Mysterious HEMI tick

[Matthew Schroth]

I have a 2012 Dodge Ram 1500 5.7L HEMI. Recently, it had succumbed to the notorious lifter eating the cam lobe. I ordered my kit from AMS Racing which included gaskets, head bolts, MDS delete lifters, Mopar Cam, Diablo tuner you’re deleting the MDS off of the computer, and other odds and ends needed. I pulled the heads and had them resurfaced, made sure everything was torqued and installed correctly. Had no real issues. Engine was timed perfectly. Once all back together, I added a K&N intake as well. Lastly I deleted the MDS and started it up. Fired up right away. It runs strong and had no real issues other than one.

the problem I am having is that it has a tick to it at a different tone that a rounded out lobe. I cannot figure this out. Sometimes when I just started it, it won’t tick at all even for 10-15 min at idle. I’ll drive it up the road to the gas station and it will start ticking again at idle. You can’t hear anything at above idle. It’s really intermittent, and I have no clues. HELP

 

[Burla]

99% of hemi ticks are either lifters or exhaust, I'm not sure that yours wouldn't be the 1% something else. I would lean towards your being exhaust related as that one can be more sporadic, lifter tick tends to be all the time, but I can't say for sure. All the time as in predictable, bot really all the time. Check exhaust manifold bolts, look at the redline oil thread in my sig just in case you want to look at the poll.

 

[MoPowered]

Hmm, how’s the idle any misfire happening. Maybe a faulty lifter, might not be pumping up all the way, hit’s a point and starts to tick, just an Idea.
.

 

[Matthew Schroth]

It has new exhaust gaskets and the bolts were torqued. No misfires at all. Runs strong and a lot of power. Thinking of throwing in a mueller high flow oil pump and replacing the oil pickup.