Lost the “Lifter Lottery”....

We have repaired probably 15-20 with lifter issues, had one that needed a cam also. He drove it for two weeks with a lifter collapsed and killed the roller on the lifter. 99% of the time the AFM lifters either stick collapses of don’t latch back and the cylinder has no compression from the valves not opening.

Have had probably 4-5 with low oil pressure issues. Two were the relief valve stuck, tow were screens stopped up and the other was probably the oring.

Dodge has a HUGE issue with cams and lifters on the Hemi engines, they are having roller failures and wiping out the cams. Parts and near impossible to find right now.

They all have their issues, I’d rather take my chances with the GM stuff than anyone else’s these day. Much easier to work on and a far better design IMO.

 

I’m with you. With GM, there’s support everywhere. With so many in the business supplying products, there’s at least options for sourcing stuff.

 

Yep, although in my shop we don`t see many hemi fails.


They are deactivating cyl`s to save fuel, but yeah in the real world dont see a big advantage unless you do a lot of highway .

We are seeing GM failures @ 30-40k and less, not huge numbers, but many.

 

Get a Cummins, drive it.

 

What Cummins? Are we doing 12V? 24V? Deleted or not? EcoDiesel? 4BT? R2.8?

 

Yes.

lol. Depends on your application, but they are all excellent. Of all the fleets we service, they are the most trouble free and long lived.

We service a fleet of 3500 duallys used to move cattle nationwide, they have on average 600-700k on them, and never been down.

We race a`96 12v twin turbo with 280K, 1400 HP and 2300Ft lbs, stock bottom end. They are an awesome machine.

We have made over 250 passes in two years with no trouble; won Modified diesel both years.

It`s like riding in a missle...

 

Not really true anymore.

 

Wow, that really stinks.

I bought a 96 Dodge Grand Caravan brand new. At 500 miles something broke inside the rear drum brakes, probably an incorrectly installed spring? At just under 20K miles the water pump failed. At a little over 80K the transmission failed. Had it rebuilt by an independent transmission shop, still didn't shift correctly and they couldn't ever get it right, it lasted until 100-110K.

At that time I owned a forklift company and we yanked the transmission to rebuild it. Found something supposedly was installed incorrectly on the trans rebuild by the rebuilder. Rebuilt it with the advise of the place that wholesales a bunch of transmission parts out here. It still wasn't 100% right, even switched out the computer that controls it as they thought that was part of the problem? Talked again to the owner of the parts place and he said when he redid his, same van, it still wasn't great and said that transmission design just sucked and he would sell it. Sold it to my employee that rebuilt it for $1,000. About 6 months later he got in a wreck with it and the insurance company gave him over $2,000 for it, so he made out.

 

I love how this statement remains true relative to the generation of person working on the vehicle. Tryin to stay away from those super advanced LS chevy engines eh? Fancy pants hydraulic rollers and what not lol. Yet I bet your father would have a stroke about an 'ECT Sensor'. "I'll take my old flat head ford thank ya!" I'm sure he'd say as my grandpa did. Great to see the tradition living on.

 

The dodge products of that era were def suspect.

Most of them today are a huge improvment.

Though every manufact has their problem children.

 

We work on everything.

Some of the new things are awesome.

Some are not.

 

I will say I would prefer to work on an old SBC in a old pickup. You could live in that engine bay, with the engine in there. A couple times I was cursing the chevy engineers on their fastener location this weekend.

Question for you full time mechanic guys. Since I got it this far apart already and its at 90K mi...thoughts on sending the injectors out for cleaning? Do these generation have issues or does the HP keep things good on their own?

 

Pics bitch!!

 

That is a DI truck isn’t it? I wouldn’t waste my money.
Make sure you pull the intake valves and wire brush them though.

 

While we're at it, my wife's 6.2 just had a oil pressure sensor failure, which is apparently pretty common, so we either have no oil pressure or 80 psi.

And the oil cooler block plate is leaking even after replacing the gasket.

The front crank seal is seeping and so is the valve cover gasket but it's not bad enough to mess with at this point.

For all the hype about LS engines I've heard on the internet, this is one leaky ass engine.

Oh yeah the oil cooler lines are leaking too but I'm going to let that slide since my other big block Yukon has oil leaking cooler lines as well. So I guess that's just a standard option.

 

You can do the oil pressure sensor in about 10 minute with an extension and a swivel socket. Youtube it. I did mine a few years ago and did one for my dad a few weeks ago.

 

90K, and you're rebuilding it? OK

My 4.7L SOHC Dodge/Mercedes engine now has over 250K, does not burn oil, does not leak oil, etc. All original engine internals. I did put HO cams in it ~ 12K miles ago myself. Pretty cool cams- hollow! Each lobe has an oiling hole for the lifter.
Again, SOHC engine. One of the best motors ever designed and built. Great ci/HP/Tq ratios!

Good luck with your build!

 

Oh yea? Doesn't that Dodge Hemi have 1 cam and lifters/pushrods? Not like my daimler/chrysler 4.7 SOHC V8! Don't say all are bad designs, my > 250K on all stock internals says different on my Truck. Now the front end/ball joints are another issue.

 

Having been through the fiasco of injectors failing one at a time on another vehicle, I’m all for having injectors cleaned and inspected. I sent mine to Eric Derr, a well-known injector guy in big hp circles. He did my VFR injectors, as well. He’s inexpensive, with quick turnaround.