Camshaft and Lifter Wear on Chrysler Hemi Engines

[ProStreetCamaro]

Originally Posted by blakegeo
I read an article on this in Machinery Lubrication and they stated the cause was because they were cast in the 5.7l engine and were forged steel in the 6.4l engines




I know this was from last year. Don't think for a second the 6.4 doesn't have lifter failures. I see it weekly on the Jeep and Durango SRT groups. No difference between the 5.7 and 6.4. I've had a 14 Jeep SRT and now an 18 Durango SRT myself. That dealer is full of it.

 

[earthbound]

so knowing this issue is out there...do you guys recommend sticking with the 5w20 mfg spec or will a thicker oil ie: 5w30 redline that supposedly works wonders in quieting down the tick work better. I would love to know if using a certain oil spec would prevent me down the line from having lifter failure issues.

 

[spiderbypass]

One thing have learned from following posts on bitog over the years is that exemplary engineering can overcome poor quality oil, but the "best" synthetic oils can never fully overcome engineering deficits.

 

[mattd]

This happened to a maxxforce DT with about 4000 hours on a "repaired" camshaft that they chose to cut costs on and paid for the repair twice. This shows the importance of camshaft hardness.

 

[MolaKule]

Originally Posted by spiderbypass
One thing have learned from following posts on bitog over the years is that exemplary engineering can overcome poor quality oil, but the "best" synthetic oils can never fully overcome engineering deficits.



I think the problems were those of metallurgy and lack of proper heat treatment (hardening).

 

[Skippy722]

Originally Posted by mattd
This happened to a maxxforce DT with about 4000 hours on a "repaired" camshaft that they chose to cut costs on and paid for the repair twice. This shows the importance of camshaft hardness.


That rough turn between the lobes, looks like 250 finish!

I assume they're induction hardened as well? How do you "fix" that??

 

[mattd]

They had the original one fixed (the one pictured). The lifter retainer spun on the cam and destroyed it. I overhauled the engine out of chassis and put the original cam that was repaired back in. 10 months later are the photos in my previous post. Bought a new cam from the dealer and it has been fine since.

This is the picture of the lifter after the dog bone broke

 

[1978elcamino]

You would think by now FCA would have a more robust cam. How long has it has it been, ten years?

 

[Cujet]

Originally Posted by earthbound
so knowing this issue is out there...do you guys recommend sticking with the 5w20 mfg spec or will a thicker oil ie: 5w30 redline that supposedly works wonders in quieting down the tick work better. I would love to know if using a certain oil spec would prevent me down the line from having lifter failure issues.


https://www.schaeffler.com/remoteme...fler_2/tpi/downloads_8/tpi_176_de_en.pdf

As always, the property of oil that lubricates is viscosity. Lack of sufficient viscosity is a HUGE factor in roller bearing life. It's not unusual for insufficient viscosity to reduce roller bearing life by an order of magnitude.

Whether viscosity solves this problem or not is another matter entirely. As poor component quality or an insufficiently robust design probably won't be "fixed" by oil viscosity.

https://www.chargerforums.com/threads/answers-5-7l-hemi-camshaft-professional-failure-assay.382357/

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4499405/all/Molybdenum,_Cam_wear_and_Hemi_

 

[Gillsy]

It was my understanding that the lifter issue was due to an oiling design that was corrected after 2017. I also read that the majority of failures were fleet vehicles with extensive idling time with around 150,000 miles on them. not stating as fact, just what i read/watched.

 

[el Nuke]

It was my understanding that the lifter issue was due to an oiling design that was corrected after 2017. I also read that the majority of failures were fleet vehicles with extensive idling time with around 150,000 miles on them. not stating as fact, just what i read/watched.

Both the cop Chargers I have got new cams and lifters while still in service and well before 150K. One got it at 70K, other at 90K.

FWIW the 70K one is still running strong at 130K, and the 90K one at 226K, although neither do much idling anymore.

 

[OVERKILL]

It was my understanding that the lifter issue was due to an oiling design that was corrected after 2017. I also read that the majority of failures were fleet vehicles with extensive idling time with around 150,000 miles on them. not stating as fact, just what i read/watched.

Materials issue with the lifters, the lifters themselves have been redesigned several times now (many revisions) in an attempt to eliminate the problem. I'm not aware of any changes to the engine happening in 2017.

@TeamZero who is a dealer tech has written on this subject a fair bit in other threads.

 

[TeamZero]

Cop cars got a software update that raised idle a bit...no other changes. Lots of lifters updates...no idea what was changed.

 

[Silver]

"Follow the owner's manual. You don't know more than the engineers."

 

[sk_pete]

shocked to see this, i thought cam rollers is magic bullet for metal-metal wear.

 

[OVERKILL]

shocked to see this, i thought cam rollers is magic bullet for metal-metal wear.

Not when the roller stops rolling, lol.

 

[dnewton3]

Cop cars got a software update that raised idle a bit...no other changes. Lots of lifters updates...no idea what was changed.

During the final few years of my LEO career, I drove Chargers and Duragos. Our vehicles were serviced at the County Highway dept; they used 10w-40 bulk oil in everything except the diesels (it was their defacto "thicker is better" concept). I personally had my Charger go into limp mode during an emergency run due to cam failure. We had several cam failures in multiple years in many vehicles. The thicker lube didn't stop the failure mode at all.