What is your question?
I had a top-end engine rebuild because of the problem stated in my question above. I replaced the camshaft, all 4 lifter sets, all pushrods, all spark plugs, and coil packs, water pump, clutch fan, and clutch, water thermostat, tensioner, timing chain, serpentine belt, and both manifolds including all gaskets, filters, and fluids. I also did a muffler delete leaving the rear dual exhaust resonators on. The engine ticking due to the bad lifters is gone, however, I now hear a slight ticking noise from the bottom of the engine near the oil pan. At cold starts the ticking is very loud but rapidly dissipates. At normal highway and town speeds, the truck performs well, but if I punch it to speeds above 75 mph on the open highway, it shudders and rides rough. The engine light flashes and goes off, and when I let off the gas slowing down, the engine rides rough also for a mile or two before quickly recovering to normal performances. If I repeat high accelerations the engine light stays on.
What makes this problem better or worse?
Engine additives like Sea Foam and Lucas oil and gas treatment improves, sound, speed and acceleration of engine reducing the rough ride slightly.
How long has your 2012 Ram 1500 had this problem?
Three full weeks
Hi Davejm, Firstly, thank you for your reply. I would tend to agree, however, I apologize for failing to mention that my truck behaved in the manner described in my initial question prior to the muffler delete. I shared your back pressure concerned also because I left the resonators on and the shop that deleted the muffler replaced it with a custom y-pipe. However, here is what I noticed over the past few days. I added Sea Foam both the regular as well as a version specifically designed for engines over 75,000 miles. I added a formula by Lucas to the crankcase specifically designed for newly rebuild engines. I also added one bottle of Lucus oil additive and followed up with the Lucas gas system and injector cleaning solution and I have noticed remarkable progress. The check engine light no longer comes on as fast and the shuddering is much milder and the recovery time from the rough running of the engine has shortened rather noticeably. The additives seem to be improving the situation because I can now get up to 100+ mph before I experience any shuddering or check engine light flashing. Today, I had to race it up to high speeds 3 times before it shuddered and the check engine light came on. The ticking noise I hear is tricky because I hear a ticking noise on cold starts that immediately goes away and after that, the ticking is very faint. It appears that it is getting better but I have an appointment tomorrow (11/10/2020) at the Chrysler Dealership for him to take a look. I feel like it could be a sludge buildup that the additives could be cleaning up. Thanks again!