BD Diesel Manifolds on a 5.7 Hemi Issues

[ginandtonic]

Hey all, I developed the hemi-tick over the summer, seemed to just be a broken manifold bolt, and then it got worse, making me think it was 2, so, sure enough, two bolts broken. Took it in to a shop to have the drivers side replaced with the BD Diesel improved design and got the truck back and it's just as bad. I know it's not the lifters because one day it was silent, the next day it was ticking. Also, upon getting the truck back I noticed the steering shaft is now rubbing against the oil dipstick tube... I felt a weird grinding feeling in the steering wheel when I was driving it home from the shop and when I looked behind the fender liner it was tight against it.

Anyways, seems I got my truck back with A) a louder tikc, B), a steering shift grinding against the dipstick tube, and C), a bit more play in the steering wheel when going over bumps or cracks in the road.

Has anyone else had an issue with the tick continuing with BD Diesel manifolds? With the other two new issues that didn't exist before I dropped it off this morning, I am wondering if the shop just did a poor install job.

I'd post a video of the noise if I knew how!

 

[ramffml]

I have BD installed on mine for a few months, no ticking, no issues whatsoever.

One of my OEM manifolds had cracked, not the bolt.

You can upload a video to streamable.com for free.

 

[emjohn4]

Make sure your steering shaft bolts are tight. I bet the shop removed it for additional room and didn't tighten them up.

Same for the oil dipstick. I bet they removed it for access and didn't get it in right when it was reinstalled.

 

[Wild one]

Hey all, I developed the hemi-tick over the summer, seemed to just be a broken manifold bolt, and then it got worse, making me think it was 2, so, sure enough, two bolts broken. Took it in to a shop to have the drivers side replaced with the BD Diesel improved design and got the truck back and it's just as bad. I know it's not the lifters because one day it was silent, the next day it was ticking. Also, upon getting the truck back I noticed the steering shaft is now rubbing against the oil dipstick tube... I felt a weird grinding feeling in the steering wheel when I was driving it home from the shop and when I looked behind the fender liner it was tight against it.

Anyways, seems I got my truck back with A) a louder tikc, B), a steering shift grinding against the dipstick tube, and C), a bit more play in the steering wheel when going over bumps or cracks in the road.

Has anyone else had an issue with the tick continuing with BD Diesel manifolds? With the other two new issues that didn't exist before I dropped it off this morning, I am wondering if the shop just did a poor install job.

I'd post a video of the noise if I knew how!

View attachment 554120

Looks like you have a 4X4,you can't get the lower bolt out of the dipstick bracket with out alot of work on the 4X4's,so odds are they bent/mangled the dipstick tube to remove the old manifold and re-install the new manifold,they might even have managed to get the dipstick in the wrong spot.You can carefully bend the dipstick tube slightly so it doesn't rub on the steering shaft,then follow the advice above and check your steering shaft over for issues.

 

[ginandtonic]

Took the truck back this morning and the mechanic basically just bent the dipstick tube back into place so that problem is solved. However, the tick persists albeit not as bad - he was able to turn the bolts connecting the manifold to the down pipe so I guess those ones were causing the louder tick.

All along I thought that the lifter tick developed slowly over time but I guess not. This was a night and day change in the way my truck sounds and I had always noticed and appreciated how my particular hemi always purred quiet, until one day I started it and tick tick tick tick! It got worse, so I figured okay must be another bolt, got them all changed along with this new manifold and there's still some tick there so I'm at a loss.

 

[joesstripclub]

However, the tick persists albeit not as bad - he was able to turn the bolts connecting the manifold to the down pipe so I guess those ones were causing the louder tick.

I had this same problem when I installed shorties on my 1500. I think factory is just a compression seal and the aftermarket options dont seem to seal as well. Finally found some donut gaskets that were the right size at the parts store and a lot of it went away, other than the normal header noises.

 

[ginandtonic]

Okay thats great to know, thank you!

 

[crackerjack1957]

Always check flatness with straight edge...... just because they are new doesn't mean they are flat

 

[ginandtonic]

Hey all. Finally got around to recording a video for sound. Like I said, the shop jacked it back up loosened everything off and retightened things as they turned the truck on and off monitoring for that initial tap. It seemed to be a minor improvement but still doesn’t sound like it did just 4-5 months ago!

