A real job from our Edmonton shop
5.7 HEMI rebuild + MDS delete — 2018 Ram 1500 Classic
2018 Ram 1500 Classic · 5.7L HEMI V8
What came in
The classic HEMI tick with a misfire — the signature of the 5.7's well-known MDS lifter failure, which often ends in a dead cylinder.
What we found
A failed MDS lifter had stopped controlling oil pressure the way it should and hammered its camshaft lobe flat. Rebuilding with the same MDS hardware would leave the engine open to failing the exact same way again.
What we did
Full rebuild with a Melling MDK100 MDS delete kit: a non-MDS delete camshaft, 16 standard hydraulic roller lifters, the correct non-MDS lifter guides, and MDS solenoid block-off plugs. Reprogrammed the PCM to turn MDS off in software, and checked pushrod length on assembly so the valvetrain geometry was right.
The outcome
An engine with no cylinder deactivation and none of the failure-prone MDS lifters — the 'fix it so it doesn't come back' call we can make because we rebuild in-house, and a sensible upgrade for an owner keeping the truck.
Photos from the job
Our own bays, our own bench — no stock photography.
The background on this failure
The 5.7 HEMI Tick: Lifter and Camshaft Failure in Ram, Dodge and Jeep V8s
Read the full guide — symptoms, causes and what it costs →More jobs from our bays
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