📠 she’s at 312k right now still going. I ended up tearing the motor down most of the way to tackle a bunch of oil leaks and put new cam and lifters while I was in it.
Lol! Yes it was pretty nasty, I took the brakes all apart shortly after filming this and dude the insides of the calipers were gnarly. Not the worst I’ve ever seen but it definitely goes on the list! 😆
I have a 05 Sierra with the 5.3 and only after I start it cold and drive it about 5-7 mins and let it idle there will be a tick, I can rev it up and it goes away even at idle, I think it’s the lifters bc a knock wouldn’t go away at all
Sounds correct to me. Don’t forget to check for exhaust leak where the manifold meets the head, you’ll see missing bolts (broken off from heat cycling, very common on these) and carbon trailing where the exhaust escapes. The carbon is easy to spot on the aluminum head. If it’s dirty, clean the area then check for carbon after some miles. It can also leak exhaust at the collector where the manifold meets the part of the exhaust with the cats on the drivers side especially. The ring seal they use from the factory and in rebuild kits is lame, I had to use a graphite type flat gasket in it from eBay to get it to seal. An exhaust leak will present the same as a lifter tick. Sounds exactly the same. If it’s an exhaust leak use remflex manifold gaskets, arp manifold bolts so they don’t break again, and the eBay graphite flat style collector gasket on the drivers side. If it is the lifter and not the rocker itself (the needle bearings inside the rocker tend to wear out in high mileage motors) or exhaust get a new cam, lifters, upgraded trunnion style rockers, rod bearings and oil pump for it plus the previously mentioned exhaust stuff just cause it’s apart. I eventually opened this motor all the way to solve a bunch of oil leaks it had. I installed the mentioned stuff while it was open. Still running great every day at 316k miles. It might look a bit pricey at first but it’s well worth it then you don’t have to worry about it for another 20 years at least lol. Best of luck!
@@Street_Mobbin yeah melling mid range higher pressure oil pump. Good way to test if the oring is bad is overfill the motor until the oring is submerged (about 2 quarts) and if it starts having normal oil pressure again then oring is shot.
@@SpecialAgentJamesAki I have an ls2 I installed new oil pump and o ring but seems like the oil doesn’t go up to the heads that much. I think maybe I installed cam bearing wrong?
@@Street_Mobbin these motors don’t need a whole lot of oil up top because they use the trunnion rockers not the cup type like the 1st gen sbc so it’s normal to see what we would call not enough oil up top from that perspective but it could be, I would think that if cam bearings weren’t straight there would be a lot of resistance trying to turn it. They might be the wrong size for your cam. If the cam bearings are too big pressure will bleed off there. There’s also the “barbell” could be leaking I think that’s more common, there’s an upgrade for it that’s highly recommended when doing the rear main seal. Idle oil pressure should be over 30, if it’s a really worn out motor the main and rod bearings could be bleeding off pressure also.
That’s really good. One of my buddies has a high mileage 5.7 that’s holding up well. Are you the original owner and what type of oil have you run in it? People ask me what they can do to keep theirs running good. I’ve never had a hemi before.
Hahaha yeah these things can take a savage beating for sure. I ended up taking the motor apart cause it had mad oil leaks. I put a new cam and lifters in while it was apart. At 312k miles now still running good.
Yeah mine is at 258k and I baby it, it should last a while don’t over stress the engine and only let it go above 2k getting onto the highway or cleaning out carbon buildup. Last big thing it had was it needed an oil pump
@@Kahne-yy3vq yeah being nice to them helps. I got my truck from an older dude original owner who was just babying it around and mostly driving highway. He did oil changes every 3000 I do it a bit earlier cause I do short drives. I did put a new oil pump in it while I had it apart. I was running it on 10-40 or 15-40 when it wasn’t making full oil pressure and I kept it overfilled a little to keep the level above that o-ring.
This was from a long time ago. Only my #7 cylinder had the loose rockers like this (last in line of the oiling system) all other cylinders were tight. I dissected them and the needle bearings had worn down like some crud got in and made them stop spinning so they had one sided wear ie sliding instead of spinning then total failure. There were parts of the needle bearings in the oil pan also. It’s a well documented issue with these motors and now when you go to buy rockers they only sell the trunion upgrade ones with sealed bearings because of said issue.
