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Posted: 2/16/2020 12:06:49 AM EDT
Have a random misfire on a 2009 VCT motor 5.7 hemi 1500 Laramie.  Spent today putting 16 plugs in that big bitch.

Here's the catch, when I'm getting the misfire, i can pull over, cycle the key a couple times without starting, then start it up and the miss is gone.  It only happens when it's been sitting for a bit or on a morning start up.

Any ideas on what to hit next.  I don't want to throw parts into it blindly.

186K primarily highway miles, no drop in mileage, engine temp, oil temp, oil pressure, or trans temp.  7200 hours on motor.  Any suggestions welcome.

Update: 3/12
Bad roller lifter took out camshaft. When I first noticed a tick I slapped a giant welding magnet on the oil pan and left it there which down the road was a very fortunate thing. The shop got into the motor, replaced cam, lifters, timing set and did plugs and valve seals since we weren't going to get any closer. The mds actuators apparently have small magnets in them and they attracted metal shavings and obviously were replaced with plugs included in the MDS delete portion of the kit. The cam bearings themselves were as you would expect for an engine with this many miles, no gouges or scrapes and still smooth.

They went ahead and pulled the pan to check for debris. My magnet had attracted a metric shit ton of metal shavings but having that magnet on the pan kept the shavings from plugging up the pickup screen and oil starving the engine. Oil pump was replaced and they flushed the passage from pump to pickup and pump to filter and both came clean. It appears the filter and everything else did its job.
The shop also popped off a main cap and rod cap. They also looked good.

I really think the MDS delete has helped the drive-ability immensely. Better throttle response and the trans doesn't hunt and peck for gear driving around town anymore.
The power is the same or better and the fuel economy as a whole is equal or better. I'm getting roughly 18.0 mpg at 65mph for last 1k miles and was getting 16.8 previously over about 100k miles. Stop and go I'm around 14/15mpg and was around 12/13 mpg before, so Im getting around 440 miles a tank currently instead of the normal 400/425.

Total cost ended up just under $3k and while it hurts the pocketbook, it just needed to be done.
Link Posted: 2/16/2020 2:01:41 AM EDT
[#1]
Time for a camshaft and lifters.  Do it now before too much metal is circulated through the engine.
Link Posted: 2/16/2020 8:21:42 AM EDT
[#2]
Id look at coils
And all associated wiring

186k is a good run for any dodge
I had a 98 ram that i always had to start 2x in the morning, first start off the day ran like shit. Shut off and restart ram fine
Ran fine rest of day on one start
Dodge sucks
Link Posted: 2/16/2020 9:48:13 AM EDT
[#3]
This may help

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyvdWeyDHf4
Link Posted: 2/16/2020 10:16:13 AM EDT
[#4]
Fpni very common problem with those
Link Posted: 2/16/2020 4:23:34 PM EDT
[#5]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
Id look at coils
And all associated wiring

186k is a good run for any dodge
I had a 98 ram that i always had to start 2x in the morning, first start off the day ran like shit. Shut off and restart ram fine
Ran fine rest of day on one start
Dodge sucks
View Quote
I've got a 2001 ram 1500 with 350,000 miles on original engine. At about 330,000 it had a random mis that would get worse or go away. It turned out to be the computer. Not a big deal to replace.
I started researching how many miles our truck could go... There are many stories and videos on YouTube about these trucks and Jeep Cherokees (same engine) going 600,000 to a million miles. One of my Rams has about 180,000 and I consider it barely broken in.
Link Posted: 2/16/2020 8:58:15 PM EDT
[#6]
Thanks folks.  Ordered a cam and lifter kit plus a top end gasket kit and head bolts.  Truck goes in friday.
Link Posted: 2/16/2020 9:43:01 PM EDT
[#7]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:

