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Lost the “Lifter Lottery”....

Discussion in 'General' started by ChemGuy, Jan 23, 2020.

  1. turner38

    turner38 Well-Known Member

    The LS type engines are really easy to work on, I wouldn’t mess with the oil pump if it were me,
    I would replace all the exhaust bolts for sure.
    If your gonna change the cam it adds a lot of work, we normally do the lifter job in a day.
    Be careful with the fuel lines, that late a model is DI and has a high pressure fuel pump.
    Just out of curiosity, what oil did you run? How long between changes?
     
  2. 969

    969 Well-Known Member

    5.7 Tundra
     
  3. skidooboy

    skidooboy supermotojunkie

    my 09 1500 5.3 ate a lifter and cam at 40,000, repaired under warranty. drove 500 miles, shut truck off, restarted ZERO OIL PRESSURE. towed to another dealer for second tear down and repair. arrived at home, ordered diablo sport intune, turned off afm permanently. sold the truck with approx 85000 miles, no more problems. replaced with L5P Duramax. :D

    do the repair, updates, get a tuner, and delete that crap. Ski
     
  4. ChemGuy

    ChemGuy Harden The F%@# Up!

    Had a "well there's your problem moment today".
    Computer said #4 was misfiring. After pulling the head I could see why. It looks like Crocodile Dundee went and turned #4 intake pushrod into a boomerang.
    Thankfully nothing else looks Fubar'd yet.

    That afm lifter was in 2 pieces when I pulled the lifter tray. Like the bottom normal lifter and the top afm spring an plunger come apart. Would have driver head off but Chevy in their wisdom useda single 13mm allen head bolt on that head. I guess to keep people from stealing that head, after they write Honkey Lips on the truck, who knows. Of course the biggest I have is 12mm. Heading to HF now for a couple tools and try to finish teardown tomorrow evening.

    I'm learning kore than I wanted to about the GM L83 truck motor, so I got that going for me...
     
    ducnut likes this.
  5. ChemGuy

    ChemGuy Harden The F%@# Up!

    I was driving 50k mi a year for work in this (car allowance). So oil changes came often. Usually ran walmart supertech 0-20 sythetic and wix or napa filter. Changed when the oil changed thing came on.

    When deleting afm everyone e says you need to swap cams. So if I'm doing that I'm adding a bit more cam. That will mean valve springs.

    Oh I also found the passenger side #8 had an exhaust leak. 1 bolt wasn't very tight and there is carbon on the outside of the head. Glad I found that before it destroyed anything else. Way still take the heads in for inspection and have the springs changed.

    Have you ever fixed one with a rod and hammer? Some people swear it lasts.
     
  6. ducnut

    ducnut Well-Known Member

    You can do the springs yourself with a homemade spring compressor. Use a bolt for an LS.

    0E40FB0F-1994-4598-ACF7-BE2925BFE420.jpeg
     
    ChemGuy likes this.
  7. ChemGuy

    ChemGuy Harden The F%@# Up!

    Was looking for some stuff on Amazon. A spring compressor that does 2 at once by bolting into the rocker hole was like $30. It'll be here tuesday.

    Just hoping i can find real LS7 lifters.

    I mean there's probably a god reason why they are back ordered until march...
     
    ducnut likes this.
  8. ChemGuy

    ChemGuy Harden The F%@# Up!

    [​IMG]
     
    tony 340 likes this.
  9. ducnut

    ducnut Well-Known Member

    Check Elgin. They make lifters for a lot of other big names, including GM.

    A lot of sellers on Amazon vend Elgin.
     
  10. iagsxr

    iagsxr Well-Known Member

    While you're on Amazon, you know you need an LS specific damper puller?
     
  11. ducnut

    ducnut Well-Known Member

    O’Reilly Auto Parts will have one. I had to use a hose clamp around the fingers to hold it on, but, it worked.
     
  12. Fencer

    Fencer Well-Known Member

  13. turner38

    turner38 Well-Known Member

    I never saw the need to change the cam unless it has a Roller failure. Why should it need a different cam than it came with? Maybe next one I will put a degree wheel on it and see if the profiles are different.

    Lifter failures are almost always oil related, usually cheap oil and long intervals. The light doesn’t come on until 8k miles or so on my truck. I change it t every 5k using the new Rotella 5/20 light truck oil. Wonder who makes the Wally World oil?

    Judging by that pushrod you have one stuck collapsed, if you didn’t drive it much you probably just need a set of lifters.
    No way would I change cams unless I just had to...

    I would just use Sealed Power or Melling lifters, ain’t no magic in any hydraulic lifter.
     
  14. Banditracer

    Banditracer Dogs - because people suck

    Just put that bent one in the vise and straighten it out. You'll be fine. :D
     
  15. cav115

    cav115 Well-Known Member


    Yep.

    If you haven`t, look into the operation and design of that system. It`s a joke.

    Having said that, ford`s is too. We are sesing a lot of the Ecoboost motors coming apart at 130-140K.

    About the only valve pause system that works is on asian cars, and even those can be fubarred by lax maintenance.
     
    ducnut likes this.
  16. cav115

    cav115 Well-Known Member


    The LS engines do have a problem with the oil pickup tube O ring getting brittle and sucking air, and the rear main plate gasket failing, leaking oil.
     
  17. ScottyRock155

    ScottyRock155 A T-Rex going RAWR!

    I had to pull an oil pan and replace the o-ring on the pick up tube because mine was sucking air at idle and would read low pressure. That truck had 235,000 miles on it, replaced the 0-ring and she was good to go.
     
    cav115, ducnut and turner38 like this.
  18. turner38

    turner38 Well-Known Member

    Ehh, not that common from what I’ve seen.
    The oil pickup o ring is usually only a issue if someone tries to reuse it from what I’ve seen. There is a updated part all of the new pumps come with.
    Have seen a couple or rear plates leaking over the years.
    The GM design is no worse than any other AFM design and all pretty much work the same way, they in pin the lifter to deactivate it. Some of the Asian stuff unpins a rocker arm.

    Every LS style engine I’ve seen with AFM issues was well over 150k or higher on mileage and the maintenance was questionable.
     
  19. ducnut

    ducnut Well-Known Member

    Cam lobe failure is a common problem, from what I’ve seen on LS boards. It got me. The worst part of it is the oil feed to the mains is unfiltered, so any debris goes straight in.

    Lifter failure got me, too. I ran Valvoline 5W-30 full-syn, at 5K intervals, and Wix filters. There shouldn’t have been any oil issues, given the oil pressure never dropped below 40.

    Spun cam bearings got me, as well. I don’t know what all led to what, I just know everything was destroyed and there was absolutely no oil at the rockers, when the engine was running. This truck was never abused.

    I don’t think these engines have a rhyme or reason for valvetrain failures, given the wide variety of mileages and maintenance regiments.
     
    cav115 likes this.
  20. ducnut

    ducnut Well-Known Member


    What you’re personally seeing is an isolated sample. What’s going on worldwide is a different story.

    That O-ring leaking is very common and the #1 reason for low oil pressure in these engines.

    You’re correct on AFM issues, it seems. I’m not sure why the Hemi stuff doesn’t seem to be as well publicized, but, they definitely have problems, too. The whole idea of it is senseless, IMO. If the vehicle requires 50hp to run down the road, it requires 50hp, no matter whether 4cyl or 8cyl are doing the work. I don’t see where 4cyl less valvetrain activity saves that much, when there’s so much loss in the rest of the engine.
     

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