Mobil 1 FS 0w40, RAM 1500 5.7L HEMI 6000 mi, high FE

[The Critic]

It isn’t a fail if the CVN doesn’t match factory config, it’s a fail if the CVN doesn’t a state approved CVN.

Correct. And since yours is CARB approved with an EO#, it'll be fine. But for most people, it will not.

 

[racer12306]

Maybe I'm missing something; but MDS is probably never active when a test is in progress, because at idle MDS never activates and under any kind of a load the engine needs 8 cylinders anyway.

The "tune" doesn't have to be related to power, you can just use the software to turn off MDS and leave everything else untouched (as far as I know anyway).

I’ve been surprised how much my truck stays in eco. Even on very mild grades at highway speed. If I’m really careful, I can accelerate to a reasonable speed in eco.

 

[hemioiler]

I’ve been surprised how much my truck stays in eco. Even on very mild grades at highway speed. If I’m really careful, I can accelerate to a reasonable speed in eco.

My truck can't even hold speed on a rural road, I have a 5th gen. It's the most useless feature ever invented if you ask me, but unfortunately they didn't. To make MDS work, you almost need a CVT instead of fixed gears, so that you can raise RPMs slightly while staying in 4th gear. MDS is either on/off, no in between, so it cycles back and forth and drives me crazy. Increasing RPMs slightly would allow the truck to build a little more power while staying in 4 cylinders.

That, or possibly MDS with a turbo where you can increase boost on the fly a little bit more.

Or, like GM's DFM which can apparently seemlessly choose between 1 and 7 cylinders cut off and is constantly shuffling that around. Unfortunately their idea seems good on paper but is a cause of lifter failure at least for a given date range in production.

This is why I disable MDS in my truck. It's an ill wind that bloweth no good!

 

[racer12306]

My truck can't even hold speed on a rural road, I have a 5th gen. It's the most useless feature ever invented if you ask me, but unfortunately they didn't. To make MDS work, you almost need a CVT instead of fixed gears, so that you can raise RPMs slightly while staying in 4th gear. MDS is either on/off, no in between, so it cycles back and forth and drives me crazy. Increasing RPMs slightly would allow the truck to build a little more power while staying in 4 cylinders.

That, or possibly MDS with a turbo where you can increase boost on the fly a little bit more.

Or, like GM's DFM which can apparently seemlessly choose between 1 and 7 cylinders cut off and is constantly shuffling that around. Unfortunately their idea seems good on paper but is a cause of lifter failure at least for a given date range in production.

This is why I disable MDS in my truck. It's an ill wind that bloweth no good!

Not sure what gen you’d call mine, it’s a 2019 DS (classic)

Maybe the programming is different but I find the MDS to be seamless

 

[OilUzer]

Nice work op!

So it sounds like even 1 or 2 UOA can sometimes tell a story and you may not necessarily need 50 of them ... I don't do UOA, just an observation.

Curious why the sudden jump from one oil change to another? Was it a coincidence and just the beginning of the problem?
btw, I like moly but don't think it can have that much impact. lol

 

[hemioiler]

Not sure what gen you’d call mine, it’s a 2019 DS (classic)

Maybe the programming is different but I find the MDS to be seamless

Yours (DS) would be a 4th gen. But the engine in our trucks is identical, many on the various ram forums have had discussions on this with some saying they can't feel a thing and others saying they notice every time. On my truck I rarely notice it activate, but I do notice it deactivate quite often; little tug and change in the exhaust. I can also feel in the pedal that there is reduced power while MDS is active, takes more effort to keep the speed consistent and once MDS deactivates I now have more power than I need.

What I really don't like about the feature is that it basically runs the 4 cylinders at almost WOT but the RPMs are still really low, which is what I consider badly lugging the engine. Guys on ram forum have data logged their truck and they can see how pretty much all the fuel that went to the 4 cylinders that were turned off, pretty much all that fuel is now redirected to the 4 still working. The fuel savings is beyond miniscule, and is due to "reduced pumping losses" and not because 4 cylinders were turned off, almost all that fuel is still being used.

 

[OVERKILL]

Yours (DS) would be a 4th gen. But the engine in our trucks is identical, many on the various ram forums have had discussions on this with some saying they can't feel a thing and others saying they notice every time. On my truck I rarely notice it activate, but I do notice it deactivate quite often; little tug and change in the exhaust. I can also feel in the pedal that there is reduced power while MDS is active, takes more effort to keep the speed consistent and once MDS deactivates I now have more power than I need.

What I really don't like about the feature is that it basically runs the 4 cylinders at almost WOT but the RPMs are still really low, which is what I consider badly lugging the engine. Guys on ram forum have data logged their truck and they can see how pretty much all the fuel that went to the 4 cylinders that were turned off, pretty much all that fuel is now redirected to the 4 still working. The fuel savings is beyond miniscule, and is due to "reduced pumping losses" and not because 4 cylinders were turned off, almost all that fuel is still being used.

Yes, the efficiency improvement is due to running a wider throttle angle, so you reduce pumping losses. You still need the same amount of power to cruise along whether it's in 4 or 8 cylinder mode, but the 4 cylinder mode will require more throttle angle to achieve it, which improves VE.

