Help please: Cam & Lifters replacement

[Nytro15]

Hi there

I have a 2007 Tahoe LTZ 5.3 flex fuel, It has 157k miles and I just bought it from a dealership as is. It looks like some oil changes were not done in appropriate timing as the oil was a bit caked on so I did some extensive repairs. I had a lot of problems with oil pressure so I replaced the oil pump and solved the problem. (Just in case anyone asks I out sealant on the mating channels of the other gaskets). Now I’m having a tapping sound which I believed to be a lifter jumping and not making me feel good about this. When I did pull the engine oil pan I found small amounts of shaved material and little bit particles of metal. I am to believe from this that my lifter somewhere on cylinder 4 or 6 is bad, might be so bad it chewed the cam lobe. I have the money to pay a shop to do it but I have a little bit of Intermediate mechanic skill. However I’ve never done a camshaft replacement, especially not on a v8. My few questions are should I upgrade anything while I have the heads off? How can I prevent future problems? Good examples to look out for damaged engine parts? Or soon to be problems?

note: I am going with a AFM DOD Delete kit that comes with a camshaft and a tuning module.

TLDR: Bit of a Rookie Mechanic to replace camshaft and lifters, any tricks or tips to look out for while doing job? should I upgrade anything while I am at it. A shop quoted me 2850 to do the whole job with AFM Delete. A kit would cost me 800-900 plus whatever else to replace for preventative maintenance.

 

[wjburken]

Hi there

I have a 2007 Tahoe LTZ 5.3 flex fuel, It has 157k miles and I just bought it from a dealership as is. It looks like some oil changes were not done in appropriate timing as the oil was a bit caked on so I did some extensive repairs. I had a lot of problems with oil pressure so I replaced the oil pump and solved the problem. (Just in case anyone asks I out sealant on the mating channels of the other gaskets). Now I’m having a tapping sound which I believed to be a lifter jumping and not making me feel good about this. When I did pull the engine oil pan I found small amounts of shaved material and little bit particles of metal. I am to believe from this that my lifter somewhere on cylinder 4 or 6 is bad, might be so bad it chewed the cam lobe. I have the money to pay a shop to do it but I have a little bit of Intermediate mechanic skill. However I’ve never done a camshaft replacement, especially not on a v8. My few questions are should I upgrade anything while I have the heads off? How can I prevent future problems? Good examples to look out for damaged engine parts? Or soon to be problems?

note: I am going with a AFM DOD Delete kit that comes with a camshaft and a tuning module.

TLDR: Bit of a Rookie Mechanic to replace camshaft and lifters, any tricks or tips to look out for while doing job? should I upgrade anything while I am at it. A shop quoted me 2850 to do the whole job with AFM Delete. A kit would cost me 800-900 plus whatever else to replace for preventative maintenance.

First off, welcome to the forum from Iowa.

A few thoughts:

1). Replacing the cam and lifters is definitely doable by yourself.

2). Where are you seeing metal shavings/particles? If it’s too bad, you maybe looking at damage elsewhere in your motor.

3). $2500 to do all that work seems a little low, if you ask me. I replaced the cam and lifters in my 2007 6.2 4-5 years ago and parts and fluids came in around $2000. That also included a new timing chain set. Make sure they are using quality OEM or better parts.

 

[Mechanic421]

Prices have gone up!

 

[swathdiver]

Hi there

I have a 2007 Tahoe LTZ 5.3 flex fuel, It has 157k miles and I just bought it from a dealership as is. It looks like some oil changes were not done in appropriate timing as the oil was a bit caked on so I did some extensive repairs. I had a lot of problems with oil pressure so I replaced the oil pump and solved the problem. (Just in case anyone asks I out sealant on the mating channels of the other gaskets). Now I’m having a tapping sound which I believed to be a lifter jumping and not making me feel good about this. When I did pull the engine oil pan I found small amounts of shaved material and little bit particles of metal. I am to believe from this that my lifter somewhere on cylinder 4 or 6 is bad, might be so bad it chewed the cam lobe. I have the money to pay a shop to do it but I have a little bit of Intermediate mechanic skill. However I’ve never done a camshaft replacement, especially not on a v8. My few questions are should I upgrade anything while I have the heads off? How can I prevent future problems? Good examples to look out for damaged engine parts? Or soon to be problems?

note: I am going with a AFM DOD Delete kit that comes with a camshaft and a tuning module.

TLDR: Bit of a Rookie Mechanic to replace camshaft and lifters, any tricks or tips to look out for while doing job? should I upgrade anything while I am at it. A shop quoted me 2850 to do the whole job with AFM Delete. A kit would cost me 800-900 plus whatever else to replace for preventative maintenance.

