I'm new to this forum but not to the Hemi world. Been reading through all the posts and it seems you guys are the most helpful than the other forums.

Long story short, I have been replacing lifters on 3rd and 4th gen Ram in my town and I am having a huge problem with some of the jobs on 09+ Rams that I've done specially the latest one.
So as usual misfire and tick cylinder #3 or #5, truck comes in tear apart, send heads to machine shop to get resurfaced and valve check, put back together and voila no misfire anymore BUT! roughly 3 out of 10 lifter jobs that I do I am facing lifter ticking noise after replacing all lifters, and now the last one is doing the same thing 2014 Ram.
Options that I've tried through out the 3 trucks that are ticking:
lifters and Cam
-kit from ebay ticking both sides.
-camshaft and lifters from dealer, ticking both sides!

priming (attached pictures):
-Assembly lube
-dipped in oil for a couple of hours

Oil
-Redline 5w30
-Castrol 5w20 with Lucas treatment

Technical info:
-No valvetrain movement (video attached)
-Pushrods installed on the exact same slots as removed
-No misfire at idle or under the load (live data stream) but it does feel like it's running rough but it could be just me.
-Exhaust manifold torques to spec with new gaskets
-Relieved oil pressure on corner bolts of rocker arms to bleed air then torqued down to 16ftlb.
-Pushrods cleaned in and out

My opinion: Push rods and rockers do look a little worn out but my understanding is that the rocker arm is a pivot point so once the heads are shaved down then push rods are now considered longer so it evens out the worn out rods, PLUS the engines were waaaay quitter at when they came in.
I compared the head gaskets this time for thickness and they are exactly the same so are the passages.

After staring at valvetrain on the last job for almost 4 hours and scratching my head, I noticed the intake rockers squirt oil at a very high pressure but the exhaust not so much it was more of a drip as of the lifters don't have much of oil pressure to push through the rod.

So let me know what I should try next?
I have another one lined up but I want to make the last one %100 quite (the customer doesn't mind the tick but I'm going crazy, kind of a perfectionist lol) before tackling another one.

Things can't do:
-MDS delete (forget about it, gas price is crazy and no customer is willing to alter the OEM spec in my village).
-longer pushrods, as mentioned above rods can't be faulty.
-EngineTech kit, I've read more negative reviews than positive.

Videos:
Ticking in Action
Valvetrain

 

Another member was having fun with lifters, though that was on a 4.7. What he found, was that even the NEW sets of lifters would have a couple that didn't operate properly...... But, given that you have to pull the heads to change the lifters...... (whose idea was THAT???) simply swapping them out is a major undertaking..... No idea if one manufacturer is any better than any of the others....

 

I would make sure all the oily holes are lined up. Are the lifters the same from the left head to the right head? And I check all the rockers to make sure you don't have a pugged oil port on the rocker. I would also check the push rods to see if there is blockage. You could have a plug rocker shaft. By any change do you remove the oil control valve and inspect for debris?

 

Thanks for the ideas.
Every time before installing the push rods I blow air into them (using air compressor) then insect them using a flash light (shine through) to make sure there is no blockage.
It's not easy to see inside of the shaft but I do use compressed seafoam and air blower to push out whatever is inside the shaft.
about OCVs, I am assuming you're talking about the MDS solenoids, I never remove them unless the MDS isn't kicking in or throwing code, also the last job that I did the truck was extremely quite before I started the job so if any of the valves were bad then they should've made the engine tick before the lifter job. However you might be onto something here so I'll give it a shot as it's easy to get them out.

 

The oil control valve is under the intake manifold right behind the timing chain. There was a star case about debris on the control valve. If you still have the oil pan off. I would remove a bearing cap and check the bearings. One at a time.

 

Master Hemi,

did you ever figure this out?? I am having the exact same problems!!

 

Just had this issue found a lot of debris in the first mds solenoid screen I pulled going to pull the other 3 mds solenoids and oil control solenoid. imthinking the lifters are starved from the debris in the solenoids filters. pretty sure those mds solenoids sit right in the top of the oil gallery for the lifters

 

I can't remember where I read it, but one person hypothesized that the stock oil pump wasn't capable of pumping enough oil during low load conditions. Idle, low speed, etc. Have you change out for a high flow?

 

I would be curious where the debris is coming from..... that might tell an interesting tale.