Lifter/Cam Problem

[CCH]

2020 Ram Rebel 5.7. Aside from the fueling up problems, and the shifter getting stuck a few years back, she has been pretty good to me. On Saturday morning, I started her up and heard a ticking noise. Checked for a code and found a cylinder 1 misfire. I swapped the plugs and coil packs between cylinder 1 and 2, cleared the code, and it came back still with a cylinder 1 misfire after driving around a bit. I have 101,000 miles. I then heard about the "Hemi Tick", and I took it to a local shop to check it out, and they found metal shavings in the oil. Lifter and Cam issue. I have spent a lot of time looking into it the last few days, and apparently the 5.7 Hemi is susceptible to this problem especially if you leave the truck idling for an unusual amount of time. My understanding of the situation is that the Hemi relies on oil splashing onto the lifters via RPM's. So if you sit idle for long periods of time, lubrication really suffers. I also read about police cruisers having the same problem. I work in agriculture and the truck is in idle quite a bit. For reference, I have 3068 hours of drive time, and 1495 hours of idle time. I really like the truck, but I am going to trade it in for a non Hemi for the job I have. I just don't think I can justify 6-8 grand to replace the engine at this point and mileage. Hopefully this helps somebody.

 

[Xtrexx]

2020 Ram Rebel 5.7. Aside from the fueling up problems, and the shifter getting stuck a few years back, she has been pretty good to me. On Saturday morning, I started her up and heard a ticking noise. Checked for a code and found a cylinder 1 misfire. I swapped the plugs and coil packs between cylinder 1 and 2, cleared the code, and it came back still with a cylinder 1 misfire after driving around a bit. I have 101,000 miles. I then heard about the "Hemi Tick", and I took it to a local shop to check it out, and they found metal shavings in the oil. Lifter and Cam issue. I have spent a lot of time looking into it the last few days, and apparently the 5.7 Hemi is susceptible to this problem especially if you leave the truck idling for an unusual amount of time. My understanding of the situation is that the Hemi relies on oil splashing onto the lifters via RPM's. So if you sit idle for long periods of time, lubrication really suffers. I also read about police cruisers having the same problem. I work in agriculture and the truck is in idle quite a bit. For reference, I have 3068 hours of drive time, and 1495 hours of idle time. I really like the truck, but I am going to trade it in for a non Hemi for the job I have. I just don't think I can justify 6-8 grand to replace the engine at this point and mileage. Hopefully this helps somebody.

I have no solution for you, but I did want to reply that my 2019 Laramie 5.7 had the cam/lifter problem at ~66k miles. Of course, right after the 60k mile warranty ran out. For what its worth I had no extended idle time on the truck Dealership wanted about $8000 to fix it. I was livid, for it to have a major engine issue less than 10k miles after the warranty ran out. They gave me no recourse on it though, unfortunately. I probably could have shopped that price around with other shops, but it was at the height of the COVID truck shortage, and CarMax gave me nearly $40k for the truck, so I jerked their arm off on that deal and haven't looked back. I loved that truck, but that whole situation made me physically ill.

 

[HSKR R/T]

2020 Ram Rebel 5.7. Aside from the fueling up problems, and the shifter getting stuck a few years back, she has been pretty good to me. On Saturday morning, I started her up and heard a ticking noise. Checked for a code and found a cylinder 1 misfire. I swapped the plugs and coil packs between cylinder 1 and 2, cleared the code, and it came back still with a cylinder 1 misfire after driving around a bit. I have 101,000 miles. I then heard about the "Hemi Tick", and I took it to a local shop to check it out, and they found metal shavings in the oil. Lifter and Cam issue. I have spent a lot of time looking into it the last few days, and apparently the 5.7 Hemi is susceptible to this problem especially if you leave the truck idling for an unusual amount of time. My understanding of the situation is that the Hemi relies on oil splashing onto the lifters via RPM's. So if you sit idle for long periods of time, lubrication really suffers. I also read about police cruisers having the same problem. I work in agriculture and the truck is in idle quite a bit. For reference, I have 3068 hours of drive time, and 1495 hours of idle time. I really like the truck, but I am going to trade it in for a non Hemi for the job I have. I just don't think I can justify 6-8 grand to replace the engine at this point and mileage. Hopefully this helps somebody.

The idle thing was just a theory and was never proven to be the issue. They did redesign the lifters due to bad needle bearings causing issues which significantly reduces the number of lifter failures. FWIW, Chevy has lifter failures as well. It's not just a Hemi thing. Any pushrod engine is susceptible.

 

[CCH]

For reference, if anybody is interested, I ended up trading it in for $27,000. Dodge dealership offered $24,000, Chevy offered $27,500, and Ford ended up giving me the $27,000. I didn't clear the codes. Dodge scanned it, Chevy took it on a test drive, and I'm not sure what Ford did. I was relieved to be able to get $27,000.

 

[lancer-am]

Sad to hear that these issues are still around years later. I have a 2010 1500 that dropped a lifer and ate the cam at 100k (that always seems to be the magic number) I had the cam swapped and non-mds lifters swapped in and it just hit 150k that last weekend. I didn't need to swap out the entire motor but it was still around $4500 so at the time it was almost the same cost. The gas mileage went to crap after getting rid of MDS, but I don't have any fear of my truck taking a dive. Run super smooth and I don't have any tick.

 

[HSKR R/T]

Sad to hear that these issues are still around years later. I have a 2010 1500 that dropped a lifer and ate the cam at 100k (that always seems to be the magic number) I had the cam swapped and non-mds lifters swapped in and it just hit 150k that last weekend. I didn't need to swap out the entire motor but it was still around $4500 so at the time it was almost the same cost. The gas mileage went to crap after getting rid of MDS, but I don't have any fear of my truck taking a dive. Run super smooth and I don't have any tick.

Any pushrod V8, with hydraulic roller lifters, will have potential lifter problems. Just the nature of the beast. Even Chevy has issues.

 

[lancer-am]

Any pushrod V8, with hydraulic roller lifters, will have potential lifter problems. Just the nature of the beast. Even Chevy has issues.

I have owned an LS1 & and have an LS2 currently, yes they can drop lifters as well, but you can set your watch to Hemi lifter failure.

 

[silver billet]

I have owned an LS1 & and have an LS2 currently, yes they can drop lifters as well, but you can set your watch to Hemi lifter failure.

GM's issues are far worse than the hemi lol. Spend some time on the GM forums, the DFM is absolute trash and even worse than the original AFM.

I'm not a huge fan of ford, but I'd buy the coyote 5.0 way before the 5.3 or 6.2.

And MDS does nothing for gas mileage. I've run my truck with it off from day one and I get some of the best MPG I've seen on this forum, and my highest MPG was recorded with it off as well. It's something that might be a tiny bit effective in EPA testing which is all that matters to FCA.

 

[lancer-am]

You have a better trans than what was in a 2010. Mine is a 5 speed with a 3.92. no MDS = 11 city 15 highway.