Lifter failure!

[Rod Knock]

It could very well be weather related, how many guys up in Alaska are having the same failures? Or the opposite end of the scale and the guys down south in the heat? Are they also having the same rate of failures?

Do you not drive your truck when it's too cold outside because your wheel bearings might fail? Do you loose any sleep over your wheel bearings? You might, if they were made in Turkey, or Bulgaria, or some other obscure place where parts are manufactured for cheap European cars, like... FIAT, Peugeut, Citroen, Renault, Opel, and so on.

Roller lifters are mass produced, and generally speaking, they haven't been an issue for Hemi engines for a long time, or up until Chrysler was sold to Cerberus Private Equity Group. It was around the same time as the Hemi got VVT added to it. The engineers redesigned the new Hemi around 2008 with a forged cam, but it didn't make the final cut, just like decent lifters were now a thing of the past in favor of cheaper ones. There is plenty of proof of that, your case being one.

Set some money aside, and when you're out of warranty and this happens again, get a set of Johnson lifters, a Comp Cam, and maybe new & improved push rods. If you're well north of 100K miles, get new valve springs as well.

Take a look at the following video. Abused Hemi, sludged up, spun bearings, a rod went through the block, almost 200K miles. Not a single bad lifter. What does that tell you?

Here: https://youtu.be/2nTVq2Fkhfc

 

[AJNY]

BURLA back in 92 I bought 2 Chevy’s a Blazer and Cavalier. Together.
The Cavalier went back to the dealer 11 times for the same issue. Wipers would skip and jump. There was a TSP on the car.
Went Lemon Law. Had the Cavalier 1year and put on 30 k on it. It was my commuter car.
Chevy was ordered to take back the car. Cost me 50 bucks.
Went and got an 03 Sentra 2 dr stick. Best car I ever owned
I bought the RAM TRUCK in NJ. I live in NY. I am older and will just get rid of it sooner than later. I put less than 5 k a year on.
Next truck Toyota.

 

[dmillar74]

I'm about to be on my 4th set of lifters for my 2016 Ram. I've been using 0-40 PUP from the dealer since the beginning and usually get oil changes in 5,000 miles or so. Just took my 2016 6.4 Ram to the dealer with what sounds, AGAIN, like lifters. The initial inspection does appear to be lifters again but haven't gotten the confirmation from the heavy truck mechanics there. If this is the case, here is the history on my truck:

1. First set of lifters was from 0 - 46,285 miles (when new) - 46,285 on this set of lifters
2. Second set of lifters was from 46,285 - 55,964 miles - 9,679 on this set of lifters
3. Third set of lifters from 55,964 miles to approximately 65,000 miles (assuming we hear back that it is the lifters again). - 9,036 on this set of lifters
4. Fourth set of lifters appears to be right now at approximately 65,000 miles. I should be hearing from them today or tomorrow if it is in fact lifters again.

 

[Travis8352]

I'm about to be on my 4th set of lifters for my 2016 Ram. I've been using 0-40 PUP from the dealer since the beginning and usually get oil changes in 5,000 miles or so. Just took my 2016 6.4 Ram to the dealer with what sounds, AGAIN, like lifters. The initial inspection does appear to be lifters again but haven't gotten the confirmation from the heavy truck mechanics there. If this is the case, here is the history on my truck:

1. First set of lifters was from 0 - 46,285 miles (when new) - 46,285 on this set of lifters
2. Second set of lifters was from 46,285 - 55,964 miles - 9,679 on this set of lifters
3. Third set of lifters from 55,964 miles to approximately 65,000 miles (assuming we hear back that it is the lifters again). - 9,036 on this set of lifters
4. Fourth set of lifters appears to be right now at approximately 65,000 miles. I should be hearing from them today or tomorrow if it is in fact lifters again.

Is this warantee repairs every time?

