2005 5.3 Ticking Journey

[cjmcglaughlin]

Did the other side valve cover and checked those rockers too, all seems good. Got the stethoscope and listened around but It's so quiet on 10w40 I can't pinpoint it anywhere, I almost hear it better with my ears than the stethoscope. I think I might go for a strategic "wait and see" approach for now. If it gets louder again I have some mystery oil, seems very similar to light oil like diesel. I think switching to synthetic on a 130k mile engine might have been my mistake. It is tempting to flush it with atf or diesel just because if that doesn't do it nothing will. Gonna run this oil for about 3 thousand miles and see what happens.

It's so hard to search about ticking non-afm 5.3's lol. It's all people hearing cold piston slap for the first time or the AFM imploding. Good to know that you had something similar that was fixed with that clamp. I couldn't even find anyone saying they had an exhaust leak that didn't quiet down once their engine warmed up.

For what it’s worth, I switched to synthetic at around 155k and several oil leaks developed soon after. I’m thinking the synthetic did a good job cleaning the motor out (which is good) but also opened up some weak points on the seals.

 

[filthysuburban]

Well the sound is louder again after a couple months and 3k miles, it kinda has a chirp or squeak to it now. Stethoscope seems to lead me to lifters. So I've decided to do the heads, cam and lifters, oil pump, timing set and gaskets. Fully aware this work and parts could make no difference in the sound, but I'm betting it's a lifter. Still trying to decide on the cam. Looking into getting a stage 1 cam or something that is close to stock and will run with stock tune and torque converter until I can get it tuned. Wouldn't mind more power but I would mind my 4l60 exploding so I'm aiming for stockish reliability. Stock cam is an option too, if the aftermarket cams are too incompatible with stock tune (they say stage 1 is fine but idk). I have a backup ride so not in a huge hurry.

I'm looking at these parts, the summit parts seem like a good deal. Not ordered anything yet, curious what people think of the summit parts. Should I mess with trunnion bearings? The old ones had zero vertical play when I wiggled them by hand. No pushrods because I'm going to measure that once it's all together again. Going to have heads redone at a shop.

parts
Summit Racing SUM-HTLSKIT2 - Summit Racing™ LS Lifter and Guide Kits $184.48
Melling High-Volume Oil Pumps M295HV $156.36
Cloyes Gear C-3220 - Cloyes Heavy-Duty Timing Sets $31.99
Summit Racing LS Series Retrofit Trunnion Kits SME-143002 $120.59 ?
Summit Racing SUM-174002 - Summit Racing™ Valve Springs $64.79
Summit Racing SUM-150106 - Summit Racing™ Camshaft Retainer Plates $17.09

bolts/gasket
ARP 134-1003 - ARP Cam Bolts $7.09
ARP 134-3610 - ARP Pro Series Cylinder Head Bolt Kits $118.99
ARP 234-2503 - ARP Balancer Bolts $33.99
ICT Billet Exhaust Manifold Bolts 551696 $21.99
Fel-Pro Head Gasket Sets Fel-Pro HS 26191 PT-1 $194.99

I was looking at these cams, I see melling also makes a stage 1 truck cam but is not very popular.
Summit Racing™ Pro LS Vortec Truck Swap Camshafts SUM-8718R1 $269.99
BTR GEN III & IV TRUCK CAM - STAGE 1 - V2 - BTR30612120 $349.99

Pretty sure the prices were lower last time I looked lol.

Edit to include this awesome post which has the list of tools needed for those playing along

2012 Yukon XL Denali 6.2L Cam Swap Thread

I love that Cam Motion measures each cam after grinding and finishing. Here's the cam card. Blub blub blub...

www.tahoeyukonforum.com

 

[strutaeng]

Well the sound is louder again after a couple months and 3k miles, it kinda has a chirp or squeak to it now. Stethoscope seems to lead me to lifters. So I've decided to do the heads, cam and lifters, oil pump, timing set and gaskets. Fully aware this work and parts could make no difference in the sound, but I'm betting it's a lifter. Still trying to decide on the cam. Looking into getting a stage 1 cam or something that is close to stock and will run with stock tune and torque converter until I can get it tuned. Wouldn't mind more power but I would mind my 4l60 exploding so I'm aiming for stockish reliability. Stock cam is an option too, if the aftermarket cams are too incompatible with stock tune (they say stage 1 is fine but idk). I have a backup ride so not in a huge hurry.

