2012 Tahoe Engine Swap or Rebuild

[Climbhigh300]

Thinking about replacing or rebuilding the 5.3 in my 2012 Tahoe. I was going to do DOD and VVT delete but it damaged a lifter before I could. Motor has 263K on it, so I’ve been contemplating buying a reman instead of rebuilding top to bottom and doing DOD and VVT delete. Cost wise seems to be pretty close. Any advise on which way to go and any recommendations on places to get a good reman with warranty?

 

[strutaeng]

Thinking about replacing or rebuilding the 5.3 in my 2012 Tahoe. I was going to do DOD and VVT delete but it damaged a lifter before I could. Motor has 263K on it, so I’ve been contemplating buying a reman instead of rebuilding top to bottom and doing DOD and VVT delete. Cost wise seems to be pretty close. Any advise on which way to go and any recommendations on places to get a good reman with warranty?

You already tore down your existing engine? And a lifter bore was damaged? I've never heard if lifter bores can be corrected by machining (but doesn't mean it's not possible.) Maybe they can sleeve it? Idk.

How does everything else look like? If lifter bore can be corrected, may be cheaper to rebuild your engine (assuming everything else is fine.) But if you have to do a lot of machining, then reman. engine makes more sense.

 

[BattleTank]

If it were me, I'd buy another engine, rebuild it, swap engines, rebuild the other one and stuff it in the corner somewhere.

 

[Geotrash]

Thinking about replacing or rebuilding the 5.3 in my 2012 Tahoe. I was going to do DOD and VVT delete but it damaged a lifter before I could. Motor has 263K on it, so I’ve been contemplating buying a reman instead of rebuilding top to bottom and doing DOD and VVT delete. Cost wise seems to be pretty close. Any advise on which way to go and any recommendations on places to get a good reman with warranty?

How handy are you? I did a full cam swap on my 2012 a few years ago, along with the oil pump, timing set, etc. If the block is in good shape, my preference would be to take it out of the truck, pull the heads, and send the block, and heads to a local machine shop for reworking. I just don't trust the quality levels from places like Jasper. Too many failures reported here from shoddy work.

 

[Climbhigh300]

How handy are you? I did a full cam swap on my 2012 a few years ago, along with the oil pump, timing set, etc. If the block is in good shape, my preference would be to take it out of the truck, pull the heads, and send the block, and heads to a local machine shop for reworking. I just don't trust the quality levels from places like Jasper. Too many failures reported here from shoddy work.

I’m pretty hand with tools, but definitely no machinist. I’m not sure about the lifter bore, but the intake lifter on the 3 cylinder is stuck in the block. I found pieces of the roller bearing in the oil pan after losing oil pressure and pulling it apart thinking I was going to replace the oil pump. There is a little bit of wear on the cylinders naturally after 260k+ miles. I figured if I was going to pull the block to do cylinder work, I might as well rebuild bottom end too. But at that point, and adding a DOD and VVT delete kit, I’m going to be bumping the cost of a reman motor with a warranty

 

[strutaeng]

If the lifter gets beat up by the cam lobes and mushroomed on the roller end, you can remove the camshaft (probably entire bottom end as well then then) and actually push the lifter down out of the bore through the bottom.

You really can't tell of the condition of the internal parts until everything is torn down, cleaned and inspected. Better yet is measuring journals with a micrometer. But just a visual inspection tells you a lot about wear.

Did the engine make any knocking sounds prior to being shut down? If not, it's probably rebuildable.