners have to unnecessarily go through this. Ram fixing this issue would be a good start. The best looking most comfortable trucks on the market shouldn't have this ongoing issue.

 

[huntergreen]

First check your manifold bolts.

 

[GTyankee]

When my old 5.7 manifold bolts broke, the noise was always there
Driving by a Hwy sound barrier, under a bridge or tunnel, i could always hear it
The only bolts that break are the ones holding the heat shields on.

After getting those fixed, the noise would be there on warm up & then it quieted down.
I changed from whatever brand & type oil that the dealership was putting in it. I think they were using one of the Shell Oil Products.

I started using Castrol GTX full synthetic & a WIX filter
The start up noise only lasted seconds

 

[bigred90gt]

When my old 5.7 manifold bolts broke, the noise was always there
Driving by a Hwy sound barrier, under a bridge or tunnel, i could always hear it
The only bolts that break are the ones holding the heat shields on.

With my broken manifold bolts, it ticked for about a minute when I started it, then once it warmed up and things expanded, it quieted down until the engine cooled completely again.

I would check your manifold bolts first. Easiest way is to tug on the heat shield. Typically the bolts that break are on the back of the manifold, or the front, and in both instances it is the bolts that hold the heat shield on.

 

[Bramic71]

First check your manifold bolts.

It's definitely not an exhaust leak.

 

[Bramic71]

When my old 5.7 manifold bolts broke, the noise was always there
Driving by a Hwy sound barrier, under a bridge or tunnel, i could always hear it
The only bolts that break are the ones holding the heat shields on.

After getting those fixed, the noise would be there on warm up & then it quieted down.
I changed from whatever brand & type oil that the dealership was putting in it. I think they were using one of the Shell Oil Products.

I started using Castrol GTX full synthetic & a WIX filter
The start up noise only lasted seconds

 

[Bramic71]

This is definitely a mechanical tap. It shouldn't take 5+min for lifters to pump up.

 

[indept]

Reason a couple guys mentioned is that broken manifold bolts cause a tapping noise just like lifters, not the noise a typical exhaust leak makes. When it heats up after 5 minutes or so everything expands and seals the leak until it cools down. Can't hurt to check it, should only take a few minutes, just reach in and see if the heat shield moves. It should be fastened pretty tightly.

 

[pacofortacos]

Aren't you still under warranty?

My 16 will give a lifter tap using the OEM filter, not a sound using Napa Platinum filter.
My truck sits longer than yours too. I put 800 miles on it last year and just emptied the gas that I put in the tank last fall - or was it summer.

 

[bigred90gt]

It's definitely not an exhaust leak.

I thought the same thing, because I’ve had exhaust leaks on previous vehicles. I was mentally preparing to replace the cam and lifters, when I decided tug on the heat shield. Happy to report it was simply a broken bolt. Replaced the manifolds with a set of shorty headers and all is good.

 

[LSU04_08]

Hello all. My 2016 Ram 1500 5.7 sits for up to a few weeks at a time on occasion, and only has 52,000 miles. I know that lifter bleed down is a normal occurrence. My issue is the tapping is loud at startup for a good minute, quietens down some, but continues to tap for another 5min+. It will eventually quieten down to nothing, but I can imagine the damage that can be done in this amount of time.

I have always ran 5/20 Penzoil Platinum, and a good synthetic oil filter. I am thinking it's time to let it go and find something different. I just can't stand the thought of owning it as the camshaft lobes are being flattened.

It's a shame that many Hemi owners have to unnecessarily go through this. Ram fixing this issue would be a good start. The best looking most comfortable trucks on the market shouldn't have this ongoing issue.

I'm have that same exact problem. I'm here in NW Louisiana and my truck never tapped until we had that full week of below freezing weather and snow and ice. I never moved my truck once during that since it's RWD, but I did crank it a few times for 15 minutes to be on the safe side. Now when I start it up, I get a loud tapping noise and my engine jumps a few times. Once it settles down to normal RPM, the tapping goes away. The time to stop tapping is getting shorter and shorter but it's still embarrassing to crank up a nice truck as people are walking by, and hear that loud tap.

2016 Ram Lone Star with 56,000 miles.

 

[jws123]

If your truck sits for more then a few days your truck will tap a bit on startup its normal and a design flaw of the mds lifters that's why when they eventually wipe the cam out we all change to non mds lifters and disable it. After i started using Pennzoil platinum 5w30 and a royal pup filter its not nearly as bad,

 

[ramffml]

If your truck sits for more then a few days your truck will tap a bit on startup its normal and a design flaw of the mds lifters that's why when they eventually wipe the cam out we all change to non mds lifters and disable it. After i started using Pennzoil platinum 5w30 and a royal pup filter its not nearly as bad,

That's not an absolute truth, my truck sat for 2 weeks in the cold of Dec/Jan and never tapped on startup. Definitely seems to be oil/filter related.

