Every few days the story gets worse, today they tell me they are replacing the cam, push rods, and lifers. Took the truck in nearly 3 weeks ago due to a rough idle and check ingine light. The code said misfire#2 cylinder. Here's a recap of the various stories since then,

1. Plugs and coil tested good. They swapped the injector to another cylinder and the miss followed the injector. They said a 2nd injector was dodgy so they ordered 2 new injectors.

2. Supposedly Chrysler over ruled them on the injectors and said it was just carbon build up on the valves. They treated it wil 2 doses of carbon cleaner and returned the truck to me. It was still missing and the check engine light came back on within a few miles.

3. They tried to clean the carbon a 3rd time, no luck. Bore scoped it, saw nothing. Previous compression and leak down test was good. They pulled the head and said some valve stem tops were mushroomed. Dealer said they have seen this on several police Hemi's they have repaired, dealer said Dodge has cheap valves. Dealer said they would probably send the head to a machine shop for repair.

4. Dealer said they ordered valves, gaskets, and valve springs.

5. Today they tell me now they are replacing the cam, lifters, and push rods.

So I baby this truck for 27k miles, I change the oil every 3k full synthetic and the freaking motor pukes under very light duty wtf. When I start hearing cams need replacing I now suspect the entire engine is toast, how much metal has been floating around this engine. I asked okay what caused all this damage, they said bad lifters.

 

Make them replace it with a new crated engine. Get a lawyer if you need to.

 

Just spoke with Chrysler customer service. She was reading from the Chrysler engineers notes, it said "we frequently see cam damage when the lifter is damaged so be sure to check the cam for damage". This tells me this isn't the first time they have seen this problem.

 

Well since you are in the states, how many times have you had it in for this issue. Can you not use the lemon law?

 

NJ lemon law expires at 24k miles the truck has 27k.

 

UPDATE: Pics are inbound from the dealer tomorrow, he said I won't like what I see in terms of metal missing from the lifter and cam. Apparently the roller lifter bearing failed. He confirmed its not from abuse its a defective part.

I discussed with him replacing the motor with a crate motor, he can't make that call but agreed if it was him that's what he'd push for. Just throwing in some new parts ignoring the fact that metal is missing from components and likely causing damage elsewhere in the motor is NOT going to fly with me.

I opened a case with Chrysler customer service this afternoon, when I get the pictures tomorrow if they are as bad as the dealer says I'll be all over Chrysler to stop screwing around and replace the motor.

The dealer said when they got the head off the carbon was not nearly as bad as it looked through the bore scope, it looked quite normal and the engine was quite clean.

 

Also just for everyones information, the valve springs have been revised. The older springs are weaker with a cage, the new springs are stronger with no cage.

 

I agree, new engine. Metal shavings could have went anywhere.

 

If the new springs are now stronger/heavier, i would think THAT alone would be wearing harder on the new cam and lifters.
Good thing my 2yrs are just about up on the truck i have, so its time to unload my hemi truck after hearing this.
My next truck wont be a dodge either. I too, have had my share of dodge issues.

 

Here's the pics arrgh!