garage_queen_haterOPStroker
Las Vegas, NV67 posts, joined Nov 2025
car 2013 Charger SRT8 392, 141k and counting
2013 Charger SRT8, 6.4 392, 5 speed auto, 141,300 miles. Pennzoil 0W-40 every 5,000, which is what the book says for the SRT motors. daily driven, a couple of track nights a year.
now that the mornings in Vegas are dipping into the 30s, it has a tick on a cold start. fast and light, like a pen tapping on a desk. passenger side, maybe toward the back. it is loud for the first 20 or 30 seconds and then fades out and by the time i am at the end of my street it is gone. warm restart in the afternoon, no tick at all.
no check engine light. it runs the same as always. but i have read enough Hemi lifter horror stories to be nervous, and a cam and lifters on a 6.4 is not a cheap weekend. how do i tell which tick this is before i start throwing money at it?
Warren, MI102 posts, joined Nov 2025
car 2015 Charger R/T 5.7, the daily
i hear this exact description four or five times a month. tick on a cold start that goes away as it warms up, no light, no misfire. nine times out of ten that is a broken exhaust manifold bolt, not a lifter.
here is why. the cast manifold grows when it heats up. with a bolt snapped off, the manifold has a gap at the flange when it is cold and exhaust puffs out of it on every pulse, that is your tick. as it gets hot it expands and closes the gap and the tick goes quiet. the rear bolts on both sides are the usual ones to break.
a failing lifter is different. it does not go away when warm, it usually gets worse as the oil thins out, and sooner or later you get a misfire code on that cylinder. if the roller seizes it eats the cam lobe. that is the expensive story you are thinking of.
do this: cold engine, tomorrow morning, flashlight, look down at the back of the manifold where it bolts to the head. a broken bolt usually leaves black soot streaks on the head right at the flange. you can sometimes see the bolt head missing outright. a mechanic's stethoscope or a long screwdriver to your ear on the manifold vs the valve cover will tell you which one is louder.
also run your VIN on mopar.com under the owner side. on a 141k car it is worth knowing if anything is still open from the factory.
coyote_vs_hemiHeads and cam
San Antonio, TX41 posts, joined Nov 2025
car 2018 Mustang GT Performance Pack, 10-speed
welcome to the tick club. the Gen 2 Coyote people have been living with the "BBQ tick" for ten years, the injectors and valvetrain on those make a noise that sounds like a lighter clicking and Ford says it is normal. half the S550 owners on the internet think their engine is dying.
point being, every engine ticks. the question is what changes. if yours always ticks the same way and goes away warm, that pattern is the manifold.
garage_queen_haterOPStroker
Las Vegas, NV67 posts, joined Nov 2025
car 2013 Charger SRT8 392, 141k and counting
looked this morning at 36 degrees. passenger side, back of the manifold, there is a black streak on the head about an inch long under the last runner and the rear bolt hole is empty. i could see straight into the hole with the light. that is a bolt.
long screwdriver on the valve cover, quiet. on the manifold, loud. reggie called it from Michigan without hearing it.
broadcast_sheet_nerdStroker
Kokomo, IN88 posts, joined Nov 2025
car 1970 Road Runner 383, four speed, B5 Blue
old guy note. a snapped bolt on a cast manifold is about as old as the V8. my Road Runner's 383 broke one in 1991 and the shop drilled it out in the car with a right angle drill and an easy out and i paid $85. on these new cars there is a lot more stuff in the way.
whoever does it, have them do the studs and not new bolts, and ask whether they are pulling the manifold to check it for flatness while it is off. warped manifolds keep breaking bolts.
garage_queen_haterOPStroker
Las Vegas, NV67 posts, joined Nov 2025
car 2013 Charger SRT8 392, 141k and counting
done. took it to an independent Mopar shop off Spring Mountain. two broken bolts on the passenger side, not one, the rear and the one next to it. one of them came out with heat and a left handed bit, the other they had to drill and use an extractor. they put a stud kit in, checked the manifold on a flat plate, it was within spec so no resurfacing.
$640 all in. two hours of fighting with the second bolt is most of that. they also showed me the old bolts, both snapped clean at the head flange.
34 degrees this morning and it started as quiet as a rental car. that is the most relieved i have been about a noise in a long time.
Warren, MI102 posts, joined Nov 2025
car 2015 Charger R/T 5.7, the daily
good outcome, and a fair price for two of them. keep an ear on the driver side over the next year. a lot of these break on both sides eventually since they went through the same heat cycles.
and keep doing 0W-40 on the 5,000 schedule. that is the best thing you can do for the lifters on a 392 at your mileage.