 

[jws123]

That's not an absolute truth, my truck sat for 2 weeks in the cold of Dec/Jan and never tapped on startup. Definitely seems to be oil/filter related.

Yea the oil bleeds out of the mds lifters after a while.. have had a bunch of hemis only ones with mds tap on startup.

 

[Wild one]

Yea the oil bleeds out of the mds lifters after a while.. have had a bunch of hemis only ones with mds tap on startup.

My wifes car has sat all winter on the driveway,with 0W-40 PUP and a bottle of Biotechs Lube Guard and a RP filter,the 6.4 in it is dead quite on start-up,that's in Western Canada where we've been -40C/-40F for more this winter then most winters.I think i'd agree with rmffml,it might have more to do with what you run for oil and filter

 

[HEMIMANN]

My 2012 Ram 1500 w/ 5.7 Hemi ticked on start up. Even I, with marginal hearing, could hear it. In those days, we were told "it's just the Hemi tick - it's normal". (Hah!)

I changed from Mobil 1 5W-20 to Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5W-20. No more tick. No more oil consumption, either (as measured on dipstick @ 5-6,000 miles).

Used Fram Ultra Synthetic Oil Filter @ every oil change.

End of story for me - it's oil-related.

 

[Burla]

What do you have to loose to try a different lubrication strategy? In some cases nothing, it is just about trying something different. But, read these two threads and consider spending a little on solid science.

redline

lubegard biotech

sometimes you have to access this with a computer to see the polls, but the polls are pretty convincing, there is no scenario where these products don't work more then 1/2 the time, and in many cases they work 80% of the time, for me I think that sounds worth it to me. My question is this, are you sure at warm idle there is no ticking? Real hemi tick is warm idle tick, but the auto industry has used moly historically for dry starts, that was it's main function. Search Engine cold-start behavior and molybdenum in engine oil. Has it been worse in winter then summer?

 

[Ridgerunner665]

This type of lifter tap is far less common than the usual start up ticking that only lasts a few seconds.

The tapping the OP is describing only happens when the truck sits for several weeks... mine has done this one time, after it sat for 5 weeks.

I believe the lifter bleeds completely down when it sits that long and takes longer to build back up... oil is only injected into the lifter when it is in solid contact with the pushrod, so when the lifter is bouncing between the cam and pushrod it only gets a little shot of oil each time it hits the pushrod, and takes a few minutes to build up.... they don't seem to bleed down this far every time it sits, I don't pretend to know what exact set of circumstances makes it happen sometimes and not others.

Sounds terrible, but with hydraulic lifters it has always been that way when they sit long enough to bleed all the way down.

Oil ain't gonna fix it, neither is a filter.

Best defense is starting the truck for a couple minutes at least once a week.

In my case, since I'm not home for months at a time, I told my wife to use the truck to take the trash off every week... the tapping hasn't happened since.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

[Bramic71]

This type of lifter tap is far less common than the usual start up ticking that only lasts a few seconds.

The tapping the OP is describing only happens when the truck sits for several weeks... mine has done this one time, after it sat for 5 weeks.

I believe the lifter bleeds completely down when it sits that long and takes longer to build back up... oil is only injected into the lifter when it is in solid contact with the pushrod, so when the lifter is bouncing between the cam and pushrod it only gets a little shot of oil each time it hits the pushrod, and takes a few minutes to build up.... they don't seem to bleed down this far every time it sits, I don't pretend to know what exact set of circumstances makes it happen sometimes and not others.

Sounds terrible, but with hydraulic lifters it has always been that way when they sit long enough to bleed all the way down.

Oil ain't gonna fix it, neither is a filter.

Best defense is starting the truck for a couple minutes at least once a week.

In my case, since I'm not home for months at a time, I told my wife to use the truck to take the trash off every week... the tapping hasn't happened since.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

I tend to believe the same thing. My 2012 with 125k doesn't do this, and I run the same Pennzoil Ultra Platinum and synthetic Wixom filter. The 2012 is my daily driver though.

 

[Burla]

Moly leaves a film behind on metal in perpendicular force, we call it the moly plate. Again, we all thought one way before this lubrication journey, those of us who embraced it think something completely different now. Maybe it will or wont fix it, but it fixed mine. Warm idle tick and dry start tick, I had them both. My truck sits for a week, no problem. Over ten years it only ticked on one particular formula and one particular time when the truck sat for a month. Read the threads if you would like to read about like 50 ram forum experiences on this, good luck either way.