Why spend $2K on a perfectly good engine?
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My son's Charger is in the shop this week. After long discussions with his mechanic, they decided that since the car was coming up on 100k miles, it was time for some heavy-duty preventive care.
Since the 5.7 V8 had no hemi tick, they decided to change the lifters, putting solid lifters, change out the cam and change the oil pump to a higher flow pump.
See, the problem with the 5.7 is a crappy lifter design, where the needle bearings fail in the lifter, causing the roller to start excessive wear on the cam lobes, and the hemi tick starts. Engine failure is now eventually assured. During the first 100k miles, my son was religious in changing oil before the manufacturer's stated intervals. Good, fresh oil helps keep the lifters happy.
Now, we have newer, better lifters, a cam with no wear and an oil pump providing more lubrication. The mechanic feels like they just added 80k miles or more, to the life of the motor.
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I didn't understand 80% of what @Jolly was saying.
But, the mechanic sure sounds like he knows his stuff.
my son was religious in changing oil before the manufacturer's stated intervals
Isn't current thinking (by the manufacturer) once a year? I go every 6 months or so.
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I didn't understand 80% of what @Jolly was saying.
But, the mechanic sure sounds like he knows his stuff.
my son was religious in changing oil before the manufacturer's stated intervals
Isn't current thinking (by the manufacturer) once a year? I go every 6 months or so.
@George-K said in Why spend $2K on a perfectly good engine?:
I didn't understand 80% of what @Jolly was saying.
But, the mechanic sure sounds like he knows his stuff.
my son was religious in changing oil before the manufacturer's stated intervals
Isn't current thinking (by the manufacturer) once a year? I go every 6 months or so.
A lot of the manufacturers overstate their intervals. The recommended oil change interval on that 5.7 hemi is 10,000 miles. That's horse hockey in my book.
Syn-blend is not over 4k for me and full synthetic is not over 6k. To be honest, I usually change full synthetic at 5k. I tend to run Pennzoil Platinum High Mileage. But even Walmart oil is ok (it's the same as Costco and Amazon Basic), if you run a decent filter and change it religiously.
More than you'd ever want to know about motor oil...
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@George-K said in Why spend $2K on a perfectly good engine?:
I didn't understand 80% of what @Jolly was saying.
But, the mechanic sure sounds like he knows his stuff.
my son was religious in changing oil before the manufacturer's stated intervals
Isn't current thinking (by the manufacturer) once a year? I go every 6 months or so.
A lot of the manufacturers overstate their intervals. The recommended oil change interval on that 5.7 hemi is 10,000 miles. That's horse hockey in my book.
Syn-blend is not over 4k for me and full synthetic is not over 6k. To be honest, I usually change full synthetic at 5k. I tend to run Pennzoil Platinum High Mileage. But even Walmart oil is ok (it's the same as Costco and Amazon Basic), if you run a decent filter and change it religiously.
More than you'd ever want to know about motor oil...
@Jolly my 2017 A4 just broke 35K miles - (grin). When I bought it in 2018, it had 11K miles. So I average about 4K miles a year.
Still gonna do it every 6 months. I can look out my window and see the garage (about 1 ½ blocks away), so it's never inconvenient to do this.
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@89th said in Why spend $2K on a perfectly good engine?:
Typical cam lobes, always causing trouble... and those hemi tick starts, pain in the rear!
It's the lifters. And Dodge (Stelantis nowadays) knows it. All they'd have to do, is change the lifter design, use a higher volume oil pump and decrease the recommended change interval. It would turn it into a 200,000 mile engine.
I don't understand it...With a little thought and a few dollars in parts changes, the manufacturer creates a more durable product. Everyone is running around with their hair on fire, wirshipping at the feet of the Green Goddess. Well, it takes a lot of material and energybto make a vehicle.
Why don't we make one that lasts for a long time? That's the greenest solution of all.
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But don't most people trade in their cars long before the drivetrain blows up? That's why I would definitely need to see the service records before buying any car. Even George's, if he never changed the oil, or rarely did.
Any chance you want to share what the price tag is for your son's mechanic doing this work? He will have a high mileage car, as impressive as it is, with the hope that the work will make the difference in the car lasting a long time. And then, some idiot takes it out and over-revs it all day long and brings it back steaming from the heat. "Nah, guess I don't want to buy it after all."
It would be great to have a shop in your home where you could take on such work as is being done. It's fun, and like Jolly points out, changes the lifespan of a car you want to keep forever, if that's the plan.
ETA: Jolly, do you have a picture of your son's car you'd share? I love this kind of stuff!
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But don't most people trade in their cars long before the drivetrain blows up? That's why I would definitely need to see the service records before buying any car. Even George's, if he never changed the oil, or rarely did.
Any chance you want to share what the price tag is for your son's mechanic doing this work? He will have a high mileage car, as impressive as it is, with the hope that the work will make the difference in the car lasting a long time. And then, some idiot takes it out and over-revs it all day long and brings it back steaming from the heat. "Nah, guess I don't want to buy it after all."
It would be great to have a shop in your home where you could take on such work as is being done. It's fun, and like Jolly points out, changes the lifespan of a car you want to keep forever, if that's the plan.
ETA: Jolly, do you have a picture of your son's car you'd share? I love this kind of stuff!
@Rainman said in Why spend $2K on a perfectly good engine?:
But don't most people trade in their cars long before the drivetrain blows up? That's why I would definitely need to see the service records before buying any car. Even George's, if he never changed the oil, or rarely did.
Any chance you want to share what the price tag is for your son's mechanic doing this work? He will have a high mileage car, as impressive as it is, with the hope that the work will make the difference in the car lasting a long time. And then, some idiot takes it out and over-revs it all day long and brings it back steaming from the heat. "Nah, guess I don't want to buy it after all."
It would be great to have a shop in your home where you could take on such work as is being done. It's fun, and like Jolly points out, changes the lifespan of a car you want to keep forever, if that's the plan.
ETA: Jolly, do you have a picture of your son's car you'd share? I love this kind of stuff!
$2K, as in the thread title. His car is similar to this, but with the black Hellcat stripes on top.
His wife drives a Hellcat, Bad Kitty
