Camshaft and Lifters

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demon3404

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2013
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Hello all,
I have a 2013 Ram 5.7 that needs a cam and lifters, #3 misfire and rocker isn't moving as much as others. I am having a hard time finding replacements that aren't performance that required additional mods. I just want to go back to a stock cam or a performance set up that keeps MDS and does not required other mods. If I have to I'll try the dealer but not sure I want MOPAR parts since that is what has failed and no one has been able to identify why they fail. Any help would be appreciated. Again, I am just looking for a stock replacement grind cam or one that doesn't required other mods. I would love to be able to order everything online today.

Thanks, Chuck
 

Pull Ya

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Check with Matt at Moe's Performance, a preferred vendor on this forum.
Jay
 

Wild one

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Hello all,
I have a 2013 Ram 5.7 that needs a cam and lifters, #3 misfire and rocker isn't moving as much as others. I am having a hard time finding replacements that aren't performance that required additional mods. I just want to go back to a stock cam or a performance set up that keeps MDS and does not required other mods. If I have to I'll try the dealer but not sure I want MOPAR parts since that is what has failed and no one has been able to identify why they fail. Any help would be appreciated. Again, I am just looking for a stock replacement grind cam or one that doesn't required other mods. I would love to be able to order everything online today.

Thanks, Chuck
Jay Greene has a couple small performance cams that allow you to keep the stock cam phasor ,you don't need a limiter,you could also probably get away with keeping the MDS lifters.I'd also contact Jay and talk to him about his cams,along with MMX and Matt at Moes.They all use Comp Cams to grind their specific cams,so there's no difference in the quality of the cam from those 3.
 

Kap1

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Could you share how many miles you got on your 2013 and which oil you've used?

I had half of the lifters replaced on my 2013 around 70k miles, and rocker arm assembly was replaced around 50k miles.
 
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demon3404

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Could you share how many miles you got on your 2013 and which oil you've used?

I had half of the lifters replaced on my 2013 around 70k miles, and rocker arm assembly was replaced around 50k miles.

The truck has 123,000 miles on it. I just bought it from a private seller. Never set a check engine light while test driving it and it didn't have any codes. The light came on after I had it for a day, literally, I picked it up Thursday and had a light by the end of Friday. Based on the oil change label the previous owner was using Mobile 1 5-20.
 
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demon3404

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Thanks everyone for the replies, my dealer has the cam but the lifters are on back order with no ETA. I found lifters at MMX and a gasket set and head bolts from O'Reiliey's. $1200 in parts and I'll do the labor. I'm really not thrilled with having to pull the heads to replace the lifters, that seems like a stupid design but maybe I'll understand why when I get into it. While have have done this kind of work many times this will be the first modern Hemi I will tear down. I paid a little extra for 2 day shipping so I should have all the parts by this weekend. Hopefully I'll get it done this weekend.
 

Kap1

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Good luck to you. It's awesome that you have the skill to do this repair yourself. For the rest of us it's probably a 3-4k job ...
 

meedom

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Please keep us updated on how things are going with the repair, it will probably help someone with the same issue on the forum...
 

huntergreen

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Another cam and lifter failure? This is unbelievable...
Only person I know that could advise you is Matt at Moe's Performance, he's a vendor on this site.

Imho, percentage wise, given the amount of hemi engines sold, it's still a small % that have this issue.
 
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Wild one

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Thanks everyone for the replies, my dealer has the cam but the lifters are on back order with no ETA. I found lifters at MMX and a gasket set and head bolts from O'Reiliey's. $1200 in parts and I'll do the labor. I'm really not thrilled with having to pull the heads to replace the lifters, that seems like a stupid design but maybe I'll understand why when I get into it. While have have done this kind of work many times this will be the first modern Hemi I will tear down. I paid a little extra for 2 day shipping so I should have all the parts by this weekend. Hopefully I'll get it done this weekend.

