11 Denali Hybrid

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Brando92

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Picked up a 11 Denali with approx 130k on her. She’s knocking but I’m not convinced it needs a motor, did a little digging and found rocker in cyl 7 with no movement. Being that I don’t know a lot of history on it should I attempt to get that lifter to unstick and hope it works or tear it apart and see what the damage is. Seen a lot of different videos where something as simple as marvel mystery oil getting the lifters back in working order as long as it’s not far gone. I figured if it needs a motor then so be it, after all the truck didn’t cost me anything.
 

j91z28d1

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Picked up a 11 Denali with approx 130k on her. She’s knocking but I’m not convinced it needs a motor, did a little digging and found rocker in cyl 7 with no movement. Being that I don’t know a lot of history on it should I attempt to get that lifter to unstick and hope it works or tear it apart and see what the damage is. Seen a lot of different videos where something as simple as marvel mystery oil getting the lifters back in working order as long as it’s not far gone. I figured if it needs a motor then so be it, after all the truck didn’t cost me anything.


if you can get it unstuck and then disable it. you might get away with it. worth a try to me. others think you should never short cut and do a full delete kit.

the hybrids have a different cam than the non hybrid ones. if you go full delete, see if you can find one with a grind for the hybrid. these engines have higher compression ratio to cover for the cam timing bleeding off static compression at low rpm. I haven't even been able to confirm the trucks run right if replaced with a regular cam. I think you'd atleast have to run 93 all the time. no one that's done it ever replies when I ask. I have a feeling they don't, then give up and sell the truck for scrap. hptuners does mildly support the truck. can change a few basic things, like disable afm. but not a tons of fueling stuff. I'm not sure there's enough to tune for a cam or not.

good luck with it. please keep up the thread about how it goes. mine is disabled by the crazed performance guys stuff. but I'm sure I'll have to deal with this some day too.


if you decide to replace the afm lifters with new ones.(what I was thinking of doing at first) from what I read only the oem ones work. the cheap ones off Amazon or ebay fail quickly, or sometimes straight out of the box.


looks nice.
 
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Brando92

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if you can get it unstuck and then disable it. you might get away with it. worth a try to me. others think you should never short cut and do a full delete kit.

the hybrids have a different cam than the non hybrid ones. if you go full delete, see if you can find one with a grind for the hybrid. these engines have higher compression ratio to cover for the cam timing bleeding off static compression at low rpm. I haven't even been able to confirm the trucks run right if replaced with a regular cam. I think you'd atleast have to run 93 all the time. no one that's done it ever replies when I ask. I have a feeling they don't, then give up and sell the truck for scrap. hptuners does mildly support the truck. can change a few basic things, like disable afm. but not a tons of fueling stuff. I'm not sure there's enough to tune for a cam or not.

good luck with it. please keep up the thread about how it goes. mine is disabled by the crazed performance guys stuff. but I'm sure I'll have to deal with this some day too.


if you decide to replace the afm lifters with new ones.(what I was thinking of doing at first) from what I read only the oem ones work. the cheap ones off Amazon or ebay fail quickly, or sometimes straight out of the box.


looks nice.
Thanks for the reply! Definitely wanna hang onto it as the interior is really nice and it was taken care of to some degree. The paint can use a refresh but nothing some wrap can’t make look better for now if I’m soaking the money into a crate motor if that’s the route I have to go. Rumor has it the previous owners replaced the hybrid battery which is a good thing I have read.

I’ll definitely keep you guys updated as I’m sure I’ll be here asking for a bunch of info too. One other major thing I’ve noticed is I’m pretty sure the oil switch is bad being the pressure is maxed out even with the truck off, basically the plan for now is drop the oil change the filter, throw mmo in it see what that does and replace the switch along with the filter inside. Hopefully it works but I have my doubt with my luck.
 

j91z28d1

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Thanks for the reply! Definitely wanna hang onto it as the interior is really nice and it was taken care of to some degree. The paint can use a refresh but nothing some wrap can’t make look better for now if I’m soaking the money into a crate motor if that’s the route I have to go. Rumor has it the previous owners replaced the hybrid battery which is a good thing I have read.

I’ll definitely keep you guys updated as I’m sure I’ll be here asking for a bunch of info too. One other major thing I’ve noticed is I’m pretty sure the oil switch is bad being the pressure is maxed out even with the truck off, basically the plan for now is drop the oil change the filter, throw mmo in it see what that does and replace the switch along with the filter inside. Hopefully it works but I have my doubt with my luck.


try not to drive it very long with it stuck. it can eat up the cam lobe.


I didn't have one stuck, but I followed this guys disabled. might be worth a shot to release it.


 
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Brando92

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try not to drive it very long with it stuck. it can eat up the cam lobe.


I didn't have one stuck, but I followed this guys disabled. might be worth a shot to release it.


Luckily got it towed how only started it a few times to see what’s going on. The scary part is I don’t know about the previous owners and how long they drove it or didn’t drive it. I’m kinda confused as to if it’s the lifter as well because everything I keep seeing is there should play if the lifter, essentially you should be able to rock it back and forth but mine is just stuck no play. Either way I’m invested in it weather it’s a simple fix or a crate motor.
 

j91z28d1

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I thought you meant #7 had no movement when cranking it running? do you mean by hand, just wigging it?

if so you could be on the lobe of that one, try spinning the engine over. by hand is probably the easiest since these things crank so fast.


on a side note if you're going to keep it, picking up one of the cheap clone tech 2 is almost a must with these. it's hard to do anything without a proper scanner to control things.
 
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Brando92

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I thought you meant #7 had no movement when cranking it running? do you mean by hand, just wigging it?

if so you could be on the lobe of that one, try spinning the engine over. by hand is probably the easiest since these things crank so fast.


on a side note if you're going to keep it, picking up one of the cheap clone tech 2 is almost a must with these. it's hard to do anything without a proper scanner to control things.
I turned it on and took the valve cover off and I’m pretty sure it was the last Rocker on the drivers side has no movement at all.
 

j91z28d1

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if it's not moving while running that should definitely be a stuck lifter. but you should also be able to wiggle the rocker by hand easier than other ones. there's a small spring on top of the afm litter that keeps the pushrod in place while the lifter is collapsed in 4 cyl mode. but you should be able to move it by hand, unless it happened to stop on the lobe just out of luck.

either way, if you can pull the intake and release the lifter when his tool and the keep it from going into 4 cyl mode again. you should be good. as long as like you say, the last owner drove it to long and damage lifter or cam.

that should make a lot of metal thou, so cutting open your filter is a good idea.
 
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