6.4 hemi with 5w30 oil?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Feb 19, 2019
Messages
98
Location
Nevada
I know this would void my warranty but am I crazy for thinking about putting 5w30 oil in a 0w40 recommend engine? They did the reliability testing with 5W30 and apparently did well. It would be cheaper for sure. Do you guys think I will be hurting my engine any? Positives and negatives? Appreciate your help. Ram 2500 6.4
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by kschachn
Please post the exact language out of your owner's manual or warranty booklet in regards to oil grade and warranty.

If you're talking about ram doing the reliability testing with 5w 30 they really did there's actually a couple forms here with the YouTube video with Rams chief engineer saying all that.
 
No, you said you "know" your warranty would be violated, I was just asking to see the language they use when saying that.
 
Originally Posted by kschachn
No, you said you "know" your warranty would be violated, I was just asking to see the language they use when saying that.

Oh gotcha. True they don't got nothing like that in there.
 
FYI: the various warranties that come with the vehicle (Powertrain, Bumper to Bumper, Extended, etc.) are not entities which live until they expire or are declared "void" by the issuer. They are merely individual sets of guarantees which cover certain related parts and functions for a certain amount of time. If something goes wrong within that amount of time, you can ask that the guarantee be honored and the problem fixed for free, under the respective warranty's declared conditions, and a decision will be made on whether or not to honer the guarantee.

However, if you failed to abide by the declared conditions of a warranty, e.g. use an engine oil other than what is specified to maintain warranty coverage, the request for a free repair under the warranty can be denied (but here's the important part) if the warranty issuer determines the warranty conditions were not followed or violated somehow.

There are 2 very important aspects to that last part:
1) To deny a warranty claim, the manufacturer will need to decide you violated the warranty requirements. NOTE: they can decide without an investigation, and it's up to you to fight it, but that's an edge case I believe you shouldn't worry about.
2) A warranty claim can be submitted, and it is then approved or denied. The original warranty remains in effect, barring something catastrophic has occurred which takes out the whole warrantied system. So subsequent warranty claims can be submitted, and they will be approved or denied. The warranty doesn't just go "poof" in other words, at their discretion.

Now if you throw a rod through the side of the block and take it in for a new engine and tell them you ran oil that was not specified in the owner's manual, you should not expect to get another engine without paying for it.

However, if you run Dollar General 20W-50 the whole life, and it chews up a camshaft, you could get the replacement work done for free, assuming you do NOT mention you were running cheap, too-thick engine oil. If you do tell them, expect to pay for the repairs.

But you should not worry that they will do some sort of CSI investigation into what the oil's original weight was when new. As long as it does not look like you neglected to change the oil regularly, you would be fine running any weight you wanted to.
 
Originally Posted by The_Nuke
FYI: the various warranties that come with the vehicle (Powertrain, Bumper to Bumper, Extended, etc.) are not entities which live until they expire or are declared "void" by the issuer. They are merely individual sets of guarantees which cover certain related parts and functions for a certain amount of time. If something goes wrong within that amount of time, you can ask that the guarantee be honored and the problem fixed for free, under the respective warranty's declared conditions, and a decision will be made on whether or not to honer the guarantee.

However, if you failed to abide by the declared conditions of a warranty, e.g. use an engine oil other than what is specified to maintain warranty coverage, the request for a free repair under the warranty can be denied (but here's the important part) if the warranty issuer determines the warranty conditions were not followed or violated somehow.

There are 2 very important aspects to that last part:
1) To deny a warranty claim, the manufacturer will need to decide you violated the warranty requirements. NOTE: they can decide without an investigation, and it's up to you to fight it, but that's an edge case I believe you shouldn't worry about.
2) A warranty claim can be submitted, and it is then approved or denied. The original warranty remains in effect, barring something catastrophic has occurred which takes out the whole warrantied system. So subsequent warranty claims can be submitted, and they will be approved or denied. The warranty doesn't just go "poof" in other words, at their discretion.

Now if you throw a rod through the side of the block and take it in for a new engine and tell them you ran oil that was not specified in the owner's manual, you should not expect to get another engine without paying for it.

However, if you run Dollar General 20W-50 the whole life, and it chews up a camshaft, you could get the replacement work done for free, assuming you do NOT mention you were running cheap, too-thick engine oil. If you do tell them, expect to pay for the repairs.

But you should not worry that they will do some sort of CSI investigation into what the oil's original weight was when new. As long as it does not look like you neglected to change the oil regularly, you would be fine running any weight you wanted to.

Thanks Nuke that's some good info. That gives me piece of mind. I want to use 5w30 because it's more available and a little cheaper. Just making sure it won't hurt my engine any. And my engine will still have a long life
 
The hemi specific oil srt 0w40 spends most of it's life as a 5w30 in the crank case, a very rapid shearing oil. Nearly every uoa I see coming out of a 6.4 has a visc in the 11's during the interval. I would go towards the heavy 5w30's, example is PP is very low visc but PP euro would be almost a 40 weight right from jump street, and I see euro is cheap and widely available. So by simply looking at different oils in the same line you can see something that may be a better fit. And for a hemi I would make sure it had some moly, not sure if euro does or not, I know some of the PP euro's dont have moly. Just look for thicker 5w30's with moly would be the move I'd make.
 