Am very weary of "delete kits" that come with a camshaft. Most of them provide an old LM7 camshaft that is smaller than the single pattern cam in your truck now. The L33s is the same grind as your original sans AFM. The parts ought to be GM OE, anything else just doesn't stand up, even for a short while. Replacing the lifter trays is SOP, make sure they are OE and not aftermarket as some use inferior materials which will quickly crack allowing the lifter to spin and wipe out a cam lobe.

 

[Rocket Man]

Am very weary of "delete kits" that come with a camshaft. Most of them provide an old LM7 camshaft that is smaller than the single pattern cam in your truck now. The L33s is the same grind as your original sans AFM. The parts ought to be GM OE, anything else just doesn't stand up, even for a short while. Replacing the lifter trays is SOP, make sure they are OE and not aftermarket as some use inferior materials which will quickly crack allowing the lifter to spin and wipe out a cam lobe.

Good advice right here. IMO $800 for everything is just enough money to get you in trouble. You don’t want to be doing this twice so buy quality parts. It’s not time to be cheap. And why go back to a stock cam when you can add some hp at the same time.

 

[Nytro15]

First off, welcome to the forum from Iowa.

A few thoughts:

1). Replacing the cam and lifters is definitely doable by yourself.

2). Where are you seeing metal shavings/particles? If it’s too bad, you maybe looking at damage elsewhere in your motor.

3). $2500 to do all that work seems a little low, if you ask me. I replaced the cam and lifters in my 2007 6.2 4-5 years ago and parts and fluids came in around $2000. That also included a new timing chain set. Make sure they are using quality OEM or better parts.

I did an oil change and the magnetic plug was holding onto a few shavings, they were about 1/16-1/8 inch big and just some metal particles. I’m not concerned from the particles as I am about the shavings though.

when I dropped the oil pan I sifted through to observe just how bad I was having shavings and I only found between 3-8 shavings of that size. The rest was particles or just burnt oil particles that were freed from my motor flush. I wish I took a photo but I was overly concerned about preventing more problems.

And yeah I called a few shops that just wanted to do regular swaps for cam and lifters without the AFM delete. That average was between 2400-2600. The one shop that did the AFM delete they are experienced with that issue and how to prevent it (by tuning & equipment swap) they charged 2850 for the whole out the door cost.

on another note I was looking to replace some of the internals in the heads but lack the knowledge to properly choose specs for that. I kinda want to keep the engine running better then factory but not power crazy as this is just my family/tow vehicle in a sense.

 

[Nytro15]

Good advice right here. IMO $800 for everything is just enough money to get you in trouble. You don’t want to be doing this twice so buy quality parts. It’s not time to be cheap. And why go back to a stock cam when you can add some hp at the same time.

AMS Racing has a kit for this, it was the LS7 style kit. That’s the one specifically I was referring to. But if you guys think I should definitely get something else based off them being low quality parts, I will check it out I don’t know anything about cam specifications. And not that knowledgeable about what quality metals to use.

 

[Rocket Man]

AMS Racing has a kit for this, it was the LS7 style kit. That’s the one specifically I was referring to. But if you guys think I should definitely get something else based off them being low quality parts, I will check it out I don’t know anything about cam specifications. And not that knowledgeable about what quality metals to use.

I don’t have any specific kit I can recommend but if it was me doing it I wouldn’t buy a kit but instead choose the individual parts I wanted and go that route. I’m sure there are decent kits out there but, for instance, that kit doesn’t even specify what brand lifters are in it, what brand head gaskets or head bolts etc. I wouldn’t want to do all that work and have a collapsed lifter after awhile or a leaking head gasket. Maybe somebody here can recommend a kit that uses all of the good stuff.

 

[iamdub]

^^^ Agreed. Another member recently installed a kit that had unknown parts brands in it and he had lifter problems within a few hundred miles.

@Nytro15, I bought all my stuff separately between ebay and Amazon. Sure, it's not as convenient as simply adding a kit to an online cart and checking out. But, that extra time spent shopping to get known quality parts is far less painful than having the engine fail after all the work, especially if you paid someone to do the work.

The thing with LS engines is that they're like LEGOs. They're relatively straightforward to disassemble and reassemble and really clean when doing so since they use O-ring style gaskets. You just need to adhere to a few important requirements (using sealant at specific points on the oil pan, cover alignments, torque-to-yield specs, etc.). If you want some toilet reading, my engine refresh saga begins on Page 49 of my build thread: https://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/growing-up-doesnt-have-to-suck.93510/page-49

 

[thompsoj22]

what is the cost of a long block? based upon your admitted experience and a $3000 dollar budget i would think you are close to being able to replace the longblock with afm delete incorporated, a warranty, and swap your parts over with a more reliable end result? And absolutely welcome! This is such a great forum for all the answers/opinions youll need. there is a member that will ask you to update your sig with the vehicles particulars ie" year, eng, flex, 157k. That way every time you post all the info is there to give accurate advice/opinions. it took me awhile to understand that it really matters.