Hemi tick - an engine idling anecdote

[ramffml]

I love the videos this guy puts out. He has 200,000 miles now on a 5th gen ram limited.

Over 1600 idle hours
Over 4000 drive hours
Totaling 5700 hours

He just runs Penzoil full synthetic and a Penzoil filter, with 10,000+ mile OCI's. Does a lot of heavy towing too.

Basically he does everything we've been "taught" not to do, no tick in site.

Makes me feel so much better about my own truck. Entire video is a great watch, but can skip to 11:20 or so to get the hours discussion.

2019 Ram 1500 *Questions and Answers* after 190k miles of ownership | Truck Central

You asked... we answered. Here is the ULTIMATE 5th Gen Ram 1500 video!â RealTruck: https://bit.ly/31sZOiUâ Check out the entire High Mileage Ram playlist: @T...

youtu.be

 

[Wild one]

I love the videos this guy puts out. He has 200,000 miles now on a 5th gen ram limited.

Over 1600 idle hours
Over 4000 drive hours
Totaling 5700 hours

He just runs Penzoil full synthetic and a Penzoil filter, with 10,000+ mile OCI's. Does a lot of heavy towing too.

Basically he does everything we've been "taught" not to do, no tick in site.

Makes me feel so much better about my own truck. Entire video is a great watch, but can skip to 11:20 or so to get the hours discussion.

2019 Ram 1500 *Questions and Answers* after 190k miles of ownership | Truck Central

You asked... we answered. Here is the ULTIMATE 5th Gen Ram 1500 video!â RealTruck: https://bit.ly/31sZOiUâ Check out the entire High Mileage Ram playlist: @T...

youtu.be

Damn i wonder if he shuts if off to put fuel in it,as he's gotta be just about living in the truck to put 190,000 miles on it in 4 years,lol

 

[JHoward]

Damn i wonder if he shuts if off to put fuel in it,as he's gotta be just about living in the truck to put 190,000 miles on it in 4 years,lol

I thought the same thing ... and alot of "Monkey Butt" lotion to boot, lol.

 

[Dodge 1500 4X4]

Yae, he has the Monkey Butt lotion in his Butt!!!

 

[Travelin Ram]

He’s never serviced the transmission. Certainly a testament to the truck, but I’m not going to follow his example.

 

[ramffml]

He’s never serviced the transmission. Certainly a testament to the truck, but I’m not going to follow his example.

Me neither. I was watching that video and basically would disagree with many of his decisions; air suspension is no go up here in the cold, transmissions never serviced, his choice in oil/filter is less than stellar, service interval is way too long, idling hours are pretty high... and yet his truck just keeps ticking (the good kind of ticking).

 

[JHoward]

Still, it's good to know that his HEMI made it close to 200k miles on an interesting maintenance schedule, dare I say, strategy?

That's a lot of miles in a very short time.

His video testimonials are intriguing, but are only for his HEMI experience. I'll take my chances with my maintenance strategies that are closer to those required from the owners manual.

His HEMI must have been an Wednesday build? jk ...

 

[Burla]

200k miles on a 2019 hemi tells the story, lots of easy freeway miles would be my guess. He is over 4 times the average mileage from gov't estimates of average per year miles at 11k per year. Plenty of easy miles. But, that is only half the issue, some hemi's never have issues, what can we say? My hemi started ticking at 3500 miles new, what the faw k am I supposed to do with that garbage? Turn lemons into lemonaide is what I did with it, thanks to the coll;ective help on the board. Nice story on this truck, gotta love it for him, I bet when he craps it don't stink either.

 

[ramffml]

200k miles on a 2019 hemi tells the story, lots of easy freeway miles would be my guess. He is over 4 times the average mileage from gov't estimates of average per year miles at 11k per year. Plenty of easy miles. But, that is only half the issue, some hemi's never have issues, what can we say? My hemi started ticking at 3500 miles new, what the faw k am I supposed to do with that garbage? Turn lemons into lemonaide is what I did with it, thanks to the coll;ective help on the board. Nice story on this truck, gotta love it for him, I bet when he craps it don't stink either.

His miles aren't easy though, that's the thing. He tows heavy quite often. He has a 3.21 and one time pulled in excess of 10,900 pounds. Most of his towing is about 5000 to 8000 IIRC.

Those idle hours are insane and probably count for many more "miles" on the truck. I think I'm at like 65 idle hours for 50,000 miles and I bet 20+ were from the factory or before I picked it up new.

I just posted this to give us all some hope. I seem to read a lot of resigned "doom and gloom" on these forums about the tick and how likely we are to get it etc. Despite treating his truck completely the opposite of what we know works best, his is still appears to be going strong for now. What we do with our choice in oil/filter, OCI, and low idling etc can only improve our chances even more.