All of mine except cylinder 7 had no play all original. Cyl 7 is the last in line of the oiling system on these so first to go. Build quality on new parts is bad right now. I recommend going to junk yard and finding good original or going for trunnion upgrade which is what I ended up doing because the price was fair for new. ✌️ Edit: oh yes also i found the info for the trunnion upgrade on tahoe forums it’s very common for people to do this on the 5.3/4.8 so if you are doing valve work check this forum lots of good info 😃
@@28eveskcige for me it did. It depends how quickly you catch it cause that hammering effect from the play between the rocker and the lifter can ruin the cam and lifter pretty quick. The way I look at it if you’re going to keep the motor it’s worth a try with the rockers because you should replace or upgrade the rockers if you’re doing cam and lifters anyway so just try it out but if it keeps ticking don’t leave your new rockers installed with a bad lifter. Also look into the exhaust leak at the manifold issue with these motors that will create a very similar sound. The exhaust bolts are weak and tend to break off. You’ll see a couple of the bolts missing heads especially drivers side closest to the firewall.
@@28eveskcige 0 difference. I started mine with one valve cover off ( on 4 cylinders ) and starter holding each rocket and you can feel grind/not smooth movement on the noisy one.
I found pieces of the needle bearings in the pan when I tore the motor down to reseal it. It’s worth it just to pull the pan if nothing else to get the bits of bearing out, and if there’s no bearing bits then at least you’ve got a freshly sealed pan. There was some scoring in the oil pump when I had it apart most likely from the needle bearing bits. The pump still was working but I replaced it with a high volume pump for peace of mind. It’s easy to do on these motors, very worth it.
@@SpecialAgentJamesAki High volume oil pump not gonna do you any good if you didn't increase oil pan volume. All the oil will be up top and you run the chance of scavenging the rod and main brgs. I've seen this happen several times.
@@roncoleman6693 not the case with the lm7, it barely sends any oil to the top end by design. These motors have really good drain back and full windage trays so oil return isn’t an issue. Also if there was a condition where oil couldn’t get back to the pan quicker than it was being sent up a larger pan wouldn’t solve this it would only lengthen the amount of time until it hits dry which would be minuscule. Very few engines actually suffer from drain back failure but I happen to be very interested in 2nd gen Oldsmobile rockets which are notorious for improper drain back, many many people will install a larger pan thinking it will cure the issue but the same exact thing happens but it happens a couple seconds later than previous (on the rockets). The real solution is to meter how much oil is allowed to go up top. It can’t be more than is draining back at any given time. This is why on fuel return systems we run a larger or equal hose for the return than the sending. Imagine there are two buckets one is set on the floor and another is set on a table above it with a spigot of a given size that is open. There is a pump moving fluid from the lower bucket to the upper bucket then liquid drains from the spigot back to the lower bucket. If the pump is moving fluid faster from the lower bucket to the upper bucket than fluid is allowed to drain from the spigot back into the lower bucket it will run that bucket dry eventually no matter how large it is. So the real solution is to match the oil drain back to be equal or greater to the highest oil flow up and the lm7 has a TON of room to work with on this. I suspect in order to run it dry you would need a ridiculous amount of pressure to the point where one should be more concerned about one sided bearing wear from the oil feeds pushing the cam and crank to one side. This motor hot idles 40 psi and hits the relief at 80 psi nothing that would cause any issues. I’ve put well over 30,000 hard miles mostly through the mountains on it since the install and it runs like it’s brand new still. Something I will say is that if someone’s going to do this they do need to get the two bolt pickup tube and the aluminum barbell because it will make the plastic one leak. But the stock 6.5 quart pan is fine.
If it gets real bad it could. Mine didn’t have a miss tho. Check for exhaust leak it sounds exactly the same as the lifter and that can cause a miss. Also the 2007 and newer cars tend to have a misfire associated with the failure of the DOD system. The older ones like mine don’t have DOD so the miss is less likely in the case of valvetrain failure.
