Oil recommendation for Pentastar V6 after valvetrain replacement

[TheOilMonkey]

Hi guys,

Long time viewer few time poster, I live in suburbs outside Chicago. Daily driven 2019 Jeep grand Cherokee Laredo 88k on the clock. Mainly city/suburb occasional highway driving. I Bought it used with 40k mi in 2022.

Since owning the vehicle I consistently used Mobil 1 Extended Performance 0w20 and Mopar mo-349 oil filters for 5-8k OCI.

It fell to the dreaded “pentastar tick” recently had both intake cams, rockers, lifters, pcv valve, Vvl solenoids and lifters replaced in December. Total cost $2.5k by ordering mopar parts online rather than the stealership charging $12k for a new engine.

I’m currently running Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5w30 and Mopar oil filter. Would 0w40 benefit in any way? Or, should I stick with 5w30 going forward?

 

[demarpaint]

Mobil 1 ESP 0W30 or 5W30 would be my pick.

 

[Mr.GTRSpecV]

Interesting. Sorry to hear about the whole replacement ordeal.

This is my opinion, and others can chime in, but I would stick to oils that have a MB 229.5/A40/LL01 ratings. As they have HTHS ratings of 3.5 and above and dump and refill with a new oil filter every 5,000 miles.

 

[melk]

My 2012 Pentastar with 190k lives quite happily on Valvoline Restore and Protect 5w30.

The only other oil I would run if not Valvoline Restore and Protect would be Mobil 1 ESP 0w30

 

[TheOilMonkey]

Bank 1 was worse than bank 2.

 

[GW.]

In my Pentastar I’ve run Mobil 1 ESP 0W-30 and AMSOIL Signature Series 0w30 with great success. Super quiet and no dreaded dry start rattling. I use Carquest Extended Performance oil filters.

I found the 0W-20 very loud and dumped it right away.

 

[cb4017]

Wow. Those are toast.

I'm currently running Mobil 1 0w-30 ESP in my 25 Gladiator. I plan on 5K OCIs with used oil analysis to watch out for increased wear metals. I figure if I see a spike in iron I better get it checked.

 

[The Critic]

I think it's a metallurgy issue that isn't directly correlated to oil type.

 

[Chief2025]

I think it's a metallurgy issue that isn't directly correlated to oil type.

I would agree with you.

 

[stanlee]

Pentastar rocker arm and subsequent cam/lobe damage has nothing to do with oil. What you do is budget rocker arm replacement every 100k miles and fix as soon as you hear noise so you don’t damage the cam. This is a 15 year old problem, every oil has been tried. Rule of thumb: Pentastar V6 valvertain typically fail around 100k miles and Hemi V8 valvetrain typically fail around 200k miles. If you want/own/love these engines plan accordingly.

 

[Chief2025]

Pentastar rocker arm and subsequent cam/lobe damage has nothing to do with oil. What you do is budget rocker arm replacement every 100k miles and fix as soon as you hear noise so you don’t damage the cam. This is a 15 year old problem, every oil has been tried. Rule of thumb: Pentastar V6 valvertain typically fail around 100k miles and Hemi V8 valvetrain typically fail around 200k miles. If you want/own/love these engines plan accordingly.

They just don't make em like they used to...

 

[Oliveoil2]

Such planned obsolescence.

 

[rszappa1]

If it was me I would get rid of it................

 

[Legs4Arms]

Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5W-30 gets my vote. I'm currently running Mobil 1 5W-30 High Mileage in a 2014 3.6L Wrangler Sport only because it has and sees so few miles, is out of warranty, and figure those 11yr old seals could use a little love. I ditched the 5W-20 thing the first change it was out of warranty.

Runs smoother than a Georgia Peach

 

[GW.]

With over 10 million Pentastars produced in everything from soccer mom vans, pickups, Jeeps, and cars it’s a very low percentage with cam failures.

 

[stanlee]

With over 10 million Pentastars produced in everything from soccer mom vans, pickups, Jeeps, and cars it’s a very low percentage with cam failures.

