Do you have theft?

Why not just buy a quality long block and have a competent shop install it? Tell the stealership you can get the job done for thousands less than the price they’re gouging with and have a remanufactured, warranty covered product good for 3 years and unlimited miles. Fuck those thieves.

https://fraserengineco.com/5-7...bEAAYASAAEgJdmfD_BwE

Moment of truth. Waiting on the wife to get home to go pick it up.

First shop disconnected the master cylinder and left it loose "in anticipation of the rebuild" and a push rod got bent, so when the second shop put it back together Friday, they discovered there were no brakes. First shop blamed the second shop, second shop says "there was no reason to remove it in the first place." First shop swears you have to in order to get the head off. Second shop pointed out that the master cylinder is behind the brake pedal on the driver's side, and that the first shop had removed the head from the passenger side and couldn't see a reason why they'd do this. First shop offered to pay $150 "to help me out." I told them I wasn't happy, they said that's all they can do since other people had possession of it and they can't "point fingers on where it went wrong." Ok, fair enough. I guess all I can do is leave reviews. Don't shit in my hat and tell me you're helping me out by wiping half of it out.

That sucks scissors.
At least they are giving something I suppose.
That's the biggest problem with finishing a job like that.
Other people tend to do stuff that make you go WTF were you thinking.

Sounds like it's running so that's cool.
Looks like you took it to the right place to get it squared away.

Thanks, Powermad! I picked it up. It was $5,700 out the door. After getting quotes everywhere, and seeing what all people have payed, plus everything they did, I'm good with that price. Yeah, it's a lot of money, but tell me something that's cheap in 2022.

Talked to two mechanics, one of them is the one who did my truck. "You were right on the money with that Hellcat oil pump. Those trucks typically sit around 17-19lbs of oil pressure at an idle. Yours is pulling 39 right at start, and when you get into the throttle, it's up over 80. That's amazing. The lifter that wore out in your truck was on cylinder 8, the furthest from the oil pump. It's getting plenty now. Several guys here are going to be putting them in their trucks after this, including a Chrylser Master Mechanic." The guy who did my truck alos has a Ram 1500 and said his has about 13lbs of oil pressure at idle and Chrylser says 4lbs is acceptable, and just shook his head. They said I'd also notice it's a little ballsier when you step on the throttle and they weren't kidding. It roars and started to fishtail when I stomped on it at a green light. No, I don't go around driving like that, I just wanted to see what it would do.

I'll have to see how it averages out, but I swear it's also getting better mileage. It went up 3/10ths of a mpg on the way home, and the "eco" meter was sitting a lot higher than I've ever seen it. Maybe it's just reading wrong since things are now no longer stock, I'll have to verify it over the next tank of gas.

So, thank you, Flash LB. You saved me a ton of money and headaches. I owe you lunch or a cup of coffee some time if you'd like, just shoot me an email.

Congrats Smudge. Sounds like it worked out better than expected. Hope you get a good run out of that work.

Thanks. Main guy I dealt with said he thinks I ought to be good to go for another hundred thousand.

Glad it worked out for you! And thanks for the good info!

Stealerships and bad shops are far too common. I’ve gotten the transmission cooler lines, power steering lines and soon the oil control valve and brakes for my truck for less than what the dealer quoted for the transmission lines. Great shop that’s been in business 40 years (and a VCDL sticker prominently displayed near the desk).

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:


Talked to two mechanics, one of them is the one who did my truck. "You were right on the money with that Hellcat oil pump. Those trucks typically sit around 17-19lbs of oil pressure at an idle. Yours is pulling 39 right at start, and when you get into the throttle, it's up over 80. That's amazing. The lifter that wore out in your truck was on cylinder 8, the furthest from the oil pump. It's getting plenty now. Several guys here are going to be putting them in their trucks after this, including a Chrylser Master Mechanic." The guy who did my truck alos has a Ram 1500 and said his has about 13lbs of oil pressure at idle and Chrylser says 4lbs is acceptable, and just shook his head. They said I'd also notice it's a little ballsier when you step on the throttle and they weren't kidding. It roars and started to fishtail when I stomped on it at a green light. No, I don't go around driving like that, I just wanted to see what it would do.

I'll have to see how it averages out, but I swear it's also getting better mileage. It went up 3/10ths of a mpg on the way home, and the "eco" meter was sitting a lot higher than I've ever seen it. Maybe it's just reading wrong since things are now no longer stock, I'll have to verify it over the next tank of gas.

