Whatever you do Change your oil regularly!!
 

I have a 2004 Ram Hemi 197 k bought it 4 years ago and Have consistently changed the oil at 3000 miles. Normally Quaker state 10 30 and a fram oil filter. Was having issue a few years back truck ran rough and was showing a 420 code Cat efficiency on drivers side. I replaced all 4 O2 sensors and it ran much better but the 420 code returned. Truck was running ok so I was not in a hurry to piss away money on a converter given that it could be something as simple as a burnt wire and as mentioned truck was running fine.
Couple weeks back truck engine started sounding noisy, way too much valve train noise and it started to run like ass again. Oil level was fine but it was now misfiring, poor throttle response, sounded like backfiring into converter, code 420 again and new one 300 (Random misfire) and 302 (Misfire cylinder 2)
Took truck to mechanic, he says oil looks like ****, valve train sounds bad. They replaced both plugs and found coil was shot on cylinder 2 so they replaced it as well. I had them check compression on first three cylinders as it was sounding to me like a broken spring on cylinder 2. First three cylinders on passenger side showed 150 across the board. Found out later that a compression test may not always tell you if you have a broken springs they sometimes do not start to fail until you get the rpms up then they don’t close all the way.
So mechanic at this point is indicting it could be several things and says they need to tear it down more. I asked what if you need to do machine work and they said they would send out. So I paid them for their time and took the beast to a machine shop in my hood.
They took off valve covers off and valve tips were all smashed as where the pushrod tips. The pushrod galleys were so packed with **** that there was zero oil going to the top of motor. The inside of the rocker shaft was packed solid with sludge which is how the oil reaches your top end. They remove the plugs from the ends and cleaned them up. They even had to machine the rocker face where the push rods touch as they actually wore a mark into them.
The machinist said to me whoever had this truck originally did not change the oil regularly. So I have owned the truck for 4 years and have done oil changes every 3000 miles religously and the guy who owned the truck before me had it for 4 years and gave me a crpa load of oil change receipts so the chap that had it for the three years before that was lazy and did not do jack. Not sure if this applies to all vehicles but don`t regular oil changes come under warranty for the first 2-3 years of ownership? If that’s true then this clown had free changes and still was too lazy to get them done.
Valve covers were so full of **** it was unreal. So had the heads rebuilt, New springs, new lifters, new seats , new valves, dropped the pan and cleaned out the pickup on the oil pump as well as the pan. There was some sludge in the pan but mostly in the value covers and passages in the head. Machinist said normally 75-80% of sludge resides in the heads because thats where the heat is generated.
So I picked it up yesterday runs great, almost zero hem tic and power that was not there in the past. Just going to put a quick 50 miles on it and then go and change the oil and filter. Then I will change the oil every 2000 miles next two times then I am switching to Royal Purple synthetic. I asked about putting in some diesel fuel or ,kerosene into oil pan to clean up the left over crap and he said to be careful because I could wash a big chunk of crap loose and plug a lifter or starve some part of engine because oil galley got plugged up and cause other issues.
Said some short oil change intervals and make sure truck is hot when you in for a change and lots of that crap will work loose without causing an issue. Grand total 3600 dollars because some dolt wanted to save himself 60 bucks in oil. Moral of the story Change your Oil regularly.

and for some reason..

Chrysler products have had issues like this since the 70's..
but not a blame on Chrysler...

they just seam to be more sensitive to it...

I so dislike car owners. mostly new car owners...
retired auto mechanic. 43 years.

Did you add any oil or engine additive? Seafoam? Marvel Mystery Oil? Ect? That stuff is designed to break loose any deposits in the engine and you're supposed to change the oil afterwards.

I have a lot of miles on mine and I'm always working on my engine. I have tons of pics but the valve train, heads and pan are always clean as a whistle.

But if you are changing your oil at 3k then I assume you are using conventional oil whereas I am using a full synthetic (Royal Purple). So maybe it is the type of oil you are using if you haven't added any additives.

I agree with Weed.
Synth is the way to go but beware. As synth will clean up your engine just like an engine flush/diesel additive you suggested would.
So be on the look out/aware of, plugged galleries and lifters etc, when changing over to the synth as well.
Al.

No I have not tried any of those products but I have read on diesel forums, most of those mechanics say stuff like STP and the like are merely expensively packaged Kerosene all basically the same. I want to do this desludge deal in small stages I dont want anymore grief with this. Up tell now its been Dino oil but I want to clean it up some more (Quick changes) before going to Synthetic because I Don't see myself doing flush's with 75 dollars for 5.5 liters of Royal Purple, ($100 to fill motor) think I may just look for whats on sale use that to flush then Royal P in the end.
I was doing regular oil changes motor ran fine for a long long time then just started to get louder and louder the Hemi tick got worse and then it thru codes and idle got rough. I was just very surprised how mucked up that motor was and it still ran? Its comical to me.:icon_banana: Now you have to stand still and listen before you hear its running. Power difference is a treat as well. Lot more responsive.

Well I know the motor still has some crap in it, I had the pan off , cleaned the pickup and inside of pan and whatever I could see had crud, polished like new. I was surprised not a lot of crap in the pan, pickup was looking a bit rough. Now with the top rebuilt got most of it I think, and as everyone is indicating synthetics will shake more loose I will just keep on top of it. Unfortunately I bought a truck that did not get a good start mechanically and I ended up paying. If even one person rethinks saving a few bucks by skipping an oil change for their Hemi after reading this, then mission accomplished.

Check out this thread as it has pictures of my internal engine using Royal Purple.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/3rd-gen...-cam-swap.html

LOL Yeah my motor did not look like that inside the valve cover. I wish!! Imagine if you took three or four bricks of butter and smeared them inside the valve covers all over the valves and push some down in the pushrod galleys etc that would be a good representation of what I saw. Abd black as night as well had to really clean off alot of crap to actually see if I had broken valve spring as that was my first thought the way it was running. Turns out it was just plugged full of ****.

Hey Weedahoe thats not one of those crappy Fram oil filters on there is it?

Sure is. Works as they should like anything else. Don't believe the Internet hype