Do yourself a favour and spend 20 min's reading Kurtis's how-to on a cam swap.If you haven't read through this already,it's well worth your time to read it.

https://www.ramforum.com/threads/how-to-4th-gen-hemi-cam-installation.82531/
 
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demon3404

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So just an update, the cam and lifers have been swapped. Ran great for about 6 miles then the check engine light came on and it died. It won't restart now and the code is for the throttle circuit having an excessive am out of air flow, or something like that. I don't remember the exact wording. Read the all knowing Google there seems to be many possibilities from a damaged wire, bad sensors, or even cracked intake. I can't see any cracks so at this point I'm going to tow it to a shop. Seems I probably have the worst done. Let's hope it's nothing major.
 
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demon3404

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Things didn't go good for me, the truck has no compression now so something gave out on the timing. At this point I'm not even going to try and fix this motor. I found a 10,000 mile motor out of a 2015 I'm going to put in it. The motor was only $1750, I should have just done that from the beginning. I figured by the time I tore it apart and replaced any bent valves and what ever else might be wrong I will be spending the same as replacing the engine. R&r the engine will be far less of a headache and will have a much lower mileage engine.
 
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demon3404

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I would say if anyone has this issue I'd call around to some salvage yards or check car-part.Com as you may be better off.
 

69GWC

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Things didn't go good for me, the truck has no compression now so something gave out on the timing. At this point I'm not even going to try and fix this motor. I found a 10,000 mile motor out of a 2015 I'm going to put in it. The motor was only $1750, I should have just done that from the beginning. I figured by the time I tore it apart and replaced any bent valves and what ever else might be wrong I will be spending the same as replacing the engine. R&r the engine will be far less of a headache and will have a much lower mileage engine.


Heck of a deal for sure, $1750 is a no brainer..lol
 

HammerHead

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Things didn't go good for me, the truck has no compression now so something gave out on the timing. At this point I'm not even going to try and fix this motor. I found a 10,000 mile motor out of a 2015 I'm going to put in it. The motor was only $1750, I should have just done that from the beginning. I figured by the time I tore it apart and replaced any bent valves and what ever else might be wrong I will be spending the same as replacing the engine. R&r the engine will be far less of a headache and will have a much lower mileage engine.
Sorry to hear that; glad you got a line on a new motor. Keep us posted, looking forward to the success of your new engine.
 
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demon3404

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I thought I'd post an update. Turns out I screwed up on my cam and lifter swap, the first time I put the timing chain on I was off a tooth and it ran like crap. I tore it back down and re-timed it and it ran great. Apparently what I didn't do the second time was torque the cam gear on. I clearly remember doing it once, not twice. The cam gear came loose and spun sheared off the pin on the cam. I had one noticeably bent valve, doesn't seat at all, but I didn't check to see if anything others are bent.

The 10,000 mile motor looked like new under the valve covers. After some struggle I learned that engines attached to an 8 speed trans has a bushing installed in the crank for the torque converted to fit into. The 8 speed torque converter shaft that goes into the crank is smaller then the 6 speed. I have a 6 speed so it wouldn't go together. Pulled the engine back out and cut out the busing and the engine went right in. Runs great, I have few hundred miles on the salvage yard motor now.

I decided to keep the old engine since the core would have only gotten me back $150 by the time I paid to ship it back. It looks like the pin can be replaced in the cam, if it can I'll have the heads checked and rebuilt and have another good engine if I need it. Or I'll just keep it for other parts. I've even thought about rebuilding the heads and putting them on my 06 Charger as I've read they are a better flowing head than the 06 heads.

So in the end I have right at $4000 spent on this, $1500 to do the cam and lifters on the old engine including new water pump, plugs, oil, filter, coolant. Then about $2500 on the replacement engine to fix my massive screw up.

For those with concerns about metal in the engine after one of these failures, everything looks good as far as what I've torn down on the old engine. I didn't take off an bearing caps to see if there is any wear on them but the cylinders still have the cross hatch at 124,000 miles. The oil pan, however, did have a lot of silver sludge in the bottom. So whether the metal stayed suspended and went through the engine is anyone's guess.
 

68PowerWagon

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Man... really sorry about all of that bad luck! Hope 2019 treats you better. The car lot that you bought the truck from would not take any responsibility for the engine? Since you only had it 24 hours I would think they would help you out.
 
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