So, thank you, Flash LB. You saved me a ton of money and headaches. I owe you lunch or a cup of coffee some time if you'd like, just shoot me an email.

my 2019 1500 shows 52psi at idle on the gauge and its over 60 going down the road. Wonder they put in a higher PSI oil pump with the newer generations?

quote:

Originally posted by Bob RI:
Glad it worked out for you! And thanks for the good info!

Thanks! Hopefully this helps another forum member have to put this off, or at least not get screwed at a shop.

quote:

Originally posted by sreding:
my 2019 1500 shows 52psi at idle on the gauge and its over 60 going down the road. Wonder they put in a higher PSI oil pump with the newer generations?

You know, it's entirely possible. In my researching this, a few things came up. Chrysler has known this is a problem for a long time, at least fifteen years and probably more, but they refuse to admit it openly. What they have done is trickle out little incremental "improvements" like updates to the lifter assemblies, and some changes to the 2020 and newer trucks that I can't recall offhand, but remember coming across mention of it in my searching. The mechanic who made the video that suggested the Hellcat oil pump said it was too early to see yet whether the 2020 and newer trucks were bound to have the exact same problems yet because of the changes made, but he hasn't been seeing it crop up with them yet. It sounds like whatever they did can't hurt, especially if you're getting decent oil pressure. I read your post before I ran my boy to school and kept all the numbers in mind on my trip. Cold start this morning at 49 degrees, didn't let it idle, just started it and went slow until the oil came up to temp. Below 200f, I was getting 80+ psi accelerating from a stop and idling around 65. When it warmed up, that dropped a bit with an idle at about 53psi and pushing up around the high 70's. By the final stretch, about an eleven mile round-trip, it was right at 73psi at a cruise. So, "high performance" oil pump and all that, but you aren't too far off my numbers with your stock pump. Compared to the numbers they were throwing at me yesterday, we're both in a whole different ballpark in terms of oil pressure. If they're used to seeing teens, and Chrysler was saying that as low as 4psi for oil pressure is ok with the third and fourth gen Rams, then something drastic has changed with what you're getting in your truck. I know the fourth gen is 2009-2019, but they may have started rolling out changes in 2019. He talks about it here:


He has a longer one here as a followup to that, which is probably loaded with awesome info, but I don't have 45 minutes to spend on it this minute. I will post it, however.


I get the impression that this "fix" or whatever we want to call it isn't exactly widely known yet. I'm seeing a huge difference in the way this truck runs, and it can't all be down to fixing a cylinder misfire and an exhaust leak. If I had known nine months ago what I know now, I would've had the oil pump swapped and the lifters changed before I drove it from Washington to Arizona. I'll be telling everyone I know with a third or fourth gen Ram about this, and all my gearhead buddies as well. Pre-2009, the Hellcat isn't a direct swap, but he mentions a different high performance oil pump that does fit the gen 3 in that video. I'm just too lazy to dig through 27 minutes worth of video this second. This info about the oil pump needs to become widely known. High idle times, low oil pressure, and infrequent oil changes kill these engines in under 80k miles.

Thanks P220 Smudge - interesting that he called out the 10k oil change interval as too long since that's what the factory 'reminder' is set to on my truck. I liked that feature - I'll have to see if I can set my own limits.

I definitely have a broken exhaust manifold bolt - started around 45k - I'm approaching 50k now so I should probably think about addressing that. Might as well make use of that extended warranty I paid for right?

Yes, and for what it’s worth, the clown who first took apart my truck said the exhaust leak on the driver’s side all but drowned out the noise of the litter tap on the passenger side. The only reason I started to hear it was it was getting louder, then I got the check engine light because cylinder 8 started to misfire. He said it probably would have been easy to hear the litter go if the exhaust leak hadn’t been masking it. So, you definitely don’t want that.

The heads on these engines is the other known issue. If I wasn’t neck-deep in repairs on a rapidly shrinking budget from a move and our house not selling, I would’ve had them do whatever heads the guy in the video recommended that don’t do eventually do this. These “when, not if, unless you buy X” parts are kinda painful, but an ounce of prevention is worth $7k worth of cure.

@sreding

Was that at operation temp? At cold startup it would be that high at idle.

I have access to two 2020 Rams w/ 5.7s.

My personal truck shows 33psi at idle after warming up to operating temp.

My work truck is a 2020 Ram an at idle it shows 30psi at operating temp.

quote:

Originally posted by Skull Leader:
@sreding

Was that at operation temp? At cold startup it would be that high at idle.

I have access to two 2020 Rams w/ 5.7s.

My personal truck shows 33psi at idle after warming up to operating temp.

My work truck is a 2020 Ram an at idle it shows 30psi at operating temp.

Skull leader - I've monitored oil pressure a bit closer since my update. Once the engine is warmed up my idle pressure is 39psi - cruising speeds - 54-55psi, if I hammer on it it jumps to 64psi.

