Oil for Rebuilt Hemi 5.7L

[El Guapo Phil]

After my head gasket and radiator blew a few month back, I decided to replace the radiator, change out the water pump, belts, valve cover gaskets, have the heads milled and cleaned, valve ground and reseated, piston rings and piston polished, and crankshaft polished. Replaced the wheel hubs, spark plugs, took care of the onset of the Hemi Tick, lifters look very good and the camshaft did show a little wear and will be replaced once the wallet has money for this. LOL.

Here is my question, the 2016 Ram 1500 has 95k miles on it when things started to go wrong. Since the Hemi is basically rebuilt, what oil do I use? Synthetic or Blend? Do I start over not he maintenance as if it was just off the dealership floor? I changed the oil after 300 miles to clean it from metal. I plan to do another oil change at 1000 miles. There after, what oil viscosity should I use?

 

[JHoward]

After my head gasket and radiator blew a few month back, I decided to replace the radiator, change out the water pump, belts, valve cover gaskets, have the heads milled and cleaned, valve ground and reseated, piston rings and piston polished, and crankshaft polished. Replaced the wheel hubs, spark plugs, took care of the onset of the Hemi Tick, lifters look very good and the camshaft did show a little wear and will be replaced once the wallet has money for this. LOL.

Here is my question, the 2016 Ram 1500 has 95k miles on it when things started to go wrong. Since the Hemi is basically rebuilt, what oil do I use? Synthetic or Blend? Do I start over not he maintenance as if it was just off the dealership floor? I changed the oil after 300 miles to clean it from metal. I plan to do another oil change at 1000 miles. There after, what oil viscosity should I use?

... 5w/30.

Year round, where you reside.

 

[El Guapo Phil]

Synthetic or Blend....

 

[CanuckRam1313]

Full synthetic 5W30
Use a premium oil, too

 

[huntergreen]

Full synthetic 5W30
Use a premium oil, too

I’d put in redline 5-30 and a good oil filter. There is a synthetic oil thread and an oil filter thread full of info and recommendations. Most frequent posters on those two threads are pretty knowledgeable and more than to ready share that knowledge.

 

[Burla]

A team from Valvoline just released an incredible video of million mile engines in a lab, their own synthetic versus dino oil and tore down engines. Anyone watching this video I highly doubt would use anything but synthetic. Thanks to the forum member who found it... Any synthetic should do, I'd at a minimum look for dexos with decent moly. PUP as well, and yes 5w30/.

 

[Burla]

Valvoline Full Synthetic vs. Conventional | 500K Miles Engine Teardown

Our engine lab recently conducted a test comparing #Valvoline Full Synthetic vs. Conventional oils. Can you guess which engine used Valvoline Full Synthetic?...

youtu.be

 

[Burla]

So maybe your are asking about seating the components, if you wanted to seat your new parts you could use conventional for one short interval then go syn. The do sell break in oils, but you could just add zddp additive to any oil you wanted for break in.

 

[Burla]

I mis read the first time, I hadnt noticed pistons and rings my first 2 posts. This is good info and I think what you are looking for... So for 500 miles no moly even better.

You challenge your location, at least look for zddp break in additive.

Engine Break-In Oil - Is It Science or Just Marketing?

Certified Lubrication Specialist, Lake Speed Jr and Keith Jones share their knowledge and experiences with different brands of engine break-in oils. Spoiler ...

youtu.be

 

[Jeepwalker]

A real common oil a lot of owners use is Penzoil Ultra Platinum (5W-30). IDK if that's available down there or not. But a premium synthetic as mentioned above.

Is oil down there expensive? Normal, or inexpensive?

 

[CanuckRam1313]

Valvoline Full Synthetic vs. Conventional | 500K Miles Engine Teardown

Our engine lab recently conducted a test comparing #Valvoline Full Synthetic vs. Conventional oils. Can you guess which engine used Valvoline Full Synthetic?...

youtu.be

10,000 mile OCI on dino oil...
Great video that really provide clear evidence of why using a full synthetic is the way to go .

 

[mikeru]

After my head gasket and radiator blew a few month back, I decided to replace the radiator, change out the water pump, belts, valve cover gaskets, have the heads milled and cleaned, valve ground and reseated, piston rings and piston polished, and crankshaft polished. Replaced the wheel hubs, spark plugs, took care of the onset of the Hemi Tick, lifters look very good and the camshaft did show a little wear and will be replaced once the wallet has money for this. LOL.

Just so I'm on the same page, you're calling this a rebuild but I don't see that any new internal engine parts were installed with the possible exception of the piston rings, although the way it's worded it makes it sound like you polished those when you polished the pistons? Did you replace anything internal to the engine? Also, you would have been wise to replace the cam and lifters while you were in there. And it doesn't sound like you "took care of the onset of the Hemi Tick" if you are reusing the cam and lifters. If the cam was showing wear it's probably not long for this world. I can sympathize with you on how much things cost now, but it's only going to cost you more when you do that later.

 

[Dodge 1500 4X4]

I've been using Redline 5w30w full synthetic W/ Lube Gard biotech 15oz bottle every other oil change for the Moly content and the Royal Purple 20-820 oil filter, it may prolong the lifters and cam that you didn't replace.

 

[Hagar1]

After my head gasket and radiator blew a few month back, I decided to replace the radiator, change out the water pump, belts, valve cover gaskets, have the heads milled and cleaned, valve ground and reseated, piston rings and piston polished, and crankshaft polished. Replaced the wheel hubs, spark plugs, took care of the onset of the Hemi Tick, lifters look very good and the camshaft did show a little wear and will be replaced once the wallet has money for this. LOL.