My 5th gen has 3.92's out back and will readily stay in 4-popper mode unless you command otherwise with the pedal. My Jeep is far more finicky and eager to get out of MDS.

 

[350Rocket]

Depends on how defective the hardening is as to how long it takes to happen. It's the same issue with the lifters (improper heat treatment/hardening) and there's quite the range on how long it takes to propagate depending on how far off from where it's supposed to be, the hardening is.

Would be interesting to know the COO of the lifters and cams from the period where this was more prevalent (which the OP's falls under). It could be China, could be Mexico...etc.

Federal Mogul used to make the roller lifters for Ford back in the 80's/90's IIRC, and those things were invincible. The offshoring and declining QC with a lot of this stuff is really depressing as manufacturers scramble to deal with it after the fact once the defects are discovered.

A lot of Chevy small block v8s were roller cam 87+ and they never failed that I ever heard of. Actually even the flat tappet ones didn't fail from 87+, possibly even earlier.
I never heard of lifter failures until the LS engines in the 2000s and then the ram's also.

 

[OVERKILL]

A lot of Chevy small block v8s were roller cam 87+ and they never failed that I ever heard of. Actually even the flat tappet ones didn't fail from 87+, possibly even earlier.
I never heard of lifter failures until the LS engines in the 2000s and then the ram's also.

Yup, I think that's around when the lifters started being offshored. The GM ones during the 80's/90's could also have been made by Federal Mogul.

 

[4WD]

Yup, I think that's around when the lifters started being offshored. The GM ones during the 80's/90's could also have been made by Federal Mogul.

My 5.7’s never needed much but what came from an Exxon pump

 

[Skippy722]

Not sure what gen you’d call mine, it’s a 2019 DS (classic)

Maybe the programming is different but I find the MDS to be seamless

I notice it in my 2019 Ram DS (3.21 gears), my brothers Charger, and my old Durango which had that god awful 545RFE. My brother doesn’t really notice it other than the change on exhaust note (he leaves his exhaust set to ‘loud’ mode all the time). My wife doesn’t notice it at all.

My area is kinda hilly though, give it a little gas to maintain speed and it kinda bogs for a second, transitions out of mds, and then just feels so much better. I use range select to keep it out of MDS 95% of the time.

 

[CivicFK2TypeR]

Gohkan was right every SP-rated oil, even the Euro ones with higher ZDDP, must be mixed-calcium/magnesium.

No, that's not right. There are also motor oils with API SN Plus/SP specification that have no magnesium at all ( <15 ) and still carry this specification. As an example, I mention, for example, Mobil 1 ESP X3 0W40.

 

[buster]

No, that's not right. There are also motor oils with API SN Plus/SP specification that have no magnesium at all (

The point was they will no longer be high Ca based as most are a Ca/Mg blend now.

 

[CivicFK2TypeR]

That's correct. But it is a pure calcium mixture, magnesium is not used and yet you can achieve protection against LSPI. So it is also possible without the addition of magnesium.

 

[Plawan]

Maybe the M1 Ow40 was doing some cleaning?
What year is the Ram? Does it have variable displacement?

 

[travis8352]

Maybe the M1 Ow40 was doing some cleaning?
What year is the Ram? Does it have variable displacement?

Keep reading... the source of the iron was found

 

[Plawan]

Keep reading... the source of the iron was found

8 pages, I guess I don’t wanna know that bad

 

[Brons2]

8 pages, I guess I don’t wanna know that bad

You missed it. There was spalling on the camshaft, significant lobe wear, that was the reason for the high iron.

 

[Plawan]

Yours (DS) would be a 4th gen. But the engine in our trucks is identical, many on the various ram forums have had discussions on this with some saying they can't feel a thing and others saying they notice every time. On my truck I rarely notice it activate, but I do notice it deactivate quite often; little tug and change in the exhaust. I can also feel in the pedal that there is reduced power while MDS is active, takes more effort to keep the speed consistent and once MDS deactivates I now have more power than I need.

What I really don't like about the feature is that it basically runs the 4 cylinders at almost WOT but the RPMs are still really low, which is what I consider badly lugging the engine. Guys on ram forum have data logged their truck and they can see how pretty much all the fuel that went to the 4 cylinders that were turned off, pretty much all that fuel is now redirected to the 4 still working. The fuel savings is beyond miniscule, and is due to "reduced pumping losses" and not because 4 cylinders were turned off, almost all that fuel is still being used.

I cannot notice a change at all in my 2020ds. Only way I know it’s activated or not is if the light is on or off.

 

[Johnny248]

These are very dirty running engines, if the 0W-40 was dissolving deposits from the previous oils, you will see evidence of that in the filter. If you don't, then it wasn't. Will also allow you to check for metal in the filter, which could point to a failing lifter.

They are? I have an '11 5.7 1500 and had the valve covers off and it looks like brand new fresh cast aluminum. I scoped the oil pan and the internals are spotless. 170k on mine, owned since new. I've always used some sort of "syn" oil every 4-5k since new.