bardownski
Junior Member
Firstly- a big thank you to all the fellas (and ladies!) on this site. I just, and with limited mechanical experience, completed a cam and lifter job on my 2012 Ram 1500 Big Horn with a 5.7 Hemi. Probably could not have done it without being pointed to this forum. I found lots of helpful tips and tricks here. So thanks all!
About me (mostly relating to this truck- I'm a 37 year old male nurse, with 15 years old carpentry in my background. I fix my own stuff, wrench on mountain bikes on the side, and generally enjoy making a mess in the garage with wood or other random small mechanical projects. I built my own home a few years back, and bought this truck when building to have something to haul materials and trailers with. Anyway, a few weeks ago, I decided that it was time to sell the truck. I have a smaller SUV that I mostly drive, and my plan was to sell the truck and buy a beater truck to have around the house for the random times I need to haul something. The RAM has 147k on it. Minnesota truck, so has some rusty rockers, but nothing crazy (actually, during my cam/lifter job, I didn't have a single bolt snap or strip to my surprise! Under side of truck had less rust than I woulda thought). So I made appointment at a local dealer to see what they would give me for it. I was about 1/4 mile from the dealership when there was a loud clunk and the truck started ticking/clacking like mad! Brought it home, did some research, and figured must be a lifter. When I got down to pulling lifters, all were perfectly good but one, which had no bearing left on it. One lobe of the bad was beat up from that lifter, but rest of the cam looked great. Found every piece of the bearing in the oil pan (I took apart a good lifter bearing and counted the needle bearings, which matched what I found in the oil pan). The outer shell of the bearing was in 2 pieces- one small piece in the oil pan, the rest of it came out with the lifter. I washed the block with carb cleaner, used a magnet in the pushrod holes and Cam shaft hole. No metal found. New cam, lifters, headers (found the typical broken header bolts when doing this job). Seems to be running good now!
My question now is- I still don't need the truck, and still plan to sell. Can I expect to sell the truck for more with all of this work done? Part of me thinks yes- there are new parts and the truck should last for another 100k at least. But I also wonder- all this work was done by me, an inexperienced mechanic. I believe I did everything correctly, but I wouldn't blame someone for not trusting that it's done right when it wasn't done by a "pro". Gimme your opinions, good or bad! Thanks everyone!
About me (mostly relating to this truck- I'm a 37 year old male nurse, with 15 years old carpentry in my background. I fix my own stuff, wrench on mountain bikes on the side, and generally enjoy making a mess in the garage with wood or other random small mechanical projects. I built my own home a few years back, and bought this truck when building to have something to haul materials and trailers with. Anyway, a few weeks ago, I decided that it was time to sell the truck. I have a smaller SUV that I mostly drive, and my plan was to sell the truck and buy a beater truck to have around the house for the random times I need to haul something. The RAM has 147k on it. Minnesota truck, so has some rusty rockers, but nothing crazy (actually, during my cam/lifter job, I didn't have a single bolt snap or strip to my surprise! Under side of truck had less rust than I woulda thought). So I made appointment at a local dealer to see what they would give me for it. I was about 1/4 mile from the dealership when there was a loud clunk and the truck started ticking/clacking like mad! Brought it home, did some research, and figured must be a lifter. When I got down to pulling lifters, all were perfectly good but one, which had no bearing left on it. One lobe of the bad was beat up from that lifter, but rest of the cam looked great. Found every piece of the bearing in the oil pan (I took apart a good lifter bearing and counted the needle bearings, which matched what I found in the oil pan). The outer shell of the bearing was in 2 pieces- one small piece in the oil pan, the rest of it came out with the lifter. I washed the block with carb cleaner, used a magnet in the pushrod holes and Cam shaft hole. No metal found. New cam, lifters, headers (found the typical broken header bolts when doing this job). Seems to be running good now!
My question now is- I still don't need the truck, and still plan to sell. Can I expect to sell the truck for more with all of this work done? Part of me thinks yes- there are new parts and the truck should last for another 100k at least. But I also wonder- all this work was done by me, an inexperienced mechanic. I believe I did everything correctly, but I wouldn't blame someone for not trusting that it's done right when it wasn't done by a "pro". Gimme your opinions, good or bad! Thanks everyone!