scubiesteve

I am going to do aftermarket lifters and camshaft from Texas Speed and performance and just want to make sure I have all the parts I need before I tear open the top end. So besides the obvious gaskets and ARP head studs, what else is needed when doing a camshaft and lifter upgrade? I have an obnoxious sound coming from above cylinder 4, I have not taken the valve cover off yet to check rocker arms. The truck got all new lifters at 54,000 miles (thank you GM) and I'm now at 115,000 miles so I'm guessing my camshaft is eating a lifter.

I'm also looking at sending the heads off to get port and polished since they have to come off anyway.......

So I'm guessing I should be able to pick and choose what I want from this kit https://www.texas-speed.com/p-717-do...elete-kit.aspx and then add valve springs and cam, and that should be everything I need correct as the 5.3 and 4.8 are the same except for piston design and stroke.....

BTW, this is on a 2008 4.8l no VVT or AFM.

Wolftrk99

iTrader: (5)

Wouldnt even bother with that kit, honestly!! You can probably piece it together for a lot less than that, the valley cover they include is $140+ by itself, you need head gaskets, valve cover gaskets, timing cover gasket, water pump gaskets, intake gaskets wouldnt hurt while youre there, a cam retainer plate, if you want to mess with pulling the oil pump the ls2 style chain damper, if not resuse your tensioner(just dont break it), lifter trays, arp head bolts (or studs) or gm bolts, lifters, pushrods, and the o rings on the coolant crossover pipe.... 1fastbrick has a thread dedicated to gm seal and gasket part numbers and i do believe one of them is a cam swap gasket set that should work on just about any ls engine, but you may be better off buying a head gasket set and a timing cover set, that will give you all of the gaskets in two boxes....

1FastBrick

iTrader: (17)

If your eating lifters again, You may want to take a look at the oil your running as well as the frequency in which you service it.

scubiesteve

I only run Pennzoil or Mobil 1 5W30 with extended performance Mobil or wix filters. I never let it get below 25% on the oil life monitor before I change it. I'm not the only one having a problem with these crappy hydraulic lifters in these trucks. I'm thinking of going with the Morel tie-bar lifters to hopefully solve this issue and new cam shaft. The first time it happened it was a lifter on the driver side now it's one above cylinder 4 on the passenger side. GM replaced them all under warranty but didn't change the cam shaft, just lifters and gaskets.

Wolftrk99

iTrader: (5)

Thats unusual normally if the lifter is screwing up it wipes the cam lobe too.... I have one im in the middle of going through the engine on the #3 intake roller seized in the lifter and had worn half way away before it finally gave up..... Took out oil pump, cam bearings, mains and rods gouged crank shaft on at least two main journals and one of the rod journals is scored pretty bad, it also dislodged the screen from the pickup tube and put a hole in it!!

scubiesteve

I hope I don't run into any problems like that when I start taking it apart. It idles okay, just makes some noise. Every once and a while I'll get a CEL for a cylinder 4 misfire which is where the failing lifter is. Luckily my truck isn't the daily so I only drive it if it's absolutely necessary until I can fix it.

1FastBrick

iTrader: (17)

Don't use the oil life monitor for oil change intervals!!! It uses algorithms based on runtime and how often you reset the monitor.

This is the #1 thing I hear from people with engine failure. They don't realize how poorly the system works. It can not analyse the oil in the engine as some people seem to think it can.

I have seen those things go 10K or more before it advises it's time for an oil change.

scubiesteve

I've never gone over 4500 miles between oil changes

1FastBrick

iTrader: (17)

But do you check the oil quality and level?

What type of driving do you do?

scubiesteve

I check the oil level about every other fill up or so, but the truck doesn't burn any oil. When I change it, it comes out a dark yellowish brown. I just recently towed with it but that's because I got out of the air force and had to move our camper from Florida to Arkansas. The lifter was going bad before that though, it's just louder now. I also had a clogged cat on the passenger side that had to get replaced about 15,000 miles ago, guessing caused by the lifter starting to go. Truck is tuned by Diablew and has 33" tires with 4.56 gears.