Snake oil is a term for stuff like “engine fix in a bottle” some magic liquid that’s supposed to fix broken mechanical components. This failure happens from normal use after lots of miles I think this one was at 280k miles at the time of filming. A lot of people try to use the “engine fix in a bottle” stuff to fix valve train failure. Sometimes that stuff can quiet down noisy rod bearings or other pressurized spaces like that in the bottom end but the bearing in the rocker and the lifter tip on the ls is non pressurized so there’s very little chance it will help. I run a 5w-30 synthetic. 🤙
Someone said that Lucas worked on their 2012 tahoe but you have to do it with every oil change. I'd rather get it fixed but if you have to get the money up 1st I can see why the Lucas ( in some cases) would be used.
@@ericcollins2349 I actually like Lucas products and have used a variety of them in different stuff. I had a car with low oil pressure from sacked out rod bearings and used the stabilizer with good results. The stabilizer is a VII viscosity index improver. It’s a polymer that grabs oil molecules as temperature rises and holds them together to make like one big molecule so essentially makes the oil thicker. You can get the same results by running a thicker oil. When I would use the Lucas I would use it as a top off but at the next change stepped up the thickness of the oil. A downside to the VII is that it “shears” easily and when it shears part of it is consumed by the engine ie oil burning and the other part becomes sludge. The stabilizer definitely has its place and does what it’s supposed to.
For me yes but I caught it really early. If the truck has been driving around for a while with the tick the lifter is probably damaged also and this won’t fix it. Also look for exhaust leaks on the manifold if it’s ticking. Especially the very back on the drivers side that bolt tends to fall out and create a ticking sound.
It rattled pretty good for a few seconds at startup then would mellow out and once it started to get warmed up the ticking got loud. If your ticking goes away once it’s warm there’s a good chance it could be the exhaust manifold leak that a lot of these trucks suffer from, it sounds exactly the same as valvetrain. The bolts break off after time as these trucks are getting older. They say it’s due to the expansion rate of the aluminum heads coupled with rust jacking. Usually the drivers side closest to the firewall breaks off first. You’ll see black carbon buildup around the manifold where it meets the head. There’s good write ups on the Tahoe/Yukon forum and other chevy forums about it and what to do about it.
@@SpecialAgentJamesAki mine all have new bolts and gaskets. And also new lifters. I really wanna track down the issue instead of throwing parts at it, thanks for the info tho. Mine ticks at 160• and then goes away at full op temp. Goes tack tack tack like there is lash between the lobe and roller. Oil pressure is good at 35-40 hot.
@@cputt1985 oh there’s another spot the exhaust can leak forgot to mention where the manifold connects to the y pipe. There’s usually a compressed ring type gasket for the driver side that sits in a recess of the same shape these can leak too. Especially if the manifold has been taken off before. The passenger side is a ball and socket flanged type connector so that one isn’t as prone to leaks. If it’s driver side noise this can be the spot. There’s a different type of gasket I found on eBay that is more like a normal graphite type that sits flat across the whole surface I had to use this one to make mine stop leaking and this will sound like a ticking also.
I mean brother with that many miles just be thankful the engine is still able to run and its not a bottom-end issue.
📠 she’s at 312k right now still going. I ended up tearing the motor down most of the way to tackle a bunch of oil leaks and put new cam and lifters while I was in it.
300k on a ls ain't nothing
@@kingperfection1868 frfr
OMG! Is anyone in California to help me with this!?
