New Chevy question

rrman61

Well-known Member
Friend of mine was telling me he bought a Silverado 1/2 ton with a 5.3 gas v-8.a 2021 model I think.he told me at 7000 miles 1 lifter failed causing damage to the camshaft.anyone here of similar problems with the newer Chevys.I know this will cause a Ford/Chevy/dodge/Toyota/Nissan debate but all I am looking for is cause and cure
 
(quoted from post at 10:02:58 09/20/21) Friend of mine was telling me he bought a Silverado 1/2 ton with a 5.3 gas v-8.a 2021 model I think.he told me at 7000 miles 1 lifter failed causing damage to the camshaft.anyone here of similar problems with the newer Chevys.I know this will cause a Ford/Chevy/dodge/Toyota/Nissan debate but all I am looking for is cause and cure

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2021/0...sing-amount-of-v8-engine-valve-lifter-issues/

https://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/topic/249844-2021-silverado-trail-boss-lifter-failure/

https://www.silveradosierra.com/threads/2021-silverado-trailboss-failed-lifter.739931/
 

An oil change using the cheapest oil and cheapest filter on the shelf will fail the valve train. Occurs more often than would want to believe .
 
My daughter had lifter problems on their new (2021)Tahoe with the 5.3 engine. Dealer fixed it under warranty but it took a couple weeks as parts were back ordered. Failed several 100 miles away from home and the dealer there had a couple in their shop with same problem. Local dealer furnished them with a vehicle to get home and brought my daughters Tahoe home to repair it.
 

Most every 5.3 I have replaced was because of a lifter failure so its nuttin new other than now they fail when they roll them off the transporter. The last one that came in the dealer told me GM recalled all of the lifters they had in stock so the customer sold it as is.
 
I have a next door neighbor been without his truck since mid March. @021 same engine dropped a lifter ruined a head, took 4 weeks to get a head and get repaired ran 4 days failed again. He is now waiting on a new truck that GM says they are going to get him. Has a work truck to drive but sure is put out over the deal. They (dealer) have called him twice that his truck was in but it was nowhere close to what he has now.
 
Im like M-Man, after decades and decades of engine building how can you all of a sudden forget how to make lifters? Her Suburban with a 5.3 turned over a quarter million this year and I wouldnt be afraid to drive it anywhere in this country Id like to go. Planned obsolescence comes to mind but not at 7000 miles. Another reason I dont buy new.
 
Dont these engines use active cylinder management where it shuts off cylinders to improve economy? Dont the lifters control that?
 
Seems to me Chevy never did learn how to make lifters. I had to replace the cam, lifters, timing chain and gears, and rocker arms on my 1964 Chevy station wagon back in the 1970s. Lost count of how many sets of lifters and cam I replaced over the years.

I have ZERO faith in Chevy engines.
 
My pickup with the 5.3 has gone 217,000 miles with nary a whimper. I still wouldn't hesitate to drive it anywhere in the country.
 
I am a fan of the 5.7 driving a 99 with 250k on unopened motor. Always Mobil 1 full syn and wix filters every 5K
 
I have a 2001 1/2 ton with 5.3 with 220'000 miles on it and no engine trouble at all so far. uses almost no oil between 3000 mile oil chances. I've had to change the servo's in the transmission but thats all except timely service. this has been my experience, john
 
Your friend got good miles out of his. My BIL's 2021 only made it 3 months and 1800 miles before a lifter failed. Transmission also went out of that truck when it was 4 weeks old. gm is a quality disaster right now. But they are going to be a leader in EV's. Yeah, right, just don't mind the fires.
 
One common problem is with the AFM 4 cylinder system. The lifters in the 4 cylinders that get deactivated have a small screen in the oil passage. If you drive with light loads often, run in 4 cyl mode often, these screens start to gum up and the problem is worse if you stretch your oil changes to 6-7K miles. It results in low oil flow to those lifters, they start to stick, then they destroy the camshaft. I have a 2016 with the 5.3, 97,000 miles and it's fine...oil change every 5K miles, I tow a lot, my truck is in 8 cyl mode a lot of the time. BIL has the same truck/engine and 2 lifters failed at 90K miles and destroyed the camshaft.....$6K later and his engine was repaired new cam, lifters and a ton of labor. He doesn't tow much and gets his oil changed when the oil life monitor says to and I'm sure way higher than 5K miles. Since learning about these issues, I have deactivated 4 cyl mode in my truck, I don't miss it at all and MPG is about the same.
 

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ret-ra003?seid=srese1&gclid=CjwKCAjwhaaKBhBcEiwA8acsHObJxF5IEE6dxmAtdpNtaOjq2qKkMGc-OUXhIGlbu6muYTxNr7RjrRoCzBEQAvD_BwE
 

Our 2012 Silverado with the 5.3 now has 76,000 miles on it, and we've never had an issue of any kind. Serviced every 3,000 miles at the dealer. He can do all of that stuff for less money than doing it myself.
 
(quoted from post at 09:48:40 09/21/21) How is the 4cyl mode deactivated?and can a competent mechanic do this?

I think there is a way to shut off the cylinder deactivation in the computer, but people should get a "true AFM" delete kit where you actually get your hands dirty.

In 2011 I think GM addressed this problem with slightly different inner valve-cover design, where oil doesn't tend settle in certain areas. This is just going off my memory.

I have a 2011 Silverado 1500 5.3L. Just turned over 180,000 miles with no issues. Been a great pickup for me.
 
My 2001 with a 5.3 has 360,000 and the motor sounds great, of course no fuel management system. I ran my 91 with the 4.3 450,000 before it had a clutch failure.
 
No one has made new flat tappet lifters since the OEMs all went to rollers. The cam companies all resurface old lifters, the bores are getting worn and the cam ends are getti g too short. Many brand new flat tappet hydraulic lifters will bleed down in under 5 minutes.
 
All LS based engines had lifter problems, even some valve and valve spring problems too, there was just a lot more in the AFM years due to a more parts, complex design, and probably cheaper sourced parts. For trucks AFM started in 2007, and was only on the 5.3L, later it came out on the 4.3L V6, and 1500 6.2L, but never on the 4.8L or 6.0L, so don't worry about 3/4 or heavier trucks having AFM.

The newest edition of AFM is called Dynamic Fuel Management or DFM. This came out on the 2019 to current engines. This system is similar to AFM but instead of cutting off the same 4 cylinders simultaneously, it has several different modes. It can kill 2 cylinders, 4 cylinders or any of all 8 cylinders depending on certain loads or conditions. The newest design has brought even more types of valvetrain failures (lifters, valves, cam, and pushrods)
 
(quoted from post at 14:33:34 09/20/21) After all these decades of making hydraulic lifters that gave no problems how did they mess that up?

They reinvented the lifter to allow the engine to switch between 4 cylinder and 8 cylinder operation to increase the fuel economy a couple tenths of an MPG.

My 2015 with 103,000 on it had a lifter seize less than a week after the 5-year warranty ran out. Bent a valve. Fortunately, the head checked out, the cam checked out, so all they had to do was replace the lifter and the valve, and put it back together.

The dealer advised me not to open the can of worms with GM, as GM would have insisted that the head be replaced, the cam be replaced, all new lifters, to the tune of about $12,000. At best GM would cover half because it was just out of warranty as a "goodwill gesture," leaving me out $6000. The dealer fixed it "old school" having a machine shop check out the head and cam, replacing only the bad components, for $2500.
 

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