Piston Slap

[Jako]

From what I understand it's normal. The pistons are sized a little smaller due to expansion and once it gets up to temp, they stop doing it as they expand to fill the cylinder walls. It was probably happening for me since the beginning, but since I always drive with music on, I never noticed until recently. If you hear the sound only on first cold operations, and goes away when warmed up, it's probably not an issue.

Drove in another truck, a friends who said hers didn't do it. Guess what, it does it, she just wasn't "tuned" to the sound to bother her. Some people aren't sensitive to the "pistol slap" sound and simply don't notice it, especially if it goes away quickly. For me, it's gone after about 1 mile of driving, or about 170F on the coolant.

Note - I can only here it under light throttle, not at idle during, during initial cold start.

I have a 2019 Ram and this issue is not addressed in the 2019 Ram 1500 Owner's Manual however from what I can recall it is covered in later years. This was a topic on the forum and from what I recall it is as you say, "From what I understand it's normal."

 

[Jako]

I have a 2019 Ram and this issue is not addressed in the 2019 Ram 1500 Owner's Manual however from what I can recall it is covered in later years. This was a topic on the forum and from what I recall it is as you say, "From what I understand it's normal."

Ticking noise on start up.

This past weekend I started my truck and noticed a loud ticking or knocking sound from the engine. The sound went away after about a minute before driving away. The only thing I could think of is like noise from the lifters not getting oil. My oil pressure was around the 50 psi. The truck did...

5thgenrams.com

see post #12

 

[SD Rebel]

Ticking noise on start up.

This past weekend I started my truck and noticed a loud ticking or knocking sound from the engine. The sound went away after about a minute before driving away. The only thing I could think of is like noise from the lifters not getting oil. My oil pressure was around the 50 psi. The truck did...

5thgenrams.com

see post #12

I think that's a different noise, a louder lifter style tick sound that is very brief, it happens at idle after initial start-up. Especially prevalent after you moved the vehicle, got the pressures up with the oil still very cold after shutdown. Such as turning on the vehicle, moving parking spaces and shutting down. It will make a metallic ticking noise for a few seconds on your next cold start.

What the OP is talking about is pistol slap, which is a light tapping sound made while under throttle, the sound can come from the engine or reverberate through the exhaust. Easy to miss if you have your radio on. You can hear it as the rpm rises, it can take several minutes of idling or a very short drive to go away as the piston itself gets up to temperature.

The first situation is normal, as per the manual, the 2nd situation is likely also normal.