I'm looking at these parts, the summit parts seem like a good deal. Not ordered anything yet, curious what people think of the summit parts. Should I mess with trunnion bearings? The old ones had zero vertical play when I wiggled them by hand. No pushrods because I'm going to measure that once it's all together again. Going to have heads redone at a shop.

parts
Summit Racing SUM-HTLSKIT2 - Summit Racing™ LS Lifter and Guide Kits $184.48
Melling High-Volume Oil Pumps M295HV $156.36
Summit Racing True Roller Timing Sets SUM-G6640 $132.29
Summit Racing LS Series Retrofit Trunnion Kits SME-143002 $120.59 ?
Summit Racing SUM-174002 - Summit Racing™ Valve Springs $64.79
Summit Racing SUM-150106 - Summit Racing™ Camshaft Retainer Plates $17.09

bolts/gasket
ARP 134-1003 - ARP Cam Bolts $7.09
ARP 134-3610 - ARP Pro Series Cylinder Head Bolt Kits $118.99
ARP 234-2503 - ARP Balancer Bolts $33.99
ICT Billet Exhaust Manifold Bolts 551696 $21.99
Fel-Pro 260-1973 - Fel-Pro Engine Gasket Kits $237.99

I was looking at these cams, I see melling also makes a stage 1 truck cam but is not very popular.
Summit Racing™ Pro LS Vortec Truck Swap Camshafts SUM-8718R1 $269.99
BTR GEN III & IV TRUCK CAM - STAGE 1 - V2 - BTR30612120 $349.99

Pretty sure the prices were lower last time I looked lol.

I started with the same idea as you thinking top end refresh... long story short, I wound up pulling the engine. I'm using that Summit Racing cam, and a bunch of their stuff. Summit is local to me, so that's a big factor for me.

May be of some help to you: https://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/tty-head-bolts-with-engine-in-vehicle.147231/

 

[filthysuburban]

Reading about what lifters are good and now I'm scared lol, apparently all the aftermarket trays are suspect and lifters on ebay/amazon are 99% fake. I know better than to buy lifters from there but the part I ordered says Delphi and delphi will not warranty any of their ls7 lifters (when they stopped I don't know) Hmm... Should have plenty of time while the heads are in the shop to fuss about lifters, I'm going to micrometer them and see for myself if I like them. I can usually smell junk and if I don't like them even a little they're going back for the double priced gm performance or morel. Don't want to spend a bunch but it's easily justified on lifters, it's 200$ more for insurance and those engines aren't getting cheaper.

Would love to hear about anyone's experience using sum-ht215 lifters. This guy used the summit lifters seems like the build went well https://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/2010-burb-misfire.142262/page-9#post-1792808

Also getting the summit cam, less aggressive and easier tune. Torque will be very welcome on 3.43 gears.

 

[filthysuburban]

Took her out one last time to run a short errand today, managed to record the sound this time. Mic doesn't hear it as well as I do, but you can hear the scraping sound.

 

[filthysuburban]

Answered my own lifter question pretty easily. Got one genuine gm lifter from summit and it's the exact same as the delphi summit brand ones lol. Only the date code is different(and the gm part bag), so save your money and just get the summit(jegs/napa/etc.) ones. They all are from the same factory, maybe QC is tighter on the ones the sell to GM idk.

Got a set of melling rocker arms (MR1341), a couple of the old ones are scratched and pitted as opposed to all the others where the cup is mirror-like shiny. One on #8 where I heard the sound is the most pitted and scratched. Also got the arp thread cleaning tap ARP 912-0011 and comp cams 7702 pushrod measuring tool, because murphys law.

Heads pressure tested good and getting the valve grind and resurface + new valve spring/seals + 3 broken manifold bolts removed. Cam looks fine which is good and maybe bad because I see no evidence of that grindy sound. Cam bearings look fine as far as I can see.
8 inch gear puller slightly trimmed with an angle grinder got the crank cam gear off.
Heating the harmonic balancer bolt and hitting it with penetrating oil is a good idea, I was worried I was going to snap my breaker bar until I oiled and torched then it came right off.

Now just taking my time scraping the head gasket surfaces with a razor blade and brake cleaner... anyone have a favorite method for cleaning head surfaces? I'm thinking I'll get them as clean as I can with the current method then finish with some lint-free cloths and a more aggressive solvent like oven cleaner or acetone. Not a huge fan of whizzing it with a die grinder or stuff I see on youtube...

