Question about redline

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Simpleman

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I live in new jersey is it better to use redline 5w20 or stick with the 5w30 I've been using for the winter
 

Burla

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Depends on engine sound imo, if you don't get cold piston slap I would stay with 5w30. What the forum still doesn't know at this point is if changing to a thinner oil will stop cold piston slap, IN SOME trucks. We likely will have an answer to that this winter. We just had a guy change with 5w30 redline out for an excellent formulated 0w20 oil only to get warm idle tick back. He dumped it on the spot. So as we all know at this point, choosing the right oil for your hemi is a journey, sometimes a long journey.
 

Ribtipram

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The question is what the hell is ticking at warm idle. If its lifters isn't that a problem that no oil can fix. Maybe deaden the sound a little but isn't the problem still there. Idk
 

Burla

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The question is what the hell is ticking at warm idle. If its lifters isn't that a problem that no oil can fix. Maybe deaden the sound a little but isn't the problem still there. Idk

The long term uoa's suggest the situation is getting adequate lubrication to actually correct the issue. No tick, great long term uoa's would be the evidence it's corrected, against what evidence it isn't corrected? Anyhow, what are your choices...

A. run an oil that makes your truck tick or...

B. run an oil that makes your truck not tick?

The oil industry continues to take all of the protection out of oil formulas and all of the smoke and mirrors they are putting back deals with carbon deposits and not metal protection. Your truck is like your dad, it's telling you make good decisions.
 

16RamHemi

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Depends on engine sound imo, if you don't get cold piston slap I would stay with 5w30. What the forum still doesn't know at this point is if changing to a thinner oil will stop cold piston slap, IN SOME trucks. We likely will have an answer to that this winter. We just had a guy change with 5w30 redline out for an excellent formulated 0w20 oil only to get warm idle tick back. He dumped it on the spot. So as we all know at this point, choosing the right oil for your hemi is a journey, sometimes a long journey.

correct me if im wrong Burla, but that 0w20 was the Toyota oil right? Not Redline 0w20? Dont want others to think Redline 0w20 didnt help. Still tbd on that front. Great results out there with 0w30 for cold starts.
 

Burla

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correct me if im wrong Burla, but that 0w20 was the Toyota oil right? Not Redline 0w20? Dont want others to think Redline 0w20 didnt help. Still tbd on that front. Great results out there with 0w30 for cold starts.

Yes super high moly toyota oem. At first try seams to not be the answer it had the potential to be at this point. Now, that was only one attempt, but it sounded bad.

Justin your experience with your choices is going to help lead the forum. What is your plan?
 

Ribtipram

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The long term uoa's suggest the situation is getting adequate lubrication to actually correct the issue. No tick, great long term uoa's would be the evidence it's corrected, against what evidence it isn't corrected? Anyhow, what are your choices...

A. run an oil that makes your truck tick or...

B. run an oil that makes your truck not tick?

The oil industry continues to take all of the protection out of oil formulas and all of the smoke and mirrors they are putting back deals with carbon deposits and not metal protection. Your truck is like your dad, it's telling you make good decisions.
I do agree im just thinking for a lifter to tick it must be loosing contact with the cam or pushrod or something like that. I wonder if its something else ticking that the redline is helping. I feel that trucks that ate cams had it coming from day one. It was just a matter of time. Bad/cheap lifters. What else could be ticking.
 

16RamHemi

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Yes super high moly toyota oem. At first try seams to not be the answer it had the potential to be at this point. Now, that was only one attempt, but it sounded bad.

Justin your experience with your choices is going to help lead the forum. What is your plan?

I have 2 thinks of lubeguard on the way. Im going to give those a try and see how the cold starts go. Im not concerned with hot tick. I dont have it with the 5w30 redline. Its the cold chatter that is present this year vs last. I want to reduce that as much as possible. Bio tech is first try. If that doesnt work im dumping and going to either Redline 0w20 or 30. I may also try swapping filters. But at the same time, sticking with the one i have for a bit may be a good idea to be able to test against the oil. If i swap both oil and filter, i may not know which is to blame.....

This morning was 28 degrees out, and i could hear my truck chattering from inside at start up. lasted around 20 or so seconds. After that its nice and quiet. We are getting some great feedback from guys attempting to behead this 3 headed monster. I feel once we get this cold start crap taken care of we have the perfect formula for these motors. If you are in a warm climate the answer is easy....Redline 5w30.
 