All of these values are using Mobil 1 5w-20 and a wix filter (what I've used since new) with the 10k oil change interval per the automated reminder.

I work from home so I don't have a daily commute so to speak. I either do about a 5 mile trip to the grocery store or I'm going on a long trip (100+ miles) - many of those miles are from towing a mid sized fiberglass boat (3800lbs or so).

On longer trips (when not towing) I do get around 21.x MPG so MDS is definitely kicking in unless I run in tow/haul mode (which I usually don't do even when towing).

5700 for an installed reman is reasonable these days, there is plenty of honest Indy shops out there.
They don't call Dealers "$tealers" for nothing.
Once the warranty is up there is no reason to visit the dealer shop.
Many Rebuilders use updated parts to avoid the OEM flaws.
You should be good to go for a long time.

I own a 2014 Ram 1500 Sport with the 5.7 (same as the OP), about 63,000 miles. This thread scares the shit out of me. I change the oil every 5K miles with Pennzoil synthetic, but it sounds like I'm about due for lifters and a new cam. Ugh.

I'll need to check and see what the oil pressure runs; it's buried in an obscure menu

quote:

Originally posted by aileron:
I own a 2014 Ram 1500 Sport with the 5.7 (same as the OP), about 63,000 miles. This thread scares the shit out of me. I change the oil every 5K miles with Pennzoil synthetic, but it sounds like I'm about due for lifters and a new cam. Ugh.

I'll need to check and see what the oil pressure runs; it's buried in an obscure menu

My 2014 has a shade over 160k on the clock and has been doing it since around 75k. I had no idea it was a thing, ended up doing some research and a lot of people claim it's caused by the MDS system which shuts down half of the engine when cruising.

This is the first I'm hearing of the oil pump, but that would make sense as a contributing factor at least. I do know that I've been disabling the MDS feature every time I start the truck since I found the explanation when I originally searched and the issue hasn't gotten any worse so I believe that's a factor as well. It doesn't help much in the real world MPGs anyway.

I know some of the earlier fixes were people swapping the cam and lifters out for the Hellcat set, which is a non MDS system. You'd likely need a custom tune in order to do this and on 2015-newer, that means buying an unlocked PCM, but I haven't seen of anyone having the Tick since performing that swap.

If you don't want to go that route, manually disable the MDS every time you start the truck or change gears out of Drive and then back in. To do this, put the transmission in 8th gear for an 8 speed, the transmission still cycles through all the gears as it normally would. I believe for trucks with the 6 speed transmission, putting the truck in Tow/Haul mode disables it but I'm not 100% certain of that.

Also interesting about the oil pressure difference. I bought a 2022 3 weeks ago today and I'll be interested to check that out a little later.

Thanks, Moosehorn, that's reassuring.

quote:

Originally posted by aileron:
I own a 2014 Ram 1500 Sport with the 5.7 (same as the OP), about 63,000 miles. This thread scares the shit out of me. I change the oil every 5K miles with Pennzoil synthetic, but it sounds like I'm about due for lifters and a new cam. Ugh.

I'll need to check and see what the oil pressure runs; it's buried in an obscure menu

If you catch the lifter as soon as you hear the engine doing anything different, you should just be in for new lifters. If you let it go any length of time, you start lobing out the cam. That was my problem - I was driving around with what I was pretty sure was an exhaust leak (it was, two head bolts were sheared off) and didn't do anything about it. Then it started to sound louder with a more distinct ticking sound, which I incorrectly assumed was a bolt shearing or another one coming loose on the head from not being dealt with, and about three or four days later, the check engine light came on. I could have prevented this if I'd gotten it to a shop sooner. I don't think one had anything to do with the other, being on different sides of the engine and all, but the one definitely masked the sound of the other until it was too loud to ignore. I'd just keep a close eye on it and maybe you go another fifteen or twenty before a lifter goes, and you catch it before it gnaws the cam and you're only a few hundred bucks into a repair instead of five to six grand.

Gauge summary is easy to get to. It's one or two up from fuel economy and I think the second to last one from the right on that screen.

Also buried in the menus I also found operating hours, drive hours, and idle hours. My truck has 555 idle hours on it with about 2,500 drive hours. I never thought to check that when I bought it used, and I wouldn't have known to even if I had, but that's probably not great. Everything I'm seeing says high idle time on these engines helps kill lifters faster.

quote:

Everything I'm seeing says high idle time on these engines helps kill lifters faster.

In the video on the Hemi tick, he said idle time may be a factor because of its impact on oil life. Any other reason why idle time is a factor in lifter and cam life?