 

[Burla]

I'm about to be on my 4th set of lifters for my 2016 Ram. I've been using 0-40 PUP from the dealer since the beginning and usually get oil changes in 5,000 miles or so. Just took my 2016 6.4 Ram to the dealer with what sounds, AGAIN, like lifters. The initial inspection does appear to be lifters again but haven't gotten the confirmation from the heavy truck mechanics there. If this is the case, here is the history on my truck:

1. First set of lifters was from 0 - 46,285 miles (when new) - 46,285 on this set of lifters
2. Second set of lifters was from 46,285 - 55,964 miles - 9,679 on this set of lifters
3. Third set of lifters from 55,964 miles to approximately 65,000 miles (assuming we hear back that it is the lifters again). - 9,036 on this set of lifters
4. Fourth set of lifters appears to be right now at approximately 65,000 miles. I should be hearing from them today or tomorrow if it is in fact lifters again.

No you have to be kidding, no way dude lifters are not a thing with rams, my truck went two million miles with zero and I mean zero issues, yada yada. Yes of course I'm joking, seams like half or more of the forum has their head in the sand, this is aweful man, fca garbage hemi engines. No other fault is as prevalent on ram forum then this, on every single page of engine performance section since the birth of 4 gen this has plagued us. It's a straight up plague. Sorry for your troubles man. Let me ask, did you have hemi tick before all of these fails? Every time did they replace all of the lifters or just affected ones?

 

[Burla]

BURLA back in 92 I bought 2 Chevy’s a Blazer and Cavalier. Together.
The Cavalier went back to the dealer 11 times for the same issue. Wipers would skip and jump. There was a TSP on the car.
Went Lemon Law. Had the Cavalier 1year and put on 30 k on it. It was my commuter car.
Chevy was ordered to take back the car. Cost me 50 bucks.
Went and got an 03 Sentra 2 dr stick. Best car I ever owned
I bought the RAM TRUCK in NJ. I live in NY. I am older and will just get rid of it sooner than later. I put less than 5 k a year on.
Next truck Toyota.

I would lean to a tacoma for reliability, but personally I just can't sit them, the way my legs sit in them I can't even drive them for a day. I'm hoping this ram lasts a lifetime, doing everything I can to make it, if not I will get an old 90's ford and fix it up and ride it to glory. I do love my ram, just a little disappointed in lifter issues, ok a lot disappointed in it. I have a call into dr phil though, so I am expecting help any day now.

True story, the first lifter tick I ever heard was a toyo tundra. I said to myself damn that sounds horrible, of course I had never even heard of hemi tick before.

 

[dmillar74]

No you have to be kidding, no way dude lifters are not a thing with rams, my truck went two million miles with zero and I mean zero issues, yada yada. Yes of course I'm joking, seams like half or more of the forum has their head in the sand, this is aweful man, fca garbage hemi engines. No other fault is as prevalent on ram forum then this, on every single page of engine performance section since the birth of 4 gen this has plagued us. It's a straight up plague. Sorry for your troubles man. Let me ask, did you have hemi tick before all of these fails? Every time did they replace all of the lifters or just affected ones?

Appreciate the kind words. So, every time I heard the ticking at startup, I took it in and they said it was lifters and replaced them. Strange thing is that the cam, ODDLY ENOUGH, was fine. I have a hard time believing that lifters are wiped out but the cam is great?!? There was one of the times that they were going to replace ONLY the bad ones... But they decided to do all. Every time they replaced all of them. Waiting on what this issue is this time but it is so similar in mileage from the last set of lifters that it is probably lifters yet again. About 9k for the last TWO sets of lifters, each, before replacement??? Garbage Hemi engines is right!

 

[Burla]

Appreciate the kind words. So, every time I heard the ticking at startup, I took it in and they said it was lifters and replaced them. Strange thing is that the cam, ODDLY ENOUGH, was fine. I have a hard time believing that lifters are wiped out but the cam is great?!? There was one of the times that they were going to replace ONLY the bad ones... But they decided to do all. Every time they replaced all of them. Waiting on what this issue is this time but it is so similar in mileage from the last set of lifters that it is probably lifters yet again. About 9k for the last TWO sets of lifters, each, before replacement??? Garbage Hemi engines is right!

