Yup, from my research all V8s are problematic and to be avoided. The cylinder deactivation has been a disaster. When I first learned of it, I thought that was a bad bad idea. Just having active pistons dragging dead pistons thru the motions seemed counterproductive.
The other day when picking up the new wheels and tires, I had to travel over some mountains and took the opportunity to slam the pedal into the floor. Impressive. The 305hp even with this very heavy truck felt very strong and responsive. Smoothly shifted down several gears and raced forward with little effort.