Pictures of Dodge Pentastar 3.6L head

Friends have a Dodge Grand Caravan, 2016 I think, that ticks loudly. It's high-mileage for the year, somewhere north of 250K km (that is, > 150K miles). Lots of that is easy highway miles.

Is valve train ticking in a 3.6 Pentastar always a sign of impending failure, or can it be fairly innocuous? A lot of small-block Chevys sounded very similar back in the day, and went for a long time like that without problems.

Three other friends have Dodge vans with the 3.6; two of the engines have been fine, but the other needed both heads replaced out of warranty.
 
There does seem to be a lot of reported failures with the 3.6 and the hemis. But also keep in mind the sheer volume of sales of these engines. FCA probably sells almost 3/4 of a million 5.7's and 6.4's a year at this point, between the charger, challenger, jeep gc, jeep grand wagoneer, jeep wrangler, dodge durango, ram 1500, ram 2500, and it's been around since 2005-ish though obviously not selling as much in early years.

Ram 1500 alone sold 460k trucks last year. The vast majority are 5.7.

These engines are in everything they sell. The 3.6 is often in the high volume cheaper models like minivans and base cars, not exactly people known to care about their stuff.

If there are currently 10 million 5.7's on the road, a 3 percent failure rate is 300,000. Even at that rate the various FCA forums would be flooded daily with 100's of reports, which we don't see.
 
The Dodge van I had the use of for it's 225k mile life only needed one head done under recall back in 2014/15 I believe and at that time if misfired only at idle. The dealer said it was because the robots cut the valve seat on the exhaust side to the wrong size or something along those lines. Trouble free engine wise other than the sensors failing in the oil cooler. I do believe it was burning a tad bit of oil towards the end though or the oil cooler was leaking in a place I couldn't see. Never any ticking or the like, still pulled like a champ too.
 
There does seem to be a lot of reported failures with the 3.6 and the hemis. But also keep in mind the sheer volume of sales of these engines. FCA probably sells almost 3/4 of a million 5.7's and 6.4's a year at this point, between the charger, challenger, jeep gc, jeep grand wagoneer, jeep wrangler, dodge durango, ram 1500, ram 2500, and it's been around since 2005-ish though obviously not selling as much in early years.

Ram 1500 alone sold 460k trucks last year. The vast majority are 5.7.

These engines are in everything they sell. The 3.6 is often in the high volume cheaper models like minivans and base cars, not exactly people known to care about their stuff.

If there are currently 10 million 5.7's on the road, a 3 percent failure rate is 300,000. Even at that rate the various FCA forums would be flooded daily with 100's of reports, which we don't see.
There were 10,000,000 of the first generation 3.6L engines produced, before the PUG upgrade. If I had to venture a guess including the PUG, probably 12 million and counting. I don't think they have any immediate plans of discontinuing it, or going to DI. As with anything mass produced there are going to be problems, but when you take into account how many were made, I'd say they're doing reasonably well. The Internet tends to blow things out of proportion, people join forums to complain and then disappear. People read about someone's complaints, spread the word, and the problem appears to grow. That's human nature, and the power of social media, and message boards. JMO
 
Is valve train ticking in a 3.6 Pentastar always a sign of impending failure, or can it be fairly innocuous? A lot of small-block Chevys sounded very similar back in the day, and went for a long time like that without problems.

From what I've read and seen online, any top end ticking is s sign of a valvetrain issue on a pentastar. It will eventually lead to disaster.

I owned two pentastars a 2013 and a 2017. I never had a problem with either, but only owned each until about 70K miles.
 
My ‘14 3.6 JGC is still perfect at 86k. No oil leaks, ticks, or oil usage. Only repair was an oil pressure sensor replaced under warranty. I have a Maxcare lifetime warranty, not worried.

So, I bought another in a ‘22 JGC, but could only get an 8 year/125k on that one.
 
I've never personally known anyone with 3.6 Pentastar issues or the 3.2 in the Cherokee. I always thought of it as a good motor except for the first couple years. Like everything these days, you have to do maintenance with thin oils used nowadays. I do a service at no more than 4,000 miles with a new filter. Cheap insurance. Another thing is that I would use 89 octane or E-15 in this motor.
 
When I pull a head, I like to pull the other as well. (When applicable) Since one side is getting a new head gasket, I like a new one on the other side as well. Plus it gives a chance to inspect for any "while I'm in here" work, say a valve on the other side is starting to go and you can catch it and fix it with a simple guide replacement or fresh valve angles before it becomes a whole head replacement as well.

I'm obsessive about blueprinting though. If in a V8, 7 of the chambers are 58 cc and one is 58.5 cc, I will make the other chambers 58.5 cc as well so they're all as equal as possible. When assembling an engine, I will match the pistons with .001-.002" variance with the cylinder that also has .001-.002" variance in deck height so compression is dead even across the board.

Just throwing out numbers... If the OEM gasket on the other side is .0032" and the fresh one with the new head compresses at .0030", while insignificant, it would always be in the back of my mind.
 
Our 2019 Grand caravan needed a new head right past 60k. Literally like a 20 miles past the warranty period.
The problem was said to have been fixed for the later models but apparently not so.
 
From what I've read and seen online, any top end ticking is s sign of a valvetrain issue on a pentastar. It will eventually lead to disaster.

I owned two pentastars a 2013 and a 2017. I never had a problem with either, but only owned each until about 70K miles.
What would your advice be to the people with the one that's ticking?

Is it a stitch-in-time sort of thing, where addressing it before it gets too bad would warrant only the replacement of the lifters but leaving it could take out the engine?
 
What would your advice be to the people with the one that's ticking?

Is it a stitch-in-time sort of thing, where addressing it before it gets too bad would warrant only the replacement of the lifters but leaving it could take out the engine?
Sell it fast....:)
 
Our 2019 Grand caravan needed a new head right past 60k. Literally like a 20 miles past the warranty period.
The problem was said to have been fixed for the later models but apparently not so.
I hope FCA/Stellantis honoured the warranty! Surely the failure started well before it actually showed up.
 
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