 

[cjmcglaughlin]

Answered my own lifter question pretty easily. Got one genuine gm lifter from summit and it's the exact same as the delphi summit brand ones lol. Only the date code is different(and the gm part bag), so save your money and just get the summit(jegs/napa/etc.) ones. They all are from the same factory, maybe QC is tighter on the ones the sell to GM idk.

Got a set of melling rocker arms (MR1341), a couple of the old ones are scratched and pitted as opposed to all the others where the cup is mirror-like shiny. One on #8 where I heard the sound is the most pitted and scratched. Also got the arp thread cleaning tap ARP 912-0011 and comp cams 7702 pushrod measuring tool, because murphys law.

Heads pressure tested good and getting the valve grind and resurface + new valve spring/seals + 3 broken manifold bolts removed. Cam looks fine which is good and maybe bad because I see no evidence of that grindy sound. Cam bearings look fine as far as I can see.
8 inch gear puller slightly trimmed with an angle grinder got the crank cam gear off.
Heating the harmonic balancer bolt and hitting it with penetrating oil is a good idea, I was worried I was going to snap my breaker bar until I oiled and torched then it came right off.

Now just taking my time scraping the head gasket surfaces with a razor blade and brake cleaner... anyone have a favorite method for cleaning head surfaces? I'm thinking I'll get them as clean as I can with the current method then finish with some lint-free cloths and a more aggressive solvent like oven cleaner or acetone. Not a huge fan of whizzing it with a die grinder or stuff I see on youtube...

I used steel wool to clean the surfaces for intake gaskets, seemed to work pretty well in conjunction with brake clean

 

[filthysuburban]

Worlds slowest cam swap mostly done, machine shop had my heads for a month... but they do look great now.
Just started it yesterday and ran it about 30 mins, sounded fine and no leaks just misfire code.
The idle is gnarly with MAF plugged in, +49% short term fuel trim at idle because it's trying to run at too low rpm I assume. Runs fine with a bit of throttle. I'll raise the idle rpm as soon as I get around to it.. throwing all that fuel can't be good for cats.

Measured my pushrods at about 7.300 using the measuring tool and Got the btr chromeoly "PR7300312" pushrods.
Primed the oil pump by cranking it 20-30 sec with all the spark plugs out (and gas pedal to the floor) which worked flawlessly no lifter noise instant oil pressure, also idles at 60 psi cold instead of 40 now. Around 40 hot.
To tighten the balancer to 235ft-lbs loop a chain through it to the frame to keep it from moving and get your cheater pipe.
The thread cleaning tap I'm going to say in my case was unnecessary, just tiny flakes of rust came out after hitting it with air compressor and brake clean. I would want it with the greased arp bolts if I was removing those.

Got to put my front diff and all that back then test drive time! Not completely done but I'm optimistic, definitely didn't hear the old ticking noise with the stethoscope but valvetrain might be a little louder now.

 

[filthysuburban]

Hauled a couple loads of furniture for a friend after I got it back together, runs great definitely notice more torque. But on the way back of course I start hearing a tapping sound kinda light but very similar...

Flushed out the oil and no glitter, didn't hear the sound until like 100 miles though. It's the same area as the old tapping sound and only one valve.
Got a 7.350 pushrod (50 thou longer) and tried it in various rockers that were on the side I heard the noise and found the 3rd pushrod from the rear on cyl 6 is the problem.
I thought a longer pushrod would quiet it but instead the tick got louder.
Back to all 7.300 pushrods and debating what the hell I should do.
Could take the head off on the passenger side again and install that extra gm lifter I have in there. Funny feeling I will find nothing wrong like the first time though.
Or send it and see if the sound gets worse? It's not loud enough to hear in the cab very similar to the old sound when I ran 5w30..

Leaning toward the latter, parts I took out look fine no metal in oil. And it's hard to hear until it warms up.

 

[Larryjb]

I have a ticking sound on mine. I got a stethoscope and heard a faint ticking sound from the rear of my PS exhaust manifold. After tightening the exhaust manifold bolts, the sound didn't go away, but it was definitely different. I hear that exhaust manifolds (even new ones) warp after the first heat cycles and need to be machined.

Don't overlook the easy stuff! (warped exhaust manifolds are quite common).