Also the oil they made for the 6,4 has a moly level around 250ppm moly, that is the srt oil numbers. I would try and get close to that if possible. QSUD, Rotella truck and gas, even PYB, would be some to research.
 
Originally Posted by burla
Also the oil they made for the 6,4 has a moly level around 250ppm moly, that is the srt oil numbers. I would try and get close to that if possible. QSUD, Rotella truck and gas, even PYB, would be some to research.

Exactly my thinking as well. I'm currently looking at Shell gas truck because it's almost a 40 weight oil and has a nice slug of moly. Thinking that will be my best bet.
 
Looks like a good choice, I wouldn't put that low tbn on a long interval personally, but I think the choice is solid. Pair that with fram ultra, good cheap combo imo.
 
Originally Posted by burla
Looks like a good choice, I wouldn't put that low tbn on a long interval personally, but I think the choice is solid. Pair that with fram ultra, good cheap combo imo.

Thanks I think it is as well. Yeah I'm not big on long intervals anyways. I also was told you can't rely on the tbn anyways (Forget why).
 
I'm beginning to think the Mobil 1 ESP offerings might be a good choice as well in a 30 grade. That's if you're not concerned about the possibility of a warranty issue in the rare event should something go wrong.
 
In the interest of full disclosure:
the 5.7L Hemi in my Charger spent the first 90K miles of its (albeit rough) life on a diet of whatever the dealership used to change the oil. So I am assuming Mopar 5W-20 conventional/semi-synthetic. Then it ate the camshaft at 90K, got another one, and went another 10K miles before I got the car. I've used all manner of weights, brands, and flavors in the meantime (~50K miles), and the engine definitely chattered more with some than others. But my latest choice, M1 HM 10w-30 has it running the quietest it's ever run with me, and so far I haven't emptied the CC out once yet on this OCI (would have probably collected an ounce or 2 by now with the 5w-xx synthetics in past).

It's hardly evidence, and if it is, I don't know for what, but take that for what it's worth - my Hemi seems to love the HM flavor of Mobil 1 in 10w-30, and I am anything but easy on her...

If there's any take-away from this, I think it should be that you can do everything by the book when it comes to the oil, and you could still get a chewed up camshaft with these Hemis, so while the owner's manual is good to follow, I wouldn't treat it as gospel on subjects in which it has clearly shown to be hardly better than chance on preventing specific problems.
 
Originally Posted by The_Nuke
In the interest of full disclosure:
the 5.7L Hemi in my Charger spent the first 90K miles of its (albeit rough) life on a diet of whatever the dealership used to change the oil. So I am assuming Mopar 5W-20 conventional/semi-synthetic. Then it ate the camshaft at 90K, got another one, and went another 10K miles before I got the car. I've used all manner of weights, brands, and flavors in the meantime (~50K miles), and the engine definitely chattered more with some than others. But my latest choice, M1 HM 10w-30 has it running the quietest it's ever run with me, and so far I haven't emptied the CC out once yet on this OCI (would have probably collected an ounce or 2 by now with the 5w-xx synthetics in past).

It's hardly evidence, and if it is, I don't know for what, but take that for what it's worth - my Hemi seems to love the HM flavor of Mobil 1 in 10w-30, and I am anything but easy on her...

If there's any take-away from this, I think it should be that you can do everything by the book when it comes to the oil, and you could still get a chewed up camshaft with these Hemis, so while the owner's manual is good to follow, I wouldn't treat it as gospel on subjects in which it has clearly shown to be hardly better than chance on preventing specific problems.

For 90K, you never asked the dealer what oil is being used, in a vehicle you paid roughly 40K for?
If there's any take-away from this, you didn;t do everything by the book and clatter resulted, probably much sooner.
 
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en

For 90K, you never asked the dealer what oil is being used, in a vehicle you paid roughly 40K for?
If there's any take-away from this, you didn;t do everything by the book and clatter resulted, probably much sooner.


From mile 0 until mile 109K, the car was a city police squad car for the Rowlett police department here outside of Dallas. I got the car from someone that purchased it at an auction where Rowlett was selling all its retired city vehicles. I looked up the vehicle's service history through CarFax and have been able to piece together a lot of what has been done to the car and when by using that report, but the oil change entries from the dealerships never went into detail about what kind of oil was being used.

From the outset the car rode like it had been ridden hard and put up wet, and it ran like it too. Over the last year, I have nursed it back into civilized life by fixing and/or replacing what I can and when I can. The book? I use it for torque specs, not for oil choices on this car.

I tried the oil specified in the book a couple of times, and each OCI the car could get to where it sounded like a typewriter was being electrocuted under the hood when I would start it up on cold mornings or after sitting long periods of time (1 full day).

So I stopped using that oil., and tried others. Some were more agreeable for both of us (myself as well as the car), some were less. The current choice is both of our favorite so far.
 
You probably seen one of my posts on the Ram forum where I ran MAG 1 5W-30 with no issue. I would still have no problem running a 5W-30 in the 6.4 but the only caveat would be to run a synthetic and to run something with a good moly count. While rare, the 6.4's like their 5.7 Hemi cousins have been known to have a lifter roller bearing fail and swipe a cam lobe flat.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top