@@stoneyseahorse most local mechanics can handle it my friend just got it done at some random shop
Love that black brake fluid ... looks like the fluid has 293K miles for sure
Lol! Yes it was pretty nasty, I took the brakes all apart shortly after filming this and dude the insides of the calipers were gnarly. Not the worst I’ve ever seen but it definitely goes on the list! 😆
I have a 05 Sierra with the 5.3 and only after I start it cold and drive it about 5-7 mins and let it idle there will be a tick, I can rev it up and it goes away even at idle, I think it’s the lifters bc a knock wouldn’t go away at all
Sounds correct to me. Don’t forget to check for exhaust leak where the manifold meets the head, you’ll see missing bolts (broken off from heat cycling, very common on these) and carbon trailing where the exhaust escapes. The carbon is easy to spot on the aluminum head. If it’s dirty, clean the area then check for carbon after some miles. It can also leak exhaust at the collector where the manifold meets the part of the exhaust with the cats on the drivers side especially. The ring seal they use from the factory and in rebuild kits is lame, I had to use a graphite type flat gasket in it from eBay to get it to seal. An exhaust leak will present the same as a lifter tick. Sounds exactly the same. If it’s an exhaust leak use remflex manifold gaskets, arp manifold bolts so they don’t break again, and the eBay graphite flat style collector gasket on the drivers side. If it is the lifter and not the rocker itself (the needle bearings inside the rocker tend to wear out in high mileage motors) or exhaust get a new cam, lifters, upgraded trunnion style rockers, rod bearings and oil pump for it plus the previously mentioned exhaust stuff just cause it’s apart. I eventually opened this motor all the way to solve a bunch of oil leaks it had. I installed the mentioned stuff while it was open. Still running great every day at 316k miles. It might look a bit pricey at first but it’s well worth it then you don’t have to worry about it for another 20 years at least lol. Best of luck!
Hi you need a new performance oil pump and new O ring on pick up tube to solve ur issue.
@@Street_Mobbin yeah melling mid range higher pressure oil pump. Good way to test if the oring is bad is overfill the motor until the oring is submerged (about 2 quarts) and if it starts having normal oil pressure again then oring is shot.
@@SpecialAgentJamesAki I have an ls2 I installed new oil pump and o ring but seems like the oil doesn’t go up to the heads that much. I think maybe I installed cam bearing wrong?
@@Street_Mobbin these motors don’t need a whole lot of oil up top because they use the trunnion rockers not the cup type like the 1st gen sbc so it’s normal to see what we would call not enough oil up top from that perspective but it could be, I would think that if cam bearings weren’t straight there would be a lot of resistance trying to turn it. They might be the wrong size for your cam. If the cam bearings are too big pressure will bleed off there. There’s also the “barbell” could be leaking I think that’s more common, there’s an upgrade for it that’s highly recommended when doing the rear main seal. Idle oil pressure should be over 30, if it’s a really worn out motor the main and rod bearings could be bleeding off pressure also.
My 09 5.7 hemi is at 298k original miles no “hemi tick yet” lol
That’s really good. One of my buddies has a high mileage 5.7 that’s holding up well. Are you the original owner and what type of oil have you run in it? People ask me what they can do to keep theirs running good. I’ve never had a hemi before.
Rockers good for 293000 shit, ill take it!!!
Hahaha yeah these things can take a savage beating for sure. I ended up taking the motor apart cause it had mad oil leaks. I put a new cam and lifters in while it was apart. At 312k miles now still running good.
Yeah mine is at 258k and I baby it, it should last a while don’t over stress the engine and only let it go above 2k getting onto the highway or cleaning out carbon buildup. Last big thing it had was it needed an oil pump
@@Kahne-yy3vq yeah being nice to them helps. I got my truck from an older dude original owner who was just babying it around and mostly driving highway. He did oil changes every 3000 I do it a bit earlier cause I do short drives. I did put a new oil pump in it while I had it apart. I was running it on 10-40 or 15-40 when it wasn’t making full oil pressure and I kept it overfilled a little to keep the level above that o-ring.
Looks normal. Show is a good one
This was from a long time ago. Only my #7 cylinder had the loose rockers like this (last in line of the oiling system) all other cylinders were tight. I dissected them and the needle bearings had worn down like some crud got in and made them stop spinning so they had one sided wear ie sliding instead of spinning then total failure. There were parts of the needle bearings in the oil pan also. It’s a well documented issue with these motors and now when you go to buy rockers they only sell the trunion upgrade ones with sealed bearings because of said issue.