I've got a 2001 ram 1500 with 350,000 miles on original engine. At about 330,000 it had a random mis that would get worse or go away. It turned out to be the computer. Not a big deal to replace.
I started researching how many miles our truck could go... There are many stories and videos on YouTube about these trucks and Jeep Cherokees (same engine) going 600,000 to a million miles. One of my Rams has about 180,000 and I consider it barely broken in.
View Quote
180k is slap worn out for a dodge. That is an absolute fact and not some silly ass one off internet story.
Link Posted: 2/16/2020 10:29:54 PM EDT
[#8]
I had a similar problem with my 2009 Dodge Durango (5.7 HEMI), except it was always the misfire code for cylinder #5. Dealer changed everything top side (plugs, coils) and even took the valve cover off to see if the valves were bad. They couldn't fix or find the problem without taking the head completely off. I didn't bother having them do that. Yes Dodge did have a bad batch (or two) of bad cam shafts that causes misfire codes.
Link Posted: 2/21/2020 1:22:37 AM EDT
[#9]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
I had a similar problem with my 2009 Dodge Durango (5.7 HEMI), except it was always the misfire code for cylinder #5. Dealer changed everything top side (plugs, coils) and even took the valve cover off to see if the valves were bad. They couldn't fix or find the problem without taking the head completely off. I didn't bother having them do that. Yes Dodge did have a bad batch (or two) of bad cam shafts that causes misfire codes.
View Quote
Dodge had a really shitty cowl design that leaked water around that time. When raining or after washing, water getting on the coils would cause misfires.  There were also issues with the intake manifold leaking and sucking in moisture to cause the same problem.  At some point they updated the cowl design but I don't recall when that was.
Link Posted: 2/21/2020 3:41:17 PM EDT
[#10]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
Dodge had a really shitty cowl design that leaked water around that time. When raining or after washing, water getting on the coils would cause misfires.  There were also issues with the intake manifold leaking and sucking in moisture to cause the same problem.  At some point they updated the cowl design but I don't recall when that was.
View Quote View All Quotes
View All Quotes
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
Quoted:
I had a similar problem with my 2009 Dodge Durango (5.7 HEMI), except it was always the misfire code for cylinder #5. Dealer changed everything top side (plugs, coils) and even took the valve cover off to see if the valves were bad. They couldn't fix or find the problem without taking the head completely off. I didn't bother having them do that. Yes Dodge did have a bad batch (or two) of bad cam shafts that causes misfire codes.
Dodge had a really shitty cowl design that leaked water around that time. When raining or after washing, water getting on the coils would cause misfires.  There were also issues with the intake manifold leaking and sucking in moisture to cause the same problem.  At some point they updated the cowl design but I don't recall when that was.
Mine had the updated cowl. In my case, I'm sure there was a problem with the cam shaft.
Link Posted: 2/21/2020 9:18:35 PM EDT
[#11]
Well it went into the shop today.  i ended up buying an AMS Racing mds delete cam and kit.  I'm thinking basically it's the 6.1 cam with non mds lifters. I'm hoping that since I didn't get a call today from the shop that things are going well.  They booked it out at 9 hrs for the cam and lifter swap which I actually think was about 4 hrs lite, but they are an engine shop.  I didn't choose to do the water pump or timing set as i'm probably not going to have it much longer and if I keep it I'll do those things myself.  
I'll update this as to mileage performance when i get it back.
Link Posted: 2/24/2020 11:33:21 AM EDT
[#12]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
180k is slap worn out for a dodge. That is an absolute fact and not some silly ass one off internet story.
View Quote View All Quotes
View All Quotes
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
Quoted:

I've got a 2001 ram 1500 with 350,000 miles on original engine. At about 330,000 it had a random mis that would get worse or go away. It turned out to be the computer. Not a big deal to replace.
I started researching how many miles our truck could go... There are many stories and videos on YouTube about these trucks and Jeep Cherokees (same engine) going 600,000 to a million miles. One of my Rams has about 180,000 and I consider it barely broken in.
180k is slap worn out for a dodge. That is an absolute fact and not some silly ass one off internet story.
The fact that you used the phrase "for a Dodge" means you are ignorant of the subject.  If you had been more specific about motor, drivetrain, model etc you might have been believable.
Link Posted: 2/26/2020 9:24:15 PM EDT
[#13]
UGGGG!  Received pics from the shop today of cam and lifters.  Bad.  Not catastrophic bad, but bad enough.  One roller lifter locked up and took out a cam lobe.  Cam bearings looked good though.  Inside of motor was remarkably clean for the mileage.
Link Posted: 2/27/2020 8:09:10 AM EDT
[#14]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
UGGGG!  Received pics from the shop today of cam and lifters.  Bad.  Not catastrophic bad, but bad enough.  One roller lifter locked up and took out a cam lobe.  Cam bearings looked good though.  Inside of motor was remarkably clean for the mileage.
View Quote
Did they pull the engine?
Link Posted: 2/27/2020 6:15:15 PM EDT
[#15]
They shouldn't have. They do those inframe.
Link Posted: 2/28/2020 6:05:30 PM EDT
[#16]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
They shouldn't have. They do those inframe.
View Quote
My concern would be any metal still in the engine
Link Posted: 3/12/2020 4:02:52 PM EDT
[#17]
Update: 3/12
Bad roller lifter took out camshaft. When I first noticed a tick I slapped a giant welding magnet on the oil pan and left it there which down the road was a very fortunate thing. The shop got into the motor, replaced cam, lifters, timing set and did plugs and valve seals since we weren't going to get any closer. The mds actuators apparently have small magnets in them and they attracted metal shavings and obviously were replaced with plugs included in the MDS delete portion of the kit. The cam bearings themselves were as you would expect for an engine with this many miles, no gouges or scrapes and still smooth.

They went ahead and pulled the pan to check for debris. My magnet had attracted a metric shit ton of metal shavings but having that magnet on the pan kept the shavings from plugging up the pickup screen and oil starving the engine. Oil pump was replaced and they flushed the passage from pump to pickup and pump to filter and both came clean. It appears the filter and everything else did its job.
The shop also popped off a main cap and rod cap. They also looked good.

I really think the MDS delete has helped the drive-ability immensely. Better throttle response and the trans doesn't hunt and peck for gear driving around town anymore.
The power is the same or better and the fuel economy as a whole is equal or better. I'm getting roughly 18.0 mpg at 65mph for last 1k miles and was getting 16.8 previously over about 100k miles. Stop and go I'm around 14/15mpg and was around 12/13 mpg before, so Im getting around 440 miles a tank currently instead of the normal 400/425.

Total cost ended up just under $3k and while it hurts the pocketbook, it just needed to be done.
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