Preemptively replacing cam and lifters on a 5.7 Hemi *before* tick?

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CunningStunt

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These threads are always fun to read through lol.

My opinion, is based on the data available and my personal experience. My lifter started ticking around 140k miles. I drove it till it started misfiring and throwing permanent code.

My 14 failed at 140k, my dad's 15 just started ticking at 105k miles. What are those odds? Lol

Here's my opinion. If you can afford it, it's not a bad strategy. If you can't afford to do it now, have a repair fund ready for when it might happen.

I am almost done putting my engine back together and am so very much looking forward to driving my truck again. I love it. I miss it. I will keep it until the wheels fall off. I'll never buy a new truck again unless I won the lottery...

Research, research, research. Something I wish I could find more info on are the Johnson roller lifters and if I could afford it, I woulda done a bigger cam and Johnson lifters with a tune and long tube headers...
 

Wild one

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These threads are always fun to read through lol.

My opinion, is based on the data available and my personal experience. My lifter started ticking around 140k miles. I drove it till it started misfiring and throwing permanent code.

My 14 failed at 140k, my dad's 15 just started ticking at 105k miles. What are those odds? Lol

Here's my opinion. If you can afford it, it's not a bad strategy. If you can't afford to do it now, have a repair fund ready for when it might happen.

I am almost done putting my engine back together and am so very much looking forward to driving my truck again. I love it. I miss it. I will keep it until the wheels fall off. I'll never buy a new truck again unless I won the lottery...

Research, research, research. Something I wish I could find more info on are the Johnson roller lifters and if I could afford it, I woulda done a bigger cam and Johnson lifters with a tune and long tube headers...
If you're referring to the Johnson lifters with the oiling hole,you'll really want to research them more. Hunt up Jason Dauria on facebook and ask him about his experience with them on a high dollar build.Think about what happens to the oil pressure to the mains and rods when you introduce a leak into the oiling system.
 

MudSkipper

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Johnson lifter are just LS lifters fitted... Just run OEM current AD lifters... you will be good.
 

Tominator223

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Question , how many cam eating Hemi’s are MDS ? I ask because I’ve got a 04 non MDS with 300k & no cam issues . 20-50 castrol & recommend 15-40 castrol only oil every used. I live in extremely hot southeast TX. That’s why I ran 20-50 for first 250k.
 

BILL JAMISON

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Stop worrying and just drive it. If you have maintained your truck, don't needlessly stress about it. The "Tic" never happens to the majority of trucks RAM produced. If it happens, it happens! If not, so much the better and all your worrying would have been for nothing and your blood pressure would be a lot lower.
 

Wild one

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Question , how many cam eating Hemi’s are MDS ? I ask because I’ve got a 04 non MDS with 300k & no cam issues . 20-50 castrol & recommend 15-40 castrol only oil every used. I live in extremely hot southeast TX. That’s why I ran 20-50 for first 250k.
MDS has nothing to do with the cam/lifter issues,the cam issues didn't really rear it's head till they moved the cam tunnel farther away from the crank to accomodate the extra oil passage required for the VVT system. Non-mds VVT engines have lifter issues to.
 

greenvan

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Here is an interesting You-tube video on possible "fixes for the Hemi tick". The fatal flaw of the 5.7L eagle hemi V-8 engine .https://youtu.be/TGUygJugGs. Question: Is iit possible to insert a link to You-Tube?
 
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Wild one

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Here is an interesting You-tube video on possible "fixes for the Hemi tick". The fatal flaw of the 5.7L eagle hemi V-8 engine .https://youtu.be/TGUygJugGs. Question: Is iit possible to insert a link to You-Tube?
Copy and paste off you tube usually works.If you're referring to Sky's video on the Hellcat pump,from Reiginited Cycle,it's already been posted several times.

 

Black1500Ram

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I was talking with wild one in my thread about what are the true differences in design, but more importantly, differences between engines of the same design (vvt & mds etc.) that do and do not have issues. That’s the bigger quandary that we’re all trying to contemplate.


Why does one engine last to 50k/ 80k/ 100k/ 110k and then fail but yet another of the exact same design has no reported issues beyond 200k?

That IMO greatly reduces design as the root cause issue. Might be contributory somehow, but what are the differences between the <100k failure engines and the >200k survivors.

I see possible variables being heat, oil type, OCI, oil filter, severity of use, idle time, QC issues (batches) etc.
 
