What's wrong with my Hemi?

[nts007]

If you have the ability and skill to pull the cam I'd say do it. If you were anywhere close I would help. On the flip side if you get stranded by me we could get u fixed up and on your way somehow
Edit: a frend of mine just bought a 14 2500 hemi that had the cam issue happen to it. Got a fully loaded truck with an engine that runs on 7cylinders for $7500. He drove it for 600km home like that. Smoking like crazy though

[DamageWagon]

Ive never worked on the guts of a vehicle engine. Rebuilt my dirtbike totally but that may be slightly different I have no problem tearing into this engine. I just need to know I have all the tools to do it before I start. I'm assuming I need something to pull the balancer, a valve spring compressor, and since I have to pull the heads off should I deck the heads and cut the valve seats? I don't want to go through all the work and miss any good steps. New valve springs and valves are really cheap so I'll just do all of the valves, springs, pushrods, lifters, yokes, and the cam. A factory cam is $74 and I cannot find a performance cam for anything after 2008 so I guess I would go stock again


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[TwinStick]

Here is a couple of quick fixes. Basically stock--- http://moparproshop.com/inc/sdetail/16460/14314 And a little more thump--- http://moparproshop.com/inc/sdetail/16460/9527

Not bad prices either.

[DamageWagon]

Here is a couple of quick fixes. Basically stock--- http://moparproshop.com/inc/sdetail/16460/14314 And a little more thump--- http://moparproshop.com/inc/sdetail/16460/9527

Not bad prices either.

Last week I was trying to nab a used OEM tie rod so I wouldn't have to pay $250 for a new one. $8K for an engine? No, sir!


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[nts007]

Lol. I remember. If your insurance is good and you know for sure the engine is on the way out there is always the 'accidential' potential for hydro locking after a heavy rainfall.

Seriously though the oil analysis first will immediately let you know if parts of your motor are getting worn out or off. The guys there are good and if they see a severe problem they will likely call you. Those guys are top notch.

[TwinStick]

Here is a couple of quick fixes. Basically stock--- http://moparproshop.com/inc/sdetail/16460/14314 And a little more thump--- http://moparproshop.com/inc/sdetail/16460/9527

Not bad prices either.

Last week I was trying to nab a used OEM tie rod so I wouldn't have to pay $250 for a new one. $8K for an engine? No, sir!


Sent from my safe space

When you compare them to these, it's not such a bad deal ! http://www.shophemi.com/c-1198-arringto ... -more.aspx

[nts007]

Actually twin if you factor in the cost of fixing a stock motor and then doing all the performance mods to meet that 800-1000hp mark and be reliable....their setups are pretty affordable then

[TwinStick]

I'd love to find a reputable shop that specializes in Hemi's & see how much it would cost to go through my motor, fix the factory weak points & make it produce around 425hp & 450 ft lbs of torque to the wheels, and still be ultra reliable. It would be great to drive there, give them the keys & have them do it & drive it home afterwards. I could never do it myself. A man has got to know his limitations. LOL I really have no idea what that would even cost ?

[MSCH2112]

I'd love to find a reputable shop that specializes in Hemi's & see how much it would cost to go through my motor, fix the factory weak points & make it produce around 425hp & 450 ft lbs of torque to the wheels, and still be ultra reliable. It would be great to drive there, give them the keys & have them do it & drive it home afterwards. I could never do it myself. A man has got to know his limitations. LOL I really have no idea what that would even cost ?

me too. finding a good shop for hemis and working on the computer gremlins doesn't exactly pop up on every block in cities. you would have to drive some distance and plan on leaving it there for some time.

mike

[Bill2014]

I'd love to find a reputable shop that specializes in Hemi's & see how much it would cost to go through my motor, fix the factory weak points & make it produce around 425hp & 450 ft lbs of torque to the wheels, and still be ultra reliable. It would be great to drive there, give them the keys & have them do it & drive it home afterwards. I could never do it myself. A man has got to know his limitations. LOL I really have no idea what that would even cost ?

Sounds like a stock 6.4 with a tuner

Well - maybe not that much power to the wheels

[DamageWagon]

They would probably say "no, you're starting with the wrong engine. You need an LS motor in there."

Or you could go to Arrington. Apparently they have it figured out, and that magical number is $18k


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[coder]

So did you fix your engine yet DamageWagon?

[DamageWagon]

So did you fix your engine yet DamageWagon?

I talked to a lab gentleman at Blackstone and he confirmed that they can tell me if the bearings or cam are failing. He said to write down my concerns and send it with the sample so they pay attention to it. I'll mail them the sample tomorrow morning. We are leaving to move on Saturday and will be gone two weeks, so if Blackstone says the cam is shot I will order the parts and do the repairs when we get back from moving but before our long adventure. I'm praying the plain bearings for the cam that are part of the block are ok. If Blackstone says they see the copper from them, I'm just going to run the engine until it has a hard time running and then replace the whole thing.


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[TwinStick]

I'd love to find a reputable shop that specializes in Hemi's & see how much it would cost to go through my motor, fix the factory weak points & make it produce around 425hp & 450 ft lbs of torque to the wheels, and still be ultra reliable. It would be great to drive there, give them the keys & have them do it & drive it home afterwards. I could never do it myself. A man has got to know his limitations. LOL I really have no idea what that would even cost ?