Here’s the video;

https://streamable.com/im19ak

 

[Daw14]

Maybe they boogered a gasket before it was installed.

The remflex 6022 are some of the finest , well made , quality gaskets I’ve seen. These will take care of manifold to head issues, if that’s the issue.

That shop isn’t very good if they did not do a before and after sound check, imo .

That shop would not recieve anymore business .
Does it get better as the engine gets all the way to operating temperature?

 

[ginandtonic]

Maybe they boogered a gasket before it was installed.

The remflex 6022 are some of the finest , well made , quality gaskets I’ve seen. These will take care of manifold to head issues, if that’s the issue.

That shop isn’t very good if they did not do a before and after sound check, imo .

That shop would not recieve anymore business .
Does it get better as the engine gets all the way to operating temperature?

Ya it’s hard to tell! They’re BDdiesel manifolds and I had heard good things about that kit so as of now I’m just under the assumption that it’s an installation error! I don’t believe the manifold to y pipe bolts need much torque, maybe they overdid it and split the pipe somewhere.

It doesn’t have the “puff puff” sound that a lot of manifold leaks do that I’ve heard here or on YouTube, but I still don’t think it’s a lifters thing since one day it purred like a kitten the next it sounded like a bucket of bolts like this.

 

[Wild one]

Ya it’s hard to tell! They’re BDdiesel manifolds and I had heard good things about that kit so as of now I’m just under the assumption that it’s an installation error! I don’t believe the manifold to y pipe bolts need much torque, maybe they overdid it and split the pipe somewhere.

It doesn’t have the “puff puff” sound that a lot of manifold leaks do that I’ve heard here or on YouTube, but I still don’t think it’s a lifters thing since one day it purred like a kitten the next it sounded like a bucket of bolts like this.

There's several guys yelling about the BD manifolds on facebook not sealing to the mid pipe.Several have went back to their original manifolds after sanding/machining them flat. Sometimes forums aren't the best spot to do research,you'll usually get more honest answers on alot of the facebook pages then you will on a forum.
Hopefully you kept your original manifolds,you can always sand or machine them flat and re-install if you can't get the BD ones to seal up properly

 

[ramffml]

Ya it’s hard to tell! They’re BDdiesel manifolds and I had heard good things about that kit so as of now I’m just under the assumption that it’s an installation error! I don’t believe the manifold to y pipe bolts need much torque, maybe they overdid it and split the pipe somewhere.

It doesn’t have the “puff puff” sound that a lot of manifold leaks do that I’ve heard here or on YouTube, but I still don’t think it’s a lifters thing since one day it purred like a kitten the next it sounded like a bucket of bolts like this.

I'd dump the oil immediately and run HPL or Redline 5w-30. Sounds like lifter to me. Worst case scenario the oil doesn't improve the sound but you still get a better oil out of the deal.

 

[ramffml]

Maybe they boogered a gasket before it was installed.

The remflex 6022 are some of the finest , well made , quality gaskets I’ve seen. These will take care of manifold to head issues, if that’s the issue.

That shop isn’t very good if they did not do a before and after sound check, imo .

That shop would not recieve anymore business .
Does it get better as the engine gets all the way to operating temperature?

I don't think the remflex 6022 work on the BD diesel manifolds, I gave those to my mechanic when he installed mine but he said there was some small issue and just ended up using the ones that came in the BD kit.

 

[Wild one]

I don't think the remflex 6022 work on the BD diesel manifolds, I gave those to my mechanic when he installed mine but he said there was some small issue and just ended up using the ones that came in the BD kit.

I'm guessing the bolts were to short to work with the thicker Remflex gaskets. I'm using the Remflex gaskets on my 5.7 that's running the 6.4 manifolds,and the stock 6.4 bolts were just barely long enough to work with the thicker gaskets

 

[ramffml]

I'm guessing the bolts were to short to work with the thicker Remflex gaskets. I'm using the Remflex gaskets on my 5.7 that's running the 6.4 manifolds,and the stock 6.4 bolts were just barely long enough to work with the thicker gaskets

I don't think it was the bolts, they actually come with longer bolts intentionally? Something to do with the design of the BD part, a lip or a clip or something, completely forgotten what it was.