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HEMIMANN

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I was talking with wild one in my thread about what are the true differences in design, but more importantly, differences between engines of the same design (vvt & mds etc.) that do and do not have issues. That’s the bigger quandary that we’re all trying to contemplate.


Why does one engine last to 50k/ 80k/ 100k/ 110k and then fail but yet another of the exact same design has no reported issues beyond 200k?

That IMO greatly reduces design as the root cause issue. Might be contributory somehow, but what are the differences between the <100k failure engines and the >200k survivors.

I see possible variables being heat, oil type, OCI, oil filter, severity of use, idle time, QC issues (batches) etc.

Statistical probability of failure for marginal designs.

Depends on standard deviation and confidence interval around the failures. There's a whole cottage industry of statisticians that study this stuff to infinitesimal detail so as not to miss a single penny of profit.

How do I know? Every engineer was not only required to take a course in, and master statistics, we were all forced to study and apply six sigma standard deviation of failure to all our designs .

You'd better believe Chrysler and FCA made a data based decision to fix as fail. We did the same for a $125,000 engine.
 

Tominator223

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MDS has nothing to do with the cam/lifter issues,the cam issues didn't really rear it's head till they moved the cam tunnel farther away from the crank to accomodate the extra oil passage required for the VVT system. Non-mds VVT engines have lifter issues to.
So what year was the gen 3 design changed ? Also I asked about the MDS & tick because i don’t believe they use the same oil . I didn’t realize they moved the cam higher up in the block . That design , with thin oil & long idle times . I better understand now
 

Wild one

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So what year was the gen 3 design changed ? Also I asked about the MDS & tick because i don’t believe they use the same oil . I didn’t realize they moved the cam higher up in the block . That design , with thin oil & long idle times . I better understand now
When they went to VVT in 09
 

MudSkipper

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Lol this thread... And the STUPID f'ing youtube videos from shills wanting subs and views for money... You realize they are trying to trigger you, so you frantically watch all their "wisdom" and "knowledge" on the subject... they don't know sh*t. Just throwing crap at a wall...

They have no clue... slapping a way too high oil pressure hellcat pump in your 5.7 is just asking to trash your engine... LOL the stupidity...

YES MDS "issues" can lead to lifter failure (ive seen the analysis, even Hot Rod wrote an article on it) ... These lifters are machined to the micron level... Quality issues hit in 11-14 ish along with a variety of typical roller lifter failures (dirt, lack of lubrication from hot/dirty oil etc)...

MDS is a ballet of synchronization... if a sensor is going bad or a solenoid is "late"... it can cause issues. The revisions and PCM changes have reduced that in the newer vehicles also.

Yes I understand NON MDS cars can get hit also... ANY roller lifter vehicle can get hit with roller failure(ask gm owners). It still happens I'm sure, holy hell the NEW gm trucks are firing up a class action because of their new trucks trashing lifters.

So understand these youtube "guys" are trying to scare you... in order to get views... they don't know ****
 

knightjp

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Everyone wants to avoid the tick and I don't blame them. Its not a cheap fix. Having experienced the worst of it, you really want to avoid having to change cams and lifters.
Let's take a scenario where you just bolt on new lifters and a cam. Let's just say that when you did, you noticed that they were slightly damaged and worn. Just bolting on new parts will not prevent future issues, unless you address the issue that caused the worn parts in the first place.
I don't deny that the HEMI is a great engine. However it has its little flaws as well. This can be expected from any manufacturer. Even the famed reliability hero (Toyota) have issues with their engines that have been addressed by the aftermarket.
In the case of the HEMI, to prevent failure, you do the research and you gain knowledge from those who have experienced the issue and know better.
@Burla @HEMIMANN are some of the best people that you can rely on for information on this matter.
I myself will say that if you want to prevent any issues, spend the money where it matters. Not new parts, but better maintenance strategies.
When I got my current truck (used), there was a faint lifter tick noise. I could hear it myself, but my mechanic did. The service history was mixed. Expected for a truck this age but all in all, in excellent working order.
We just changed all the fluids and used Red Line 5W30 for the engine. In the first oil change itself, the tick was gone. I downloaded the service schedule to make sure I'm doing the maintenance in accordance to the dealer / manufacturer's recommendation and using the best quality fluids I can (based on recommendations I get here).
Hopefully this strategy will get me to a million kms. So far, so it seems to be working well.
 

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