That is actually good info, if it ticked everytime then if you can get rid of the tick, there is at least a chance this wont happen? From the lubegard thread an engineer tested the metal of the cam, and it is fine. His long drawn collusion is the hemi needs heavy aw/ep additives due to stiction.

So if you are close to being out of warranty, I would try redline 5w30 and a RP filter for at least one oil change interval, either hemi 5.7 or 6.4 this is the way to go. It has helped many guys get rid of tick including me, now going on ten years. Never needed lifters or cam knock wood. here is the thread, and it is a poll, so if it helped or not just report your correct data, so far an impressive % of ticks killed. This information is so threatening to trolls at another website they create fake names and try and skew the vote, lol. Some dude named falcon hemi spends his sorry life creating fake votes, so the % is even better then the poll reads because of these trolls who hate ram forum's success at killing hemi tick, for whatever reason. good luck, sorry to hear this every time I hear it, but your case is particularly bad, what a nightmare. If you try this lubrication strategy wait 500 miles for the tick to go away, it is the science of EP additives, they actually take the pressure from the ticking situation and use that pressure to create a plate, doesn't happen over night.

 

[crazy jerry]

That is actually good info,

whats good about it ? they put 4 sets of lifters on the same cam. mechanic probly hadent a clue what he was doing. truck owner is none the wiser.
what sensible person would keep throwing in lifters time after time and never think, HEY SOMETHING WEIRD GOING ON HERE . MAYBE I BETTER HAVE A CLOSE LOOK

---

 

[dmillar74]

That is actually good info, if it ticked everytime then if you can get rid of the tick, there is at least a chance this wont happen? From the lubegard thread an engineer tested the metal of the cam, and it is fine. His long drawn collusion is the hemi needs heavy aw/ep additives due to stiction.

So if you are close to being out of warranty, I would try redline 5w30 and a RP filter for at least one oil change interval, either hemi 5.7 or 6.4 this is the way to go. It has helped many guys get rid of tick including me, now going on ten years. Never needed lifters or cam knock wood. here is the thread, and it is a poll, so if it helped or not just report your correct data, so far an impressive % of ticks killed. This information is so threatening to trolls at another website they create fake names and try and skew the vote, lol. Some dude named falcon hemi spends his sorry life creating fake votes, so the % is even better then the poll reads because of these trolls who hate ram forum's success at killing hemi tick, for whatever reason. good luck, sorry to hear this every time I hear it, but your case is particularly bad, what a nightmare. If you try this lubrication strategy wait 500 miles for the tick to go away, it is the science of EP additives, they actually take the pressure from the ticking situation and use that pressure to create a plate, doesn't happen over night.

Appreciate all the info. I will check out that thread. What is really odd, too, is that during this time I actually started using Lubegard as well. Didn't seem to make a difference. But I've read a number of Redline 5w30 with RP filter success stories. Once I get past this part, I will start there. Hopefully it changes my luck. I'll update this thread once I know more from the dealer. Again, appreciate all your help and concern!

 

[dmillar74]

whats good about it ? they put 4 sets of lifters on the same cam. mechanic probly hadent a clue what he was doing. truck owner is none the wiser.
what sensible person would keep throwing in lifters time after time and never think, HEY SOMETHING WEIRD GOING ON HERE . MAYBE I BETTER HAVE A CLOSE LOOK

---

I challenge the dealer every time but they "assured" me that the cam was fine. I don't believe it at all. It was all under warranty. Now I'm outside of warranty but I believe they will take care of it. We shall see. I'll update this thread once I get more info on this latest issue.

 

[Burla]

Good to know it is at least possible to treat, even the results show redline is a greater success then lubegard. Looking forward to your tests, anyway you look at it that oil is more protection to lifters then any other, so at a minimum there is more metal protection then pup0w40. Higher zddp, higher moly, poe ester base oils, branch chain pao base oils, lets see what happens.