New rocker arm has the same play
All of mine except cylinder 7 had no play all original. Cyl 7 is the last in line of the oiling system on these so first to go. Build quality on new parts is bad right now. I recommend going to junk yard and finding good original or going for trunnion upgrade which is what I ended up doing because the price was fair for new. ✌️
Edit: oh yes also i found the info for the trunnion upgrade on tahoe forums it’s very common for people to do this on the 5.3/4.8 so if you are doing valve work check this forum lots of good info 😃
Replacing the trunions fixed this? Our suburban has several cylinders with those "clicky" rockers
@@28eveskcige for me it did. It depends how quickly you catch it cause that hammering effect from the play between the rocker and the lifter can ruin the cam and lifter pretty quick. The way I look at it if you’re going to keep the motor it’s worth a try with the rockers because you should replace or upgrade the rockers if you’re doing cam and lifters anyway so just try it out but if it keeps ticking don’t leave your new rockers installed with a bad lifter. Also look into the exhaust leak at the manifold issue with these motors that will create a very similar sound. The exhaust bolts are weak and tend to break off. You’ll see a couple of the bolts missing heads especially drivers side closest to the firewall.
@@28eveskcige 0 difference.
I started mine with one valve cover off ( on 4 cylinders ) and starter holding each rocket and you can feel grind/not smooth movement on the noisy one.
@@SpecialAgentJamesAkiwhich forum?
Was the noise it made before the fix a ticking or did was it a chripping sound
Ticking/clacking sounded kinda like a diesel but just the one cylinder with the issue.
Next question.. where all that wore down metal go..... 🤨🤔
I found pieces of the needle bearings in the pan when I tore the motor down to reseal it. It’s worth it just to pull the pan if nothing else to get the bits of bearing out, and if there’s no bearing bits then at least you’ve got a freshly sealed pan. There was some scoring in the oil pump when I had it apart most likely from the needle bearing bits. The pump still was working but I replaced it with a high volume pump for peace of mind. It’s easy to do on these motors, very worth it.
@@SpecialAgentJamesAki High volume oil pump not gonna do you any good if you didn't increase oil pan volume. All the oil will be up top and you run the chance of scavenging the rod and main brgs. I've seen this happen several times.
@@roncoleman6693 not the case with the lm7, it barely sends any oil to the top end by design. These motors have really good drain back and full windage trays so oil return isn’t an issue. Also if there was a condition where oil couldn’t get back to the pan quicker than it was being sent up a larger pan wouldn’t solve this it would only lengthen the amount of time until it hits dry which would be minuscule. Very few engines actually suffer from drain back failure but I happen to be very interested in 2nd gen Oldsmobile rockets which are notorious for improper drain back, many many people will install a larger pan thinking it will cure the issue but the same exact thing happens but it happens a couple seconds later than previous (on the rockets). The real solution is to meter how much oil is allowed to go up top. It can’t be more than is draining back at any given time. This is why on fuel return systems we run a larger or equal hose for the return than the sending. Imagine there are two buckets one is set on the floor and another is set on a table above it with a spigot of a given size that is open. There is a pump moving fluid from the lower bucket to the upper bucket then liquid drains from the spigot back to the lower bucket. If the pump is moving fluid faster from the lower bucket to the upper bucket than fluid is allowed to drain from the spigot back into the lower bucket it will run that bucket dry eventually no matter how large it is. So the real solution is to match the oil drain back to be equal or greater to the highest oil flow up and the lm7 has a TON of room to work with on this. I suspect in order to run it dry you would need a ridiculous amount of pressure to the point where one should be more concerned about one sided bearing wear from the oil feeds pushing the cam and crank to one side. This motor hot idles 40 psi and hits the relief at 80 psi nothing that would cause any issues. I’ve put well over 30,000 hard miles mostly through the mountains on it since the install and it runs like it’s brand new still. Something I will say is that if someone’s going to do this they do need to get the two bolt pickup tube and the aluminum barbell because it will make the plastic one leak. But the stock 6.5 quart pan is fine.
Will this cause a misfire at that cylinder?
If it gets real bad it could. Mine didn’t have a miss tho. Check for exhaust leak it sounds exactly the same as the lifter and that can cause a miss. Also the 2007 and newer cars tend to have a misfire associated with the failure of the DOD system. The older ones like mine don’t have DOD so the miss is less likely in the case of valvetrain failure.