 

[ginandtonic]

Here’s an unfortunate (or fortunate, idk yet) update. When I had that shop diagnose the tick as the manifolds, I asked them to change the oil while they had it up on the lift. They had a valvoline sign up so I asked what they used and they said “oh that’s old we use XX”, an oil that I cant remember the name of because I hadn’t actually heard of it before. So, today I did an oil change even though I was at 90% life to pennzoil platinum ultra 0w-20 with a Fram XG2 ultra filter, just to see if the oil from the shop was making things worse. I went with 0w because I’m in Canada and will be seeing -40C/-40F in a month or so. Sadly, the PUP didn’t make even a slight difference in the sound.. so I’m wondering if it’s either the lifters are THAT bad, or, it’s not internal since even a new high quality oil didn’t make things better and it’s still that potential leaky manifold. Right now I’m leaning towards it being the latter because I suspect that a quality oil should at least quiet the tick slightly, which it did not. Here’s two comparison videos, the first one is pre-oil change with the engine warmed up a bit and the oil temp sitting at 40c/104f.
Before

This one is after with the oil at about 50c/122f.

After

What do we think?! This all originated from breaking two manifold bolts on one summer road trip because this sound did not slowly appear, it was very much silent and ran like a top and then tick tick tick aggressively.. changed a manifold out to the BD ones with new hardware and gaskets and it was slightly quieter after taking it back for them to retorque things, but still here and now worse than ever - albeit it’s colder than ever which I’m sure makes a difference.

 

[ramffml]

Here’s an unfortunate (or fortunate, idk yet) update. When I had that shop diagnose the tick as the manifolds, I asked them to change the oil while they had it up on the lift. They had a valvoline sign up so I asked what they used and they said “oh that’s old we use XX”, an oil that I cant remember the name of because I hadn’t actually heard of it before. So, today I did an oil change even though I was at 90% life to pennzoil platinum ultra 0w-20 with a Fram XG2 ultra filter, just to see if the oil from the shop was making things worse. I went with 0w because I’m in Canada and will be seeing -40C/-40F in a month or so. Sadly, the PUP didn’t make even a slight difference in the sound.. so I’m wondering if it’s either the lifters are THAT bad, or, it’s not internal since even a new high quality oil didn’t make things better and it’s still that potential leaky manifold. Right now I’m leaning towards it being the latter because I suspect that a quality oil should at least quiet the tick slightly, which it did not. Here’s two comparison videos, the first one is pre-oil change with the engine warmed up a bit and the oil temp sitting at 40c/104f.
Before

This one is after with the oil at about 50c/122f.

After

What do we think?! This all originated from breaking two manifold bolts on one summer road trip because this sound did not slowly appear, it was very much silent and ran like a top and then tick tick tick aggressively.. changed a manifold out to the BD ones with new hardware and gaskets and it was slightly quieter after taking it back for them to retorque things, but still here and now worse than ever - albeit it’s colder than ever which I’m sure makes a difference.

PUP is not an anti tick oil. I would have used HPL/Redline, or drain a bit from your pan and put a full bottle of LubeGuard but apparently its not as successful as Redline which has had the most forum tests/success to date.

 

[ginandtonic]

PUP is not an anti tick oil. I would have used HPL/Redline, or drain a bit from your pan and put a full bottle of LubeGuard but apparently its not as successful as Redline which has had the most forum tests/success to date.

Redline isn’t an anti-tick oil either, it’s just had good success among forum members, but so has PUP. Redline is very difficult to find and even more expensive up in Canada so had to go the PUP route, otherwise I would have gone RL!

 

[Wild one]

Redline isn’t an anti-tick oil either, it’s just had good success among forum members, but so has PUP. Redline is very difficult to find and even more expensive up in Canada so had to go the PUP route, otherwise I would have gone RL!

These guys in Edmonton are the only ones i've found in Canada that carry Lube Gards Bio Tech engine oil protectant.
It sort of turns PUP into a poor mans Redline.

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