'it took out the lifters' or 'cam'

A couple used engines near me, 09 ram shortblock with a 'bad cam'
11 car longblock with 'bad lifters'

Supposedly no junk in the oil, what could be wrong yet not catastrophic in these engines or no such thing they're just cores to be rebuilt?

Got to be some metal in there from the failures. Maybe good cores for a rebuild, though.....

MDS?

If you can't dismantle to inspect, best to assume it's a rebuilder. The one i got with one lobe gone, you could almost clean and re-assemble, if you were on a super budget.
I found a heap of metallic paste on the magnetic part of the MDS solenoids : so you want to make sure to remove and inspect them.

yes MDS and VVT. What's a good core price on a short and then longblock? between the 2 I think there's only 1 set of rockers, valve covers, manifolds, etc.

the lifter quits rolling and destroys the cam on 09+ 5.7. I have seen them where they go bad and everything else looks new inside, bearings, bores everything.

Dave, do you do something different for lifters when u out in a 392 cam then?

well the lowest miles I seen a lifter go bad was 120,000 (typical between 150,000 and 200,000 and as high as 270,000 on original lifters), I figure if it lasts another 120,000 minimum then I done all right. The dodge dealer told me all the part numbers are the same now for 6.4 6.1 and 5.7 without any other way to know what is best that personal experience is all I got to go on.

So is it too thick of oil, or sludge buildup from not changing the oil, or something else that causes this?

If I were doing a rebuild I think I would want a set of aftermarket lifters instead of the oem ones???

well, if Dave's data holds, what aftermarket lifter has as many road miles tested?

Just an FYI. Isky makes hydraulic roller lifters for G3 hemis with either the typical needle bearings or with a bushing instead of a needle bearing. I know using bushings isn't anything new, but it is fairly new for the G3 hemi. They say the bushing is offered for more extreme applications, but it would seem to be a possible solution to the failures if they aren't too cost prohibitive and are durable long term.

https://www.iskycams.com/downloads/GenIIIFlyer.pdf

I have heard the hellcat uses different (better?) lifters butt do not have any personal experience.

The hellcats and demons won't get enough miles on them to fail. It appears that most of those cars are collector pieces and not daily drivers.

I've done about 50 of these lifter failure engines.
Depending how long they are run determines how ruined they are.
Ive seen them fail as low as about 30k miles
At minimum the oil pump has eaten metal and the filter has caught it all. After that is varying levels of damage.
There has been something like 9 revisions on the lifters since 2012. Most notable are the lifters from 2016 up often referred to as "Hellcat" lifters with individual p/n being 787AC. Both mds and non mds lifters from 2016 up have the upgraded roller, axle, needle bearings which was the failure point

additionally revised to -AD now?

https://www.eastcoastmoparts.com/oem-parts/mopar-hydraulic-roller-lifter-rear-yoke-5038787ad?c=bD0yJm49U2VhcmNoIFJlc3VsdHMmYT1kb2RnZSZvPWNoYXJnZXImeT0yMDE4JnQ9ci10JmU9NS03bC12OC1nYXM%3D

Yes that's correct. That's revision from AC to AD came though around Aug last year. Previously the AC revision lasted about 3 yrs

I just talked to Isky about the solid rollers in my race car, bearing ones are $900.00, bushed ones are $1250.00. Claim is 30-50% more life expectancy in bushed ones in my application. You have to decide from there. Those were Red Zones, also. Jim