I beg to differ. Average person buys a new car every 4-6 years and drives 14k miles a year. It’s a low failure rate for them but nobody is tracking 2nd hand, out of warranty failures when it occurs. There are also a bunch of people who ignore the tick well past failure. They are NOTORIOUS for failure after 100k miles, talk to ANY mechanic who regularly services Chrysler products. It’s independent Mopar specialist bread and butter. This is a $3000-4k repair in today’s market if the cam is damaged and then you hope metal particles haven’t circulated thru the engine. That might be fine to spend on a 10 year old wrangler that holds value but a 10 year old Pentastar Dodge charger with 100k miles it’s not worth fixing if you aren’t in love with the car. It is 90% of the reason you don’t buy a high mileage Pentastar IF you haven’t researched and planned/budgeted for this to happen. The Chrysler 3.7L V6/4.7L V8s (same architecture) are known for dropping valve seats if overheated a little bit (aluminum head/steel seat, different expansion rates drop seats when overheated just a little bit). The Hemi V8 is known for the Hemi tick (lifter then cam failure if not addressed) and the Pentastar V6 propensity for failed rocker arms is MUCH worse than either of those two because those typically fail at a reasonable engine life cycle (200k+ miles) but the point is Chrysler in general has had valvetrain reliability issues for a very long time. If we aren’t dismissive of high volume production Ford 5.4L and cam phaser issues, GMs 5.3/6.2L V8 DOD lifter issues or Nissans CVT issues we sure as hell aren’t going to dismiss Pentastar valvetrain failure as infrequent.

 

[97prizm]

Hi guys,

Long time viewer few time poster, I live in suburbs outside Chicago. Daily driven 2019 Jeep grand Cherokee Laredo 88k on the clock. Mainly city/suburb occasional highway driving. I Bought it used with 40k mi in 2022.

Since owning the vehicle I consistently used Mobil 1 Extended Performance 0w20 and Mopar mo-349 oil filters for 5-8k OCI.

It fell to the dreaded “pentastar tick” recently had both intake cams, rockers, lifters, pcv valve, Vvl solenoids and lifters replaced in December. Total cost $2.5k by ordering mopar parts online rather than the stealership charging $12k for a new engine.

I’m currently running Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5w30 and Mopar oil filter. Would 0w40 benefit in any way? Or, should I stick with 5w30 going forward?

There wasn't an extended warranty or good will to replace it?

 

[GW.]

I beg to differ. Average person buys a new car every 4-6 years and drives 14k miles a year. It’s a low failure rate for them but nobody is tracking 2nd hand, out of warranty failures when it occurs. There are also a bunch of people who ignore the tick well past failure. They are NOTORIOUS for failure after 100k miles, talk to ANY mechanic who regularly services Chrysler products. It’s independent Mopar specialist bread and butter. This is a $3000-4k repair in today’s market if the cam is damaged and then you hope metal particles haven’t circulated thru the engine. That might be fine to spend on a 10 year old wrangler that holds value but a 10 year old Pentastar Dodge charger with 100k miles it’s not worth fixing if you aren’t in love with the car. It is 90% of the reason you don’t buy a high mileage Pentastar IF you haven’t researched and planned/budgeted for this to happen. The Chrysler 3.7L V6/4.7L V8s (same architecture) are known for dropping valve seats if overheated a little bit (aluminum head/steel seat, different expansion rates drop seats when overheated just a little bit). The Hemi V8 is known for the Hemi tick (lifter then cam failure if not addressed) and the Pentastar V6 propensity for failed rocker arms is MUCH worse than either of those two because those typically fail at a reasonable engine life cycle (200k+ miles) but the point is Chrysler in general has had valvetrain reliability issues for a very long time. If we aren’t dismissive of high volume production Ford 5.4L and cam phaser issues, GMs 5.3/6.2L V8 DOD lifter issues or Nissans CVT issues we sure as hell aren’t going to dismiss Pentastar valvetrain failure as infrequent.

Even at single percentage points it’s enough to keep every shop in the US familiar with the issue. But it’s still very few at the consumer level.

 

[hemioiler]

The hemi over the years must have sold over 10 million copies. A 2% failure rate means 200,000 failures. Its easy to see why these issues seem large, but have to remember to keep the sheer volume of engines sold in mind.

Even a 5% (half million) failure rate is terrible, but is it going to effect me personally? Statistically its unlikely.

 

[MuzzleFlash40]