Hemi still ticking with Redline 5W-30. Should I avoid driving?

[pnwguy]

Hey, after getting an oil change I noticed a pretty loud tick on my 2011 1500 5.7 Hemi w/ 140k mi. I took out that oil (surprisingly dark after one week) and put in Redline 5W-30. The tick may have quieted a bit, but after close to 500 miles it seems to be getting worse and more consistent. I notice that it comes and goes and is louder while coasting/decel but switching out of MDS doesn't affect it (so probably not one of the MDS lifters that's ticking).

I'm considering cleaning out the bearings with Seafoam, doing a flush, then adding Redline 0W-40 (there's some at my local shop for a good price) and I've read 0W-40 could be better for high mileage engines.

But what I really want to know is, am I just potentially damaging the cam if I keep driving with this tick? I feel confident about doing a lifter replacement myself, but I'd rather avoid a cam replacement if possible.

 

[Burla]

Tick is always potential damage to cam, if that is your main concern then change the lifters, just know many people here have changed lifters to only have them still tick, so that is a risk as well. Does your truck tick at warm idle? Post a youtube with recording from under engine if you can. Have you ruled out exhaust bolts? 0w40 would be much thicker, but the 5w30 is a better long interval option. We have a guy that ticked on 0w40 but not 5w30 as well, so I'm not sure that is how I would go, especially going into winter soon.

 

[2012RAM1500RT]

In my opinion and if it was mine I would stop driving it till I found out if my cam was being ground down by a lifter. There is no good going to come out of metal particles going through your engine.

 

[kurek]

Send your oil out to blackstone. If it's full of metal replace your lifters. If it's not full of metal then your tick is not the cam getting eaten.

I will never if I live to be a billion years old understand why people equate oil thickness with oil goodness.

 

[Treburkulosis]

Seafoam worked in my 12 as did running Castrol edge and a puraltor boss filter. It cant hurt.

 

[StickyLifter]

Nothing wrong with 0W-40, it is spec'd for the 2500s with 5.7L that is identical to your engine. 0W-20 is spec'd for CAFE standards and is super thin, especially if you are running higher oil temps than 212*F. You need to make sure that the noise you are hearing isn't an exhaust manifold leak before concluding that you have a lifter/cam lobe failure. My truck has been cold ticking (and sometimes hot ticking) on the rear of the passenger side bank for the last 70,000 miles and my oil is super clean when it comes out. I could cut the filter open and go nuts, but I'm not too worried about it. If it was eating the cam, it would have done that by now.

Solid lifter cams tick on every valve event for their entire lives.

My big cam C6 Corvette's hydraulic roller lifters click and clack like the Michigan State Marching Band and have since I got it some 20,000 miles ago.

There are engines out there that have a sticky lifter and tick due to excessive valve lash for hundreds of thousands of miles.

I have used various brands of 0W-20, 5W-20, 0W-30, 5W-30, 0W-40, and 5W-40 in my RAM, with and without MOS2, and have only noticed a change in temps while towing and slight increases in pressure at idle. K&N and Wix filters both leaked, and FRAM Ultra is what I use now, but none had any affect on the ticking. Nothing has interfered with MDS operation and none have changed the ticking noise for very long. Every time I think that I have it pinned down to valvetrain, I find another reason to think it's unrelated.