Motor oil is designed to work at 212F, that's the optimal temperature. Beyond that, every 10F doubles the oxidation rate. Synthetic oil is hard to define these days, so it's more of a marketing term. Schaeffer's for example blends group II vase oil with PAO, Castrol does Group III or Group III+Pao, and Group II + Group III for their GTX line, while Mobil 1 blends Pao, GTL, Group III and Poe. Esters are additives basically. No one, not even Redline uses esters outside of additives in motor oil because it makes no sense. Ester oil is usually reserved for jet engines, it's very expensive, smells like crap and if you try to run it in a car you won't make it 8 miles down the road. The bottom line is that with heat cycles over 212F motor oil has a tendency to polimerize, more or less, depending on the blend. Then you also get sludge with short tripping. You get that dirt in those rollers, they seize up and it's a done deal. Some manage to unlock those lifters with Redline, some with Lubegard. However, it's not just the Moly. In fact, the Moly might have nothing to do with it. It's the high detergents and anti wear additives in both Lubegard and Redline. However, there are two more alternatives: Mobil 1 FS 0W-40 or Castrol EDGE 0W-40. If you want to add Lubegard to one of these I would suggest adding it to the Castrol at a rate of 3 oz. per quart. Don't overdo it. Drove 1000 miles and if your tick doesn't go away, perform an oil change with a new filter and try again. You don't know how clean your motor is on the inside so give these Euro oils time to clean. Add a magnetic drain plug. The Votex DP001 works very well, use the included aluminum washer and torque it to 25 ft-lb. That's why I said to do 1000 miles, to also see if there is metal goop on the drain plug magnet.
Mine was built in 2015 for the 2016 model year. RAM put oil coolers in pretty randomly. It's ridiculous that my 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport with a 2.4L 4 cylinder engine has an oil cooler, and the 5.7 HEMI in my RAM 1500 Big Horn doesn't. You can tell if you have an oil cooler by looking above your oil filter. If two coolant hoses go into the oil filter support then you have an oil cooler. The idiocy of RAM and FCA is unbelievable. They randomly installed those oil coolers and then they specified 5W-20 for all trucks. No wonder some people have lifter issues while others don't. High heat will make a crappy 5W-20 oil with an ILSAC GF6A designation that was designed for a Honda Civic polimerize much faster faster than a 0W-40 Euro oil full off ZDDP, detergents and dispersants that was designed to operate at sustained high heat. Oh, and the PUP SRT 0W-40 oil is a low SAPS 0W-40, so it will turn to crap almost as fast as a 5W-20. That's the reason why Redline 5W-30 works for the HEMI tick: decent viscosity to make up for wear, it can withstand sustained high heat, it has tons of anti wear additives and detergents so it will clean your HEMI.
To anyone who is struggling with this, try an Euro 0W-40 first, maybe add 21 oz. of Lubegard to it. Let's see if it works. I run Mobil 1 FS 0W-40 Euro oil from Walmart in mine with 15 oz. of Lubegard. Next change I'll go with Castrol Edge + 21 oz. Lubegard because Castrol has a heartier base oil (PAO + Group III) and it can take the dilution from Lubegard much better. I mixed 15 oz of Lubegard with 5 quarts of Castrol EDGE 0W-40 and change the oil in my 2018 Santa Fe Sport this evening. I premixed everything before pouring it in. The engine is kept clean and have been running this oil for a year now in it, so by adding Lubegard I made it even smoother. Upon startup it sounded even better, a hair quieter and smoother. Lubegard works, it's not magic, but it improves the friction of components like the valve train.
I hope this long comment can be of some help. I'm tired and maybe I should place it in its own thread.
Oh, Castrol EDGE Euro Spec doesn't use Moly, it uses Titanium as it's anti wear additive of choice. So by using Lubegard with it you avoid additive clash like oils that already have some form of Moly. So, after doing the math, it seems that I added 200ppm of Moly to my Castrol Edge 0W-40. That's about the right amount of friction modifier to make an oil even slicker. It would certainly explain why my valve train is quieter now. If you add 21 oz to 7 quarts of 0W-40 for your HEMI you will add also 200 ppm of Moly to the oil. I really recommend Castrol Edge 0W-40. I like this oil more than Mobil 1, it looks and feels like a fat oil when you pour it or put it on your fingers. Mobil 1 looks like it's thinner and not as far as Castrol if you know what I'm saying. Also, use a big oil filter like a Royal Purple 20-820.
If anyone tries this, let me know. It would be awesome for the community to make some progress with the HEMI tick.
All of this heavy research is great and doubly proves what I’ve always believed that synthetic or conventional the old 3k changes are the best regardless of what the oil and oil filter says.And if you buy it used it probably got a 10k first break in oil change.