 

[Shawn Burns]

that's the rub of these trucks. You can treat the one like my dad does. He runs it on standard oil at way too long intervals on 87 gas. He hasn't changed coolant, transmission fluid, nothing. He doesn't rotate wheels.

I do all of the good stuff and I'll probably get hemi tick. It's lke a fitness fanatic who is vegan getting cancer while a crack head doesn't.

 

[JHoward]

"It's lke a fitness fanatic who is vegan getting cancer while a crack head doesn't."

Yep, and that's a good comparison, lol.

 

[EdGs]

That always blows my mind that some have short and frequent oci's, then experience failure, and some just don't. Boggles the mind.

We can only do the best we can, and when it breaks, fix it. In between, enjoy our trucks.

 

[ramffml]

That always blows my mind that some have short and frequent oci's, then experience failure, and some just don't. Boggles the mind.

We can only do the best we can, and when it breaks, fix it. In between, enjoy our trucks.

And to top it all off, I forgot to mention he's just running 5w-20

 

[HEMIMANN]

Statistical probability of failure is $pooky field of engineering.

I can assure the warranty department at Chrysler did a thorough analysis of the probability of lifter and cam failures prior to deciding on fix-as-fail policy. Hell, they might have had as many engineers on that as on new product development.

How so I know? Been there, done that. Ask if you want a good story.

 

[Wild one]

Statistical probability of failure is $pooky field of engineering.

I can assure the warranty department at Chrysler did a thorough analysis of the probability of lifter and cam failures prior to deciding on fix-as-fail policy. Hell, they might have had as many engineers on that as on new product development.

How so I know? Been there, done that. Ask if you want a good story.

I'm up for a good story

 

[HEMIMANN]

I'm up for a good story

Yeah, you would be, wouldn't you?

Tomorrow - my thumbs aren't as tough as @Travis8352

 

[EdGs]

And to top it all off, I forgot to mention he's just running 5w-20

I ran only PP 5w-20 up until my last 2 or 3 changes. XG10060 filter, too. 10K mile OCI since I've had her. PP 5w-30 and XG2 now. 162k miles.

I'm up for a good story

Yeah, you would be, wouldn't you?

Tomorrow - my thumbs aren't as tough as @Travis8352

Me, too! Me, too! Let's hear it!

 

[HEMIMANN]

So, back in the day...

A certain corporation launched a new product into production before it was fully developed, and without market seeding as a 1st field test.

The product had a clean sheet new design diesel engine with 16 cylinders and 3,000 hp @ 1,800 rpm.

Unrestricted orders were taken, and demand was 10 times greater than forecasted by the crack marketing department.

The engines were knowingly made with defective pistons that had steel crowns containing casting sand that hadn't been cleaned out. This resulted in bore polishing all cylinders, with resultant loss of ring seal and power, pumping oil out the breather. The prototype engine lasted 200 hours @ moderate duty cycle.

Yours truly supplied statistical field data to estimate the number of these engines sold into standby generator applications that were likely not to reach 200 hours of actual runtime.

Based on that assessment, and the fact a rebuild was minimum $40,000 per engine in an accessible installation (not all are accessible), the executives elected not to launch a field campaign to fix every engine, and to only fix-as-fail, engine-by-engine, and to say nothing about it, holding all discussions confidential with no field bulletin.

I lived it. Does this sound familiar to you Ram owners?

 

[Tominator223]

1 hr idle time is equivalent to 33 miles.

 

[RodRamCar]

I love the videos this guy puts out. He has 200,000 miles now on a 5th gen ram limited.

Over 1600 idle hours
Over 4000 drive hours
Totaling 5700 hours

He just runs Penzoil full synthetic and a Penzoil filter, with 10,000+ mile OCI's. Does a lot of heavy towing too.

Basically he does everything we've been "taught" not to do, no tick in site.

Makes me feel so much better about my own truck. Entire video is a great watch, but can skip to 11:20 or so to get the hours discussion.

2019 Ram 1500 *Questions and Answers* after 190k miles of ownership | Truck Central

You asked... we answered. Here is the ULTIMATE 5th Gen Ram 1500 video!â RealTruck: https://bit.ly/31sZOiUâ Check out the entire High Mileage Ram playlist: @T...

youtu.be

These videos serve as proof that sometimes we are our own worst enemies and that forums, while helpful, serve as a breeding ground for panic onset and is definitely not a healthy place for self-destructive personalities or those most gullable. Everything they read, they take as gospel almost without considering they are likely in the group never to experience a problem. The smallest of issues have all of us coming looking for the perfect answer. That does not exist. We have to realize each of our trucks are unique even with the same powertrain. End of the day, you're either really lucky or you've figured out what your truck likes best. This guy probably got lucky AND chose the bees knees for his personal truck.