I think that this thread could use a brief summary on the state of the tick, seeing that it begins with my first grey truck and now with my current black one.
So here is a brief summary of what has happened so far and which oils worked.
1st Truck - Grey one.
Pre tick: Mopar 5w20 and occasionally Mopar 5W30.
Once I had the tick, replaced the lifters on the left bank and used the best ones for the right. That was the only way we could keep the cost of that job down.
After the rebuild, I used Redline 5w30. I ran that oil continuously and the engine was smooth and whisper quiet. The mechanic who was a firm believer and always championed using original spec oil and stuff, was so impressed that he began recommending it for his other customers with HEMI engines.
Post Tick:
1st change: Redline Oil 5W30 - engine remained quiet and smooth.
2nd change: Total Quartz 9000 5W30. The engine oil sounded smooth and good, but certainly not as quiet as Redline.
3rd change: Motul 300V 5W40. Another recommendation from
@Burla. The engine sounded smooth and great, better than Total, but sounded a bit more like an old school HEMI, if that makes sense. It certainly wasn't as smooth as with Redline. Motul was more expensive than Redline so I wasn't too convinced to go back to it again unless I had really, really had to.
Sadly before I could do another oil change, I made a mistake, had the crash and totaled the truck.
2nd Truck - Black one.
Pre Tick:
The truck was already having a very slight almost indiscernible tick when I bought it. The mechanic heard it. I couldn't hear it at all. If there was a tick, I knew what to do. Just use Redline. Once I bought the truck, we replaced all the fluids. Redline oil and Mopar gearbox, transfer and diff oils.
1st Oil change: Redline 5W30
2nd Oil change: Redline 5W30
3rd oil change: Redline 5W30 - it was at this point that we noticed a tick coming on. I thought that was impossible, considering that I was running Redline.
4th oil change: There was no Redline available, so I had to choose an alternative. I used AMSoil SS 5W30 - This was when the tick became really loud and decided to do the rebuild, change the lifters. I couldn't bear it anymore.
Rebuild:
During the rebuild, the mechanic discovered by my tick was two fold. Two of the bolts on the left manifold had sheered and the lifters on the left bank were looking pretty bad.
So we changed them in the same way. We changed the left bank lifters and then used the best of the old ones for the right.
We decided to use Castrol Magnatec 5W30. I was intrigued by the oil and wanted to test it out. Besides with some people using Castrol Edge 0W40 on their HEMI engines without any additives and having good results. Plus the cost of the oil was quite a bit less than Redline and more readily available in the market. Castrol is a more widely known brand, even to those who aren't gearheads. So the idea sounded good.
However the tick came back. This isn't a knock on Castrol. I'm guessing that the lifters on the right, even though they were best of the old ones, were damaged as well and therefore needed more Esters and moly, but sadly I didn't give it that.
Post Rebuild:
1st oil change: HPL 15W40, based on recommendations to go thicker to try and resolve the ticking. The idea was to use something that was thicker and had a good amount of moly. I later realized that the moly in this oil was only comparable to that of Castrol Edge. The HPL I got was from (
https://www.hploil.com/) and not related to the one that was discussed here on this forum. With HPL, the tick became louder. Decided to replace the lifters on the right bank as well for new ones.
Post 2nd lifter change/ Rebuild: The mechanic said that the right side lifters, it wasn't just the rollers bearings that failed. The lifters themselves, internally, were buggered. So they needed to be changed. No oil change would have helped that. Not even Redline.
Currently: Redline 5W30 - the engine is smooth and whisper quiet. I like it this way.
This might be a placebo effect, but running Redline I kind of get the feeling of assurance that nothing can go wrong with the lifters now that it is in there. Know what I mean?