Sounds like a stock 6.4 with a tuner

Well - maybe not that much power to the wheels

I have been kicking the idea around, but hey-I just got complete new pads/rotors/calipers & my new key fobs working, so I'm happy for a little while anyways. Then again, this would give me what I want & is a LOT cheaper than a new truck: http://moparproshop.com/inc/sdetail/16460/9527

[DamageWagon]

Well I might have finally found the source of all my headaches... And I'm kicking myself it took so long to figure it out. A few days ago we parked the truck for more than one day with the Dometic fridge still plugged in to battery power during the heat so there was a regular draw on the battery. The fridge has been regularly triggering the low battery cutout which I thought was strange. Anyhow, everything has added up to show that the battery is not supplying effective voltage to the truck and I think that is what is causing my misfire, and my inverter to not work on a regular basis. I didn't notice it during the month I wasn't really driving the truck because the battery was disconnected, although it did run rough for a bit on startup after that. Not a camshaft or something crazy like that. I drove my truck almost 30 minutes a few days ago before it stopped misfiring, and I could hear and feel it running very rough the entire time. Now that we are driving a lot again, it runs great.

So my questions are: do you guys trust NAPA or Advanced Auto to EFFECTIVELY check battery voltage and alternator output? I need to know which one of those (or both) is the problem.

I'm also hoping one of the dealer guys can tell me when kind of voltage the PCM is looking for to run normally?

[Colibri]

At least on my 09' the pcm seems to keep things at 14.6-14.7 volts. Glad to hear you don't need to do anything invasive and expensive sir!

[DamageWagon]

At least on my 09' the pcm seems to keep things at 14.6-14.7 volts. Glad to hear you don't need to do anything invasive and expensive sir!

I hope so. My last oil analysis seemed pretty good, can answered a lot of questions but damn if I'm not happy to hear I don't need to do that haha. Maybe my horrible fuel economy is something else.

[olyelr]

You're horrible fuel economy is from having a power wagon.

[Reloaderguy]

You should be getting 14.7. I'm having a hard time understanding how a battery would cause a misfire with electronic ignition. I would think a problem with your alternator would be the cause of the battery. Have you checked your coils?

[OffroadTreks]

You should be getting 14.7. I'm having a hard time understanding how a battery would cause a misfire with electronic ignition. I would think a problem with your alternator would be the cause of the battery. Have you checked your coils?

/\ that

[TwinStick]

Yeah, I would check the coils. Maybe if battery is not/can not supply enough of the correct voltage it may cause that. Reg batteries are not meant to be deeply discharged & after a complete discharge, it may never hold a full charge again. And your alternator may be working overtime trying to make up the difference. Switch batteries from a vehicle you KNOW has a good battery & see. If not, nothing spent.

[DamageWagon]

I'll be swapping in my camper battery (Optima Yellow Top) and see how it goes. The coils were one of the first suspects, the truck had original Mopar coils. Right before I bought the truck the owner bought a set of MSD's and I installed them. Made zero difference and I still have the Mopars in a box.

I think the coils or the PCM might not be getting enough voltage. My fuel economy has always been around 11-12, with or without the camper. Best I've ever seen was 13 going 55 on flat land. I drive like a grandma on the pavement. When I talked with Colibri he was doing better than that on beadlocks and 37's in a 3rd gen, that's why I'm thinking mileage is low.

[TwinStick]

I installed aftermarket Accel coil in my Ford Ranger. It caused all sorts of weird issues. Ended up with factory new coil & no more issues. Looks like i already said that back in Dec of 2016 !

[RustyPW]

On the 3G's. When the battery gets weak. Even though it tests ok. It will cause some problems that are hard to figure out. There have been a couple of threads on this. You might want to check this out.

[DamageWagon]

This is a long-term final update to these issues for anyone who has experienced them. I believed I knew the issue for a long time but did not want to post it until I knew I had the fix.

To sum things up, my truck is a 2011 with the 5.7 Hemi. It was a law enforcement truck for 100,000 miles, went to another owner for 40,000, then I bought it and it now has 180,000 on it. I have always had rough running of the engine at best and AGGRESSIVE misfiring on occasion, which recently has been repeatable like a clock. Aggressive misfiring as in, I believed that it was possible a piston might shatter or something along those lines and considered parking the truck for several hours to let the engine temps normalize.

The problem and the fix. All along it looks like the problem was a leaking exhaust manifold on both sides in three places total. Just having an exhaust manifold leak was enough to cause rough running, notable torque loss, misfiring. Lower temperatures and east drives were the worst. Towing anything even light was the best where the engine was worked harder and would lead to the smoothest running. I was finally able to take three days and do some work to the truck. I recently got low oil pressure so I ran Amsoil engine flush and dropped the oil pan and cleaned the oil pickup and pan with kerosene, replaced the pickup o-ring but reused the oil pan gasket although I had a new one on hand. Did an oil change to Amsoil 0w-30. Pulled both exhaust manifolds and found that the upper-rear bolt was sheared at the head on both sides. I ported the manifolds and cleaned all mating surfaces with a wire wheel. Attempted to plane the mating surfaces with sandpaper but it wasn’t quite working and I figured the new manifold gaskets have quite a bit of squish to them so I reinstalled the manifolds using new gaskets and Class 10.9 M8-1.25x40mm screws.

This made a huge change!!! I did have a bit so fun issue with a stick lifter when I fired the truck back up, but otherwise once oil got to temp it popped free and everything has been healthy ever since. No more misfires, it runs like a top next to how it has always been! It does still run a little rough and I hope the Amsoil PI and intake cleaner will help.

The 35mm bolts are too short. They work but are at the limit of what works. I’m ordering some 50mm bolts to replace them which will give even more thread depth into the head than the factory hardware did.