Here is my question, the 2016 Ram 1500 has 95k miles on it when things started to go wrong. Since the Hemi is basically rebuilt, what oil do I use? Synthetic or Blend? Do I start over not he maintenance as if it was just off the dealership floor? I changed the oil after 300 miles to clean it from metal. I plan to do another oil change at 1000 miles. There after, what oil viscosity should I use?

I've been using Castrol 5W20 GTX Ultraclean for about the past 170,000 KM. It keeps the engine clean and if I hadn't let it idle for long periods in the winter, I'm pretty sure my cam would not have failed. Sometimes it takes a while for me to learn.
I would not do any thing like liquid moly until the rings a well seated. That stuff will slick things up so much that it will be difficult to get a proper break in. Any engine that I have ever built, and I've done quite a few, I always drove them hard for the first few thousand miles / KM. Wanted those rings to seat firmly and quickly, just watch for overheating for the first while.

 

[06 Dodge]

After my head gasket and radiator blew a few month back, I decided to replace the radiator, change out the water pump, belts, valve cover gaskets, have the heads milled and cleaned, valve ground and reseated, piston rings and piston polished, and crankshaft polished. Replaced the wheel hubs, spark plugs, took care of the onset of the Hemi Tick, lifters look very good and the camshaft did show a little wear and will be replaced once the wallet has money for this. LOL.

Here is my question, the 2016 Ram 1500 has 95k miles on it when things started to go wrong. Since the Hemi is basically rebuilt, what oil do I use? Synthetic or Blend? Do I start over not he maintenance as if it was just off the dealership floor? I changed the oil after 300 miles to clean it from metal. I plan to do another oil change at 1000 miles. There after, what oil viscosity should I use?

IMHO if you used dino oil for the first 2 oil changes then I would go to full synthetic oil as the rigs should more or less be seated by then depending how it was driven. BTW I have never heard of used rings or pistons be polished so not sure what that is but I do hope they honed all 8 cylinders while the pistons were out...

 

[JHoward]

I've been using Redline 5x30 full synthetic W/ Lube Gard biotech 15oz bottle every other oil change for the Moly content and the Royal Purple 20-820 oil filter, it may prolong the lifters and cam that you didn't replace.

I'd be interested in seeing an uoa with this type oil/oil additive/filter "combonette" ...

 

[Wild one]

IMHO if you used dino oil for the first 2 oil changes then I would go to full synthetic oil as the rigs should more or less be seated by then depending how it was driven. BTW I have never heard of used rings or pistons be polished so not sure what that is but I do hope they honed all 8 cylinders while the pistons were out...

Wire wheel on a bench grinder,was a pretty common fix for broke-ass kids when i was in high school,along with squeezing the pistons in a big bench vise to take up sidewall clearance so they didn't have piston slap.We also polished rod journals by chucking the crank in an upside down bare block,and hooking a big drill to a modified crank bolt to spin the crank,while you used fine grit emery cloth to polish the journals. When you're 16 in high school with no money,and you have some buddies helping,you come up with some innovative ways to get a little more life out of wore out engines,lol

 

[Daniel from Texas]

After my head gasket and radiator blew a few month back, I decided to replace the radiator, change out the water pump, belts, valve cover gaskets, have the heads milled and cleaned, valve ground and reseated, piston rings and piston polished, and crankshaft polished. Replaced the wheel hubs, spark plugs, took care of the onset of the Hemi Tick, lifters look very good and the camshaft did show a little wear and will be replaced once the wallet has money for this. LOL.

Here is my question, the 2016 Ram 1500 has 95k miles on it when things started to go wrong. Since the Hemi is basically rebuilt, what oil do I use? Synthetic or Blend? Do I start over not he maintenance as if it was just off the dealership floor? I changed the oil after 300 miles to clean it from metal. I plan to do another oil change at 1000 miles. There after, what oil viscosity should I use?

My 2014 has over 208k, replaced the cam and lifters at 192k. I only use Mobile One full synthetic. I know there are a lot of backyard mechanics who will say that's dumb, my brother was a master mechanic trainer for GMC and built and raced cars for 50 years, and he only uses M1. It is simply the best, and cheap at Walmart in the 12 qrt box, less than $5 a qrt.

 

[El Guapo Phil]

To clear things up. We looked at the internal parts and and saw some wear on the camshaft and I decided to keep it and will install a new one with lifters in 2025. The pistons were very good and we did put new rings. The Hemi tick is gone (for now). I am not in the US so getting parts shipped in cost money. I have to pay duty and taxes on what is shipped in at 33% to 50% of the determined valve by Belize Customs. It take 4 to 6 weeks to get the product. So, I will pace out the projects and do what is needed now and prepare to the rest once I have the money.

If I did not care about quality parts or OEM, I could get it at the Auto Parts Shops, but I would be taking a huge risk.

I am getting 19 to 21 mpg in normal driving. Normal here is paved road with speed bumps at the village bus stops. So, a lot of stop and go and some highway, but not much. On the highway to Belize City, the Ram obtains 27 mpg on the highway. I am happy with it performance. I do a manual calculations
So, now you know the rest to the story.

 

[El Guapo Phil]

Completed the 300 mile oil change and then the 1000 mile oil change. Did this to make sure any metal from the work done to the crankshaft, etc was captured by the oil filter. The Ram had excellent pick up power to pass on the highway. The Ram pushed me into my seat. Had not experience that since I purchase it in 2017. MPG is above 20 in town and 25 to 27 highway. I am pleased.

As stated before, we will exam the cam again in April or May and decide whether the replace it and the lifters. The tranny filter was changed out at 79k, so at next oil change I will have a look at the tranny and differential fluid levels.

I'd rather repair my Ram than try to replace it at today's outrages prices.