 

[crazy jerry]

I challenge the dealer every time but they "assured" me that the cam was fine. I don't believe it at all. It was all under warranty. Now I'm outside of warranty but I believe they will take care of it. We shall see. I'll update this thread once I get more info on this latest issue.

ya well 3 or 4 sets of lifters dont go bad for no reason so theres alot more to this story we arent hearing. have they been replacing every lifter each time or just a couple each time ? what does your paper work say ?

 

[Hemi832]

This was mine.

Cam/ Lifters Replaced

youtu.be

 

[dmillar74]

ya well 3 or 4 sets of lifters dont go bad for no reason so theres alot more to this story we arent hearing. have they been replacing every lifter each time or just a couple each time ? what does your paper work say ?

They decide to replace them all each time.

 

[dmillar74]

This was mine.

Cam/ Lifters Replaced

youtu.be

was it constantly making that noise or what that when first starting and then it goes away?

 

[dmillar74]

So I have an update. While they said in the initial inspection that they think there is some internal engine issues, the heavy duty mechanics looked at it and said that it is performing as should be. I do hear a knock on a cold start but appears to go away. This was exactly what was going on before where they replaced all the lifters twice. I don't know if I believe them or not. I will probably get this looked at somewhere else to verify. If this is true, I did use Lubegard this time and I was more careful with idle times (which I wasn't before). Could it have helped? It isn't throwing any codes (which it never did before) and performance seems normal other than initial knocking. They stated that they had started a couple more 6.4's to see the behavior and they said the Hemi's naturally start this way? I'll keep you guys updated.

 

[Burla]

Yes, what all they say is technically true, I have not seen too many of these where they replaced lifters just on tick, maybe two or three in fact in ten years here. If you don't have a misfire code, all it is is lifter tick. So if it is getting quieter yes that is how lubegard and redline work as noted a hundred times here, both strategies get quieter the longer you go but you can't expect gains after 2k miles. I do believe we had one ram best results were noted at 2300 miles, which is the longest example. So depending on how long the lubegard is in, give it a chnace. Redline 5w30 is > then lubegard at killing tick, but bottom line if the lubegard kills the tick, then your options are wide open for oil use. You put all 15 ounces in? I assume yes. So that means your moly is up 100ppm or so plus you have some esters in there. However, redline would be exponentially higher in esters/moly/zinc/boro/pao, so it is just more of the good stuff. If less of the good stuff work eventually IE lubegard, that is a better long term strategy. But, if you get any cold start up noise try redline, mine starts whisper quiet for a decade even if the truck sits for a week. If it sits for more then that, I get some start up tick. Not saying that will be your experience, but worth a try anyhow.

 

[dmillar74]

Yes, what all they say is technically true, I have not seen too many of these where they replaced lifters just on tick, maybe two or three in fact in ten years here. If you don't have a misfire code, all it is is lifter tick. So if it is getting quieter yes that is how lubegard and redline work as noted a hundred times here, both strategies get quieter the longer you go but you can't expect gains after 2k miles. I do believe we had one ram best results were noted at 2300 miles, which is the longest example. So depending on how long the lubegard is in, give it a chnace. Redline 5w30 is > then lubegard at killing tick, but bottom line if the lubegard kills the tick, then your options are wide open for oil use. You put all 15 ounces in? I assume yes. So that means your moly is up 100ppm or so plus you have some esters in there. However, redline would be exponentially higher in esters/moly/zinc/boro/pao, so it is just more of the good stuff. If less of the good stuff work eventually IE lubegard, that is a better long term strategy. But, if you get any cold start up noise try redline, mine starts whisper quiet for a decade even if the truck sits for a week. If it sits for more then that, I get some start up tick. Not saying that will be your experience, but worth a try anyhow.

Thanks for all the great information! Redline 5w-30 is where I will be going next. Is redline 0w40 as good considering Ram recommends 0w40?

 

[crackerjack1957]

You sure the knock wasn't piston slap.......piston slap is louder on cold starts......some go away as engine warms......some just make less noise
5w30 Redline is what everyone runs in the less colder climate in the 5.7 & 6.4
Some have had better luck with 0w30 on piston slap/tick up north