Hemi Oil Use

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Guys, I picked up a new to me 2008 cream puff Ram 1500. When I got the truck it had a fresh oil change (conventional dealer 5-20 penzoil). Truck seemed to used about a pint in 6000 miles. I swapped over to my bulk synthetic I used in my 2010 from 20,000 to 140,000. It used no oil to speak of but they did reformulate it to meet Dexos between now and the last truck.

When swapping to the synthetic the truck is using about 1qt every 1000 miles. I meant to swap to PYB 5-20 but the store had oil stacked all over and ended up grabbing a 5-30 case on accident. Already dumped one quart in so I figured why not as that was my next step if the 5-20 was still using. My uncle is a Powertrain testing engineer for Chrysler and several of his co workers have ran 5w-30 in their 5.7s since new with no issues. I am about 250 miles into this change with no CEL and the MDS seems to working as much as it normally did. Pressure on the gauge is slightly higher at idle and speed until its fully up to temp then it shows normal at speed and normal to a tick higher at idle depending the type of driving you are doing.

I will report back on the oil usage. Still need to swap in a fresh PCV valve and open the throttle body to clean and check for oil evidence. No smoke or leaks on this engine at all aside from a puff once in a while on start up. (red truck did that too and it was very common on new Hemis from my younger days in a Chrysler dealer).

Just for reference: Purchased at 58,000 miles now just south of 74,000.
 
Roughly half the ram forum uses 5w30 or higher in the mds 5.7, it is a myth that vehicles requires 20 weight. Just more CAFE junk.
 
I've used 5W30 in the majority of my HEMI's with zero issues. Then again I had zero issues with the three HEMI Ram's I have owned. According to a vocal minority this isn't possible because "a lot" of HEMI's are failure prone by a lot I mean it has to be in the hundreds of thousands.
 
What difference does it make? Your an oil guy, follow the science and make a strategy, and then you have done all you can lubrication wise. If not run 5w20 conventional, nobody cares about your equipment more then you, it's your equipment and your strategy. Now, if you decide to follow what the chrysler engineers say for the specific hemi oil, then you will be running a thick oil with a lot of moly as that is what they made specifically for the 6.4. Some guys dumb that down a bit for the 5.7, but many guys running 0w40 srt or PUP in the 5.7 w/o issue. There is a known issue with cams and lobs, kinda makes sense that fca would want an oil with more AW/EP additives. Thus another reason why guys be calling redline 5w30 hemi honey, not only saturated base oil but just as important the most aw/ep additives your gonna find.
 
Originally Posted by burla
Roughly half the ram forum uses 5w30 or higher in the mds 5.7, it is a myth that vehicles requires 20 weight. Just more CAFE junk.

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It will run just fine on 5W30.
 
You already mentioned it but go ahead and get that PCV valve changed out and continue to monitor.
 
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I've run 5w-20, 5w-30, and even 10w-30 (gasp!) in mine and have not encountered any oil-related issues.

Although I did find it strange that 5w-20 is the recommended oil weight for the 5.7L Hemi but the 6.xL Hemi gets 0w-40 as its recommended oil weight. So my most recent change (this morning actually) saw me dump in 7 quarts of Mobil 1 5w-40.

Yes, that's an HD Diesel oil, but it's dual rated (SN), so I'm giving it a day in court...or several actually.

I'll report back back if anything explodes, burns up, or otherwise stops working...
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Ha, will report back. We are a big Mopar family and have had hemis from 5.7 early/6.1/6.4 truck flavor. Never an engine issue (I had some gasket issues on my 2010 but that truck was a anomaly for issues). This white truck runs great and is quieter on the 5-30. It tows frequently on long trips so the 5-30 is likely a better setup for it but my 2010 was always on 5-20 and did as much or more towing along with DD duty. This truck is mostly parked inside and used as needed (Can't drive a Dodge in the snow at all if you want it to not turn to dust).

Oddly, I use the same bulk synthetic in my DD (Minty 98 Volvo S70 T-5) and it barely moves on the stick in 5000 miles (car currently has around 182,000 on the clock). Could likely go longer intervals but these have an issue with gunking up with PCV system but this car seems to be in great shape in that area so I want to keep it that way. Manual specifies 10,000 OCI IIRC.

I used the 0-20 flavor bulk synthetic in my Girlfriends 2016 Civic for one change and that car actually used some oil (generally never moves on the stick). So maybe my bulk stuff has changed enough. The 2010 Ram actually used about a pint less oil per change on the bulk Synthetic but that was before it was Dexos formulated.

Anyhow, with a 5000 interval and no DD usage I am sure it'll live a long happy life on 5-30 Conventional as long as it keeps oil usage at bay.
 
So I have a 2017 ram with the 5.7 and I use pennzoil platinum 5w20 or shell rosella gas truck 5w20 and I'm also using a quart every 1500 miles roughly. Only 24k on it, and I can also hear a very pronounced lifter tick at start up and then ever so slightly when hot. Most likely the one that's going to fail in the future. Luckily for me it's a lease but I still don't like how much oil it uses. With that being said I will be changing it tomorrow with 5w30 synthetic and we'll see what happens. I was tempted to use Rotella 5w40 but we are about to go into winter months.
 
Most of the dads/uncles in my family work directly for FCA or via a Dealership. The lifter tick on startup is perfectly normal they all do it to varying degrees and frequency. The tick while running (you sure is just isn't the trademark Hemi tick?) This white 2008 is notably quieter at idle on the PYB 5-30. Unfortunately, I believe Chrysler's "normal" oil consumption guidelines is 1qt:1000 miles. Not sure how they can legally do that? I assume the EPA doesn't care or test how emissions change when oil is being burned at high rates. Clearly using 1 quart every 1000 miles is going to change the type of emissions.

My red truck never sounded very "ticky" while running. My mom's 14 Durango is more "ticky". This white truck is slightly more noisy than the red 2010 but nothing outside of normal. Lifter failures seem to be more prominent in the 11-13 model year trucks. The roller portion of the lifter locks up and wears the camshaft lobe down.
 
+1 on replacing the PCV valve.

These newer Dodge V-8's in recent years come with cheap ones from the factory. I have had both the 4.7 and 5.7 V-8 in 2 Dodge Ram trucks. PVC's replaced. No oil loss.

The last swap out I did with a PVC....the old one literally 'shattered' in my hand as I removed it.

And you should be good on 5w30. I use it all the time in mine. Try Pennzoil High Mileage or Maxlife to slow down the oil consumption also, to see if that helps.

My 2 cents.


GL
 
Thanks Greg, I will see how it reacts to PYB. If it keeps consumption down to normal i will stick with that. If not my next step was to try high mileage formula.

Currently messing with some suspension components and won't be driving it much in the winter. When that's finished up I will toss in a new PCV valve and give the throttle body a nice cleanup.

On the other side, my dad's 02 4.7 1500 has about 193,000 on it and uses no noticeable oil over a 5000 mile interval. Great little truck just very down on power compared to a 5.7.
 
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