Best explanation I've seen so far for Hemi cam/lifter failures

I wonder if he knows that the 6M cars don't have MDS. One more reason to buy a manual car, in my mind.

:lol:

I have an additional theory, not a competing or different one, but something that might contribute to the lifter issue.

Everyone has heard of the "hemi tick". My 2015 R/T 6M ended up getting new lifters and pushrods on one side of the motor due to an excessive tick. I think when the pushrods are manufactured, they sometimes end up being a little short, causing clearance between the pushrod and lifter resulting in a "tick". The check per the STAR case was to pull the pushrods and check for bent ones, and if found replace all the pushrods and lifters on that side, and all for free because it was under warranty. Now, I don't believe that I bent the pushrods by over-revving the motor, so why were they bent? I think they were made that way and it is a manufacturing issue.

To flesh out the "manufacturing issue" idea, let me share a past experience. Years and years ago I ordered the MP conversion pushrods to put Magnum heads on an LA block. When they came, I opened the package and noticed that one pushrod was bent. So I rolled all of them on my desk and found 4 bent pushrods in total. These were new in the box, direct from MP. So, called the place I ordered them from and they sent me another box of 16 pushrods. Don't remember how many of those were bent, but some were. I ended up with a full set of straight pushrods between the two boxes (that I never ended up using :BangHead:) and went on my way. Remember, both of these boxes were brand new.

I think it was the method of manufacturing that caused the pushrods to be bent when new. They are just a tube cut to length with ball ends pressed in. So what happens if the process says "press ends in until they are fully seated" but you start with an end that is slightly off square or for some other reason it takes a bunch more force to press in than it should? Could it maybe bow or "s" curve the pushrod? I think it can, and does, resulting in a pushrod that is below spec for length.

Any guesses how the OEM G3 Hemi pushrods are manufactured? Yep, tube cut to length with ends pressed in.

How does that relate to the lifter issue? Well, I'm not going to say I have enough experience to say for sure, but to me it seems reasonable that too much gap on the pushrod means it could be hammering on the lifter which could cause the rollers in the lifter to fail. Hey, wait...the guy in the video said the same thing when talking about the 3 springs under the MDS valve in the lifter. :D

If so, this would mean that both 6M and 8A cars could have issues. It also means that non-MDS lifters in an MDS motor that isn't seeing enough oil on the lifters could fail.

The fix? Buy a 6M car that doesn't have MDS and swap out the OEM pushrods for a quality set of aftermarket ones; then off you go with a quieter Hemi that will last longer.

Just some thoughts.