FWIW, I am NOT a fan of any additives to the crankcase or any where else in our Cats. You never really know how they will get along or if they will have some unintended consequence. The synthetic oil is more than enough and better than anything else that's out there in reducing friction and surviving in the Cat's environment and demands. Many tend to underestimate just how good synthetics are today. Dry start is not a possible issue unless it sits for a long time, but would not be overly concerned since we are running a high quality synthetic oil.

Wouldn't risk additives or waste my $$!

JMHO

 

What he said...not a fan of Lucas. My best advice is use an oil high in Moly content. PUP, Mobil (trinuclear moly) and Amsoil. Don't know how Lucas would help do anything with dry startups or heat reduction?

 

My jeep has this so I'll stop tonight and try.

 

If the viscosity changes I think it will trip a CEL. I know in all of the older 5.7 Hemi's that will immediately happen. I can't imagine our engines being any less sensitive to viscosity.

 

IIRC, the MDS cylinder deactivation hemis are extremely viscosity sensitive.

 

Snake oils do nothing.

 

Nonsense. They make tons of cash.

 

LOS is really just a thickener . The oil control solonoid that moves the cam around ( VCT ) wont like the high viscosity and you will likely get a CEL for cam sensor slow response. CEL is P000B

 

Thanks guys. The RAM is still getting dealership oil changes but its regular Pennzoil. My startup tick has been getting louder. My last Hemi, a 15 300S 5.7 ended up with 3 or 4 failed lifters, although under warranty would like to avoid the hassle.
The HCs tick is mininal.

 

So I was talking with a fellow late model ('17) RAM owner today and the infamous Hemi tick came up. He said use thicker oil (30 vs 20) and add the Lucas oil stabilizer. The LOS is supposed to prevent dry starts and the standard reduction of friction, heat, blah blah. This in turn reduces the tick at start up and during operation.

So has anyone tried this in their Hemi's?
Did it minimize or eliminate the tick?
And most importantly, did you try it in the Hellcat?

The engine doesn't dry start. There is residual oil. As I'm sure you have noticed immediately after engine start the engine RPMs "zoom" up to 1K or a bit higher. This helps ensure oil pump prime and get the oil flowing pronto. It also creates enough speed at the plain bearings to form the hydrodynamic bearing that supports the bearing until the oil arrives which it does in nearly no time. (If it was late it would not take too many starts before the bearings would be worn out.)

Going to a thicker oil can bring about problems if the engine is engineered to use a thinner oil. The thicker oil may not flow as readily or in the tight confines of the bearings molecular friction can heat the oil to the point it breaks down in the bearing. There is also the issue of not only how well the thicker oil flows into the bearing but how well it flows out so the oil does not spend too much time in the bearing and is at risk of getting overheated.

The tick is excessive clearance between the lifter and the push rod and the rocker arm. Thicker oil is not going to make the zero lash adjuster grow taller and take this excessive clearance up. Chances are some of the ticking is injector related.

There is the concern of what effect oil additives can have on the approved oil. No way Dodge can test all combinations of various additives and oils so it sanctions no oil additives. There is another risk of an additive. Years ago I owned a VW Golf TDi. The big deal then was to add some diesel oil improver to the fuel tank. I can't even remember the name of the stuff now. Then someone hit upon the idea of adding this directly to the fuel filter canister so upon startup the additive would I guess remove the expected fuel system deposits. Which given how diesel fuel is quite a detergent is just silly.

Early on I at least subscribed to the using the additive in the fuel tank. But I noticed no change in how the engine started, idled, ran or any measurable change in its fuel consumption. The additive was just snake oil. After a couple of bottles I stopped using it. But before I stopped using it I opened a new bottle of the stuff and dumped the contents in the fuel tank. But for some reason I stopped short of tipping the bottle all the way up. Instead I lowered the bottle and pulled it away from the tank and looked inside. There was a marble sized glob of water/sediment in the bottle. Bad enough to put this into the fuel tank (although the fuel system had a real good fuel/water separator (which had to be drained every once in a while) and a real good fuel filter. (The diesel high pressure fuel pumps do not take kindly at all to dirty fuel.) I would hate to think what would have happened had I like other owners were doing dumped that bottle into the fuel filter canister and had it fed directly to the fuel pump. $$$$.

 

^You mentioned injectors, since I got the HC I dialed down from 93 to 87 octane for the RAM and that's about when this all started, getting louder that is. Hmmm. I do stick to Top Tier stations though.

 

That stuff is 16.00 a qt and there are 3 different kinds. I know the Lucas stop leak additive works and swells the oil seals. I used it on my hellcat to stop the start up smoke from the bad valve seals. It took about two days before it quit and it was smoking about every other start up.
I just added the oil stabilizer to my 4D Jeep Wrangler and it rattles every morning which is a common problem with the 3.6 pentastar.
I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow. Not a hellcat but the Redeye is watching me from the garage so it’s close.

 

Nothing wrong with Lucas. Been running 0-30 Amsoil signature synthetic in both 5.7’s. One MDS, one not. No Hemi tick. Both Purr. 5-20 is just too thin.

 

The SRT Penn UP is a top tier oil. Yeah, it’s what they want you to get...and get it from them at the dealer, but I’ve not read a negative on the BITOG forum over the years.

As someone mentioned, though minute, the higher viscosity will slow the reaction of VCT. In an older engine, with looser specs, the Lucas may have been helpful in circumstances but generally the thinnest you can run, the better. Better heat dissipation, cooler bearings, less hp robbing windage, better efficiency, better piston skirt / wrist pin/ cooling lubrication.

 

Anyone using or considering using Lucas oil stabilizer do not do any research on the product unless you really want to know how worthless it truly is.. ok , it built a football stadium and sponsors drag racing so it’s successful there but it won’t help your engine unless it’s so wore out that you need super thick oil . better yet.. buy some and send it to an oil analysis lab for a virgin oil analysis to see what the product you want to put in your engine is really made of .

 

This additive is thin and says it’s for a max weight of 5-30 on the bottle. I’m coming up on a oil change so I’m playing along.

 

The people that know me know my passion for AMSOIL I'll try to stay off my soap box. From what I've learned about the "Hemi tick" is that the roller lifter needle bearings are Chit. I'm not sure if even AMSOIL will help. I do have a valve train noise in Ma's R/T. I'll admit I did miss a 3rd gear shift that caused a miss fire for a few seconds and I noticed a tick at the next start up. I you put a screw driver on the engine and it sounds down in the cam not in the rockers. When I took her to the dealer 6yrs ago about the noise I got the" If it's not broke we can't fix it." I have the life time warrantee on her that they sold on the R/Ts so I plan on a big fail before I give that car to my Son in law to fix that Hemi tick. But to the OP I would not add any thing to AMSOIL or P oil. Nothing can make up for parts tha are made to bad specs or from bad metal, and that's the problem. FCA won't fess up to that. I wonder about MAXBOOST use of Lucas stop leak for the blue smoke at start up. I kind of like knowing that there is oil hitting the cylinder walls at start-up. I hear a ticking noise in the Cat, but when I listen with the screw driver it sounds like injectors ticking to me. I'll keep using AMSOIL and doing oil analysis every other oil change to see if I'm getting any wear metals that are strange.

 

I wouldn't use Lucas oil on the rusty hinge on a broken outhouse door. Or any other oil additive. I've seen just about every automotive flim-flam there is in the past 45 years and they are all crap. STP made a lot of money too, like Lucas, and it was crap. Making a profit from gullible people doesn't make your product worthwhile.....

 

You don't need any type of additives. As someone else said in another thread, "snake oil", and I fully agree...