I agree with U&A. First, the parts vendor is occasionally sending RAM a bad run of cams. There is no quality control checks by the vendor or RAM. Parts come in under the "just in time" economic procedures and they are never checked. Today, there is no longer quality control. No one stops the production line if they see a defect. Trucks do not get pulled off the line for defect correction. The sad fact is. If that truck starts, steers and brakes, it goes on the train. Let the dealer deal with any defects. It is much cheaper. Evidence of this brands attitude is found in the number of these failures. Too high for those that experience it. But many owners have 300k+ miles on their 5.7 and 6.4. If only 1-5% of the engines installed result in factory repairs, then the piece meal nickle and dime cost is just operating expense.
Second, high idle time in high heat climates is a known problem by FCA because of the variable PSI oil pumps. When a 5.7 police cruiser comes in with this problem, FCA ships a new engine. (they shuffle the deck)
I do believe that Penz and Red Line oil, changed at 3-5k miles is smart preventive maintenance.
Unlike GM and Ford who have their own engine and quality control issues. Ram is not addressing the oil system design or vendor parts quality. No corrections are being made in the next year. When GM had the short piston skirt knock in one of their new cheaper design engines, they corrected it the next year. "No economic justification" to address this. Only costing them small dollars relative to sales and profit.
I do believe that a class action suit will continue to gain momentum. At some point there will be enough trucks to justify a common failure claim. Enough consumer suffering, lost time and cost will justify taking them on. They clearly do not care about their brand reputation. I suspect that the type of suit for settlement will be, replace the engine in documented repair vehicles. Remember, FCA knows us well. They study our buying habits carefully. On average we trade out every 2-3 years or just before the warranty is up. Truck only needs to last that long. Fitz