Lifter Failure? Report it here!

[301cummins]

Not sure if India is who they usually use. I thought most of the parts came from Mexico.

 

[superjoe83]

Not sure if India is who they usually use. I thought most of the parts came from Mexico.

Cummins has global manufacturing plants, and third parties that make parts for them, ive seen a lot of India and China parts on different Cummins engines

 

[301cummins]

So XDP trunnions have been in for a couple days, finally got to get the oil good and hot today. Im cautiously optimistic, Tic is good as gone at all RPM’s. We will see in the coming weeks. If my assumption is correct a lot of the valvetrain issues may be an oil delivery problem. Think about it what does a lifter do without oil, make noise. To think Ram told me they were getting too much oil. Gotta love warranty work.

 

[mruysch]

My 2019 3500 has 158000 km and 5000hrs on it and no noises yet. Been running Rotella 5w40 since day one

 

[301cummins]

My 2019 3500 has 158000 km and 5000hrs on it and no noises yet. Been running Rotella 5w40 since day

 

[301cummins]

Thats interesting, no real rhyme or reason why these things do what they do. Ive heard quite a few people have good results with the 5w-40. Gets around the engine sooner on start up

 

[mruysch]

Thats interesting, no real rhyme or reason why these things do what they do. Ive heard quite a few people have good results with the 5w-40. Gets around the engine sooner on start up

My truck sits in a heated shop all the time. Might have a little to do about it

 

[301cummins]

So far with the new trunnions truck has been quiet. Hopefully there isn’t any damage on the cam.

 

[mbarber84]

I finally had a chance to upload the data from the reporting forms to a functional spreadsheet. I have posted the link to view the spreadsheet on the first post of this thread.

 

[yorken99]

Have you played with any of the lifters? There's also the issue of the bushing in the factory lifter vs a bearing....the bushing axle gets shoved to one side and siezes the roller....the keyway is absolutely an issue with the factory lifter....the jessel lifter has a round keyway to fully sit in the opening....the side to side movement of the factory lifter isn't "possible"....it's happening....

My Ram started 'typing' recently at idle (when fully warmed up). Fun. And no, not just after oil change. And I'm running Amsoil 5w40 (after 1st oil change). Jused edited original post, as many have seen the same video as I was referencing (Cummins vs Ford Roller Lifters) - should have read to the end of the thread before posting.....

However, there are 3 other info / discussion points I wanted to also share:

1. In the comments of one of the videos on youtube about a ticking Cummins, the commenter was a diesel mechanic and mentioned he changed his trunnions immediately and that he thought that was the core of the ticking issue - adding some credence to 301Cummins experience and assertions above. Occams Razor - simplest explanation is usually correct. And in a hydraulic lifter valvetrain, oil flow and pressure are key.
2. In a fireppunk video on changing out to solid lifters, one of the mechanics noted that as he was putting the solid lifters in (using oem lifter bodies) that the lifter had 'clocked' a bit. So it's definitely possible (and likely) that they are rotating while the engine is operating - adding credence to IndyRamMega and others about axial rotation of the lifter being an issue.
3. I read the point about the youtube video on comparison between Ford and Cummins roller lifters may not be correct because the roller bushing may have been DLC coated. Point taken. But nobody has talked about a point on the video that interests me: the guy asserted that the very tight tolerance between the roller and the roller bushing may be causing the issue. I'd love to see more information / evidence to validate or disprove this notion. That design point may be the cause (or a contributing factor) to the behavior where the roller siezes with very little lateral force. And regardless of whether the trunnions solve the primary problem, the roller lifter design is extremely flawed if the roller can sieze that easily. And it will be a long-term problem for those of us who want 600-700K out of their engine before rebuild.

FML, looks like I will be converting to solid lifters..........what a fun job that will be. I really like the Jesel lifters but I'm frankly scared of roller lifters at this point, especially if the block machining is the primary cause of axial rotation. I'm changing my trunions and pushrods and will see what happens. And hopefully we will get more evidence and hard data on the true source of the problem - which will inform whether I go solid roller lifters or tappets.

Sorry for the long post, but this is a tough one. I see class action at some point. Unlike the CP4 issue, this issue can exist for a long time with no noticable impact to the operator (as opposed to a grenading engine). And generally people don't understand how engines work and especially how high performance diesel engines operate differently - and the damage that is being caused slowly but surely by this situation. I suspect it will take a fairly long time before enough people have enough problems to force action from Stellantis / Cummins.

 

[mbarber84]

If you do decide to replace parts to absolve yourself from the worry of premature lifter failure, I would take a close look at Hamilton’s flat tappet conversion. I personally think that is the best way to truly fix this issue and add longterm durability and reliability back to the system. Then you can start worrying about the main bearings showing signs of fretting….which is another concern with these engines. Don’t you just love it when they fix things that didn’t need to be fixed?