What do you mean by snake oil would running other type of oil cause this failure and what do you run for ls
Snake oil is a term for stuff like “engine fix in a bottle” some magic liquid that’s supposed to fix broken mechanical components. This failure happens from normal use after lots of miles I think this one was at 280k miles at the time of filming. A lot of people try to use the “engine fix in a bottle” stuff to fix valve train failure. Sometimes that stuff can quiet down noisy rod bearings or other pressurized spaces like that in the bottom end but the bearing in the rocker and the lifter tip on the ls is non pressurized so there’s very little chance it will help. I run a 5w-30 synthetic. 🤙
Someone said that Lucas worked on their 2012 tahoe but you have to do it with every oil change. I'd rather get it fixed but if you have to get the money up 1st I can see why the Lucas ( in some cases) would be used.
@@ericcollins2349 I actually like Lucas products and have used a variety of them in different stuff. I had a car with low oil pressure from sacked out rod bearings and used the stabilizer with good results. The stabilizer is a VII viscosity index improver. It’s a polymer that grabs oil molecules as temperature rises and holds them together to make like one big molecule so essentially makes the oil thicker. You can get the same results by running a thicker oil. When I would use the Lucas I would use it as a top off but at the next change stepped up the thickness of the oil. A downside to the VII is that it “shears” easily and when it shears part of it is consumed by the engine ie oil burning and the other part becomes sludge. The stabilizer definitely has its place and does what it’s supposed to.
Might as well get that dod outta there while you at it
01 so no dod on this rig
Did this fix the tick? mine have that same play on my 5.3
For me yes but I caught it really early. If the truck has been driving around for a while with the tick the lifter is probably damaged also and this won’t fix it. Also look for exhaust leaks on the manifold if it’s ticking. Especially the very back on the drivers side that bolt tends to fall out and create a ticking sound.
@@SpecialAgentJamesAkimy mechanic just told me my rocker arms aren’t good and pushrods , I thought it was my lifters lol
@@chevyss18 nice
So what was wrong with it
The needle bearings in the fulcrum of the rocker were wiped out, a couple even shattered. I ended up going for the trunnion upgrade.
@@SpecialAgentJamesAkidid you happen to try and squeeze the trunnion back together? As in placing it in a vice to press in the caps reducing play?
@@ALCRAN2010 I did not try that. I found needle bearing bits in my oil pan so I was too afraid to leave them in there. But someone should try that!
Did it start ticking at like 160 degrees and go away once warmed up fully?
It rattled pretty good for a few seconds at startup then would mellow out and once it started to get warmed up the ticking got loud. If your ticking goes away once it’s warm there’s a good chance it could be the exhaust manifold leak that a lot of these trucks suffer from, it sounds exactly the same as valvetrain. The bolts break off after time as these trucks are getting older. They say it’s due to the expansion rate of the aluminum heads coupled with rust jacking. Usually the drivers side closest to the firewall breaks off first. You’ll see black carbon buildup around the manifold where it meets the head. There’s good write ups on the Tahoe/Yukon forum and other chevy forums about it and what to do about it.
@@SpecialAgentJamesAki mine all have new bolts and gaskets. And also new lifters. I really wanna track down the issue instead of throwing parts at it, thanks for the info tho. Mine ticks at 160• and then goes away at full op temp. Goes tack tack tack like there is lash between the lobe and roller. Oil pressure is good at 35-40 hot.
@@cputt1985 oh there’s another spot the exhaust can leak forgot to mention where the manifold connects to the y pipe. There’s usually a compressed ring type gasket for the driver side that sits in a recess of the same shape these can leak too. Especially if the manifold has been taken off before. The passenger side is a ball and socket flanged type connector so that one isn’t as prone to leaks. If it’s driver side noise this can be the spot. There’s a different type of gasket I found on eBay that is more like a normal graphite type that sits flat across the whole surface I had to use this one to make mine stop leaking and this will sound like a ticking also.
@@SpecialAgentJamesAki yeah replaced those already. Thanks for the heads up tho