Piston slap?

[Hitriggs]

So I have a 2013 ram 1500 5.7 hemi, I replaced the manifold which was ticking and then there was another tick so I brought it to the dealer and they said it was an internal engine noise, a piston slap. Said the pistons are slapping up to the cylinder walls. I figured bringing it in there that it would be a lifter/cam issue and can’t find much saying these trucks have the piston slap issue, I’m unsure about the diagnostic from the dealer and was wondering if anyone on here had any opinions on it? Thanks

 

[Burla]

So I have a 2013 ram 1500 5.7 hemi, I replaced the manifold which was ticking and then there was another tick so I brought it to the dealer and they said it was an internal engine noise, a piston slap. Said the pistons are slapping up to the cylinder walls. I figured bringing it in there that it would be a lifter/cam issue and can’t find much saying these trucks have the piston slap issue, I’m unsure about the diagnostic from the dealer and was wondering if anyone on here had any opinions on it? Thanks

Post in 4 gen not 5 gen moving forward, you will get more response.

Cold Piston Slap is also a known issue with Ram trucks, however it is only on cold starts and no other time. If you would like to explore more about tick, do a search here and come down to 4 gen engine performance section, there are at least 2 threads on every page addressing it. Put "hemi tick" in search bar.

 

[jelih]

I don't have any tick thankfully, but man that cold start piston slap sounds nasty. Goes away in 3-4 seconds tops, but I hate it every time. Hey @Burla, does lubegard biotech help fix this or is that just for the tick?

 

[Burla]

I don't have any tick thankfully, but man that cold start piston slap sounds nasty. Goes away in 3-4 seconds tops, but I hate it every time. Hey @Burla, does lubegard biotech help fix this or is that just for the tick?

Well, technically there isnt a real fix for this, the pistons shrink from cold at a rate higher then the block, all metal recedes in the cold. Lubegard is a moly additive obviously, and the problem is the piston is cocked in the bore at only this one time and it isn't something moly can correctly plate, because you need constant perpendicular pressure for EP additives to work well, so just maybe it would but I wouldn't guess it would.

We have had 0w30 work to alleviate a lot of cold piston slap, mind you guys that had that work were running 5w30 and up as their oil, if you were running 5w20 already I wouldn't think 0w30 would work, but just maybe 0w20 would work. So it makes sense thin oil would help and has proven to do so by some forum members, but you are dealing with a real proven hard to beat condition in the case of piston slap, maybe the best defense is an engine warmer, even a sump heater for the oil.

 

[jelih]

Meh. 5w30 is being delivered today. Lubegard is being delivered tomorrow. Had a fresh oil change 3 weeks ago right before I bought it, so I'm still deciding if I'm going to let it go for a while or change it soonish. Leaning more towards soonish because I have no idea what the used car dealer used, and I doubt it was anything of quality. If the weather is nice this weekend I'll probably get it out of the way. Gonna add the lubegard at the same time. My kit from blackstone came the other day.

 

[Travelin Ram]

I had a work truck (GM) with terrible cold start piston slap from brand new. Sounded like a rod knock. I drove it hard for 150k and then handed it down to others. Last time I saw it it was closing in on 300k HARD miles and never had the engine opened.

Since then I quit worrying about (cold) piston slap.