16RamHemi

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I do agree im just thinking for a lifter to tick it must be loosing contact with the cam or pushrod or something like that. I wonder if its something else ticking that the redline is helping. I feel that trucks that ate cams had it coming from day one. It was just a matter of time. Bad/cheap lifters. What else could be ticking.

IMO unfortunately that is the problem we are facing. We dont have enough data to tell us whats going on. It does seem hit or miss with the cam lifter issues. Kind of russian roulette. Most will agree that 5w20 dealer oil is way too thin for these hemis. unfortunately that is what they start their lives on. And most older trucks go their entire lives or at least quite a while on that oil filter combo. Now more recently we have people with 2017s and 18s that are being more proactive early and going to other oil. We do KNOW that Redline can help hemi tick. Its been proven. But we just dont have any long term evidence of cam lifter life. And not everyone keeps their trucks forever. And for those who go XX miles on conventional 5w20 dealer oil, how do we know when this damage starts? We dont. There are not guarantees with these motors. We can just take others advice and try it. Doesnt work? try something else. We are making progress....slowly. Some sort of answer is better than NO answer.
 

Burla

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Yea a very confusing & frustrating situation on what to do maybe I'll try redine 0w20 instead of 5w20 i know one thing burla was right about using redline 5w30 for the hemi tick

But Burla wasn't right about redline 5w30 and cold flow. I blew it on that one :)

But we can use information to why 5w30 kills ticks and at least attempt some type of strategy to keep that going but maybe find a way to stop cold piston slap, or whatever is causing that noise on cold starts. It may be as simple as just moving to 0w30, seams like hemi395 is sold on that, but the 20 weights redline's should be considered, as well as other things associated with why we can keep ticks away. Moly is one for sure, but there are other possible answers out there. Kinda curious to see what the forum finds out on this one.
 

VB712

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I’ve tried both 5-20 and 5-30 redline. My motor is more noisy anyway due to aftermarket cam and non mds lifters. Seems to like the 5-30 the best year round. 5-20 was fine but as miles were put on the 5-20, it slowly got a little more noisy.
 
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Simpleman

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So burla what weight redline would you recommend for cold weather ?
 

Burla

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So burla what weight redline would you recommend for cold weather ?

I don't think we have an adequate pool to correctly answer this. If I had piston slap at start up, I would go straight to 0w20 and as long as I didn't have warm idle tick, you can use that as long as you want. It all depends on each individual truck, hemi395 who lives in the cold has warm idle tick on 5w20 which likely means it would be ticking on 0w20, but doesn't have warm idle tick on 5w30, but he did get piston slap. What a fkin mess? You need a vein diagram for this ****? He settled on 0w30, seams to be the best balance for him, this keeps warm idle tick away from his truck and piston slap is down to a minimum. I think 5w30 is the best oil for the hemi in general, but as things come up it makes sense to adjust that to deal with the issues that arise. This year it seams like we had more then one guy get piston slap only at start up with 5w30. So guys are making an adjustment.

Now, if you don't have 5w30 in there right now, and you want to avoid any piston slap, maybe you at a minimum you choose 0w30. So what is going on with the truck and what oil is in there now?
 

16RamHemi

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So we know 5w30 handles the hot tick. And now we are seeing some louder than usual cold starts at certain temps. For me it's really 25 or so and below. It's looking like most suggestions are 0w20 or 0w30. It seems we can feel pretty confident either one of those will take care of the cold start noise. Now we just ate not sure about the cold start noises AND hot idle tick.

So what is it in 5w30 that helps take care of the tick? Just high moly? So would lubeguard with 0w20 or 0w30 be the answer? Or a combination of 5w30 and 0w30 or 0w20?
 

Burla

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The main difference between 5w30 redline and the other redlines is hths, it is even better then 10w30 redline. Basically means the oil will hold up better when it is in a shearing situation, which hemi tick is. Not all ticks are the same, oddly the worst the tick I feel the viscosity wont matter as much, in those ticks there is so much side pressure it creates a plate, I consider mine to be one of these ticks, and my uoa's have all been **** as well. That is the science of extreme pressure additives, you actually NEED extreme pressure to get them to work. They don't call them mild pressure additives right?

Now, other ticks such as corey's are more mild, less extreme pressure, and for those it seams the hths plus additives work together. The reason why we say 5w30 is hemi honey is because that formula is good for both ticks, whereas other redlines have not been as good for the second type tick mentioned here. Of course 40 weights are not part of the discussion when comparing.
 

crackerjack1957

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If any redline is ticking, I think Lubegaurd is a good play, bring moly level back to old redline levels.
Lubegard turns oil a dark gray doesn't it?
 
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