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Another New Member From Texas


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Hi y'all! Just purchased a 2017 1500 Silverado LTZ Z71 Crew Cab with the 6.2L in Silver Ice Metallic over Independance Day Weekend. Had some incentives plus a private offer plus an additional $2000 from my salesman. Man, what a great machine! Started driving Chevy trucks in 2001 while I still had a 1990 F150 Lariat 5.8 Modified 4X4. My first was a 2001 1500 Silverado 2wd with the 4.6L Vortec in Fire Engine Red (or whatever the color was called) as my company truck. I was very impressed with it and offered to buy it from my employer but was declined. Life took me away from that job in 2003 but I couldn't forget how well that truck performed. Got a new job in Fort Worth on 2006 and in 2009 bought a Chevy Tahoe Z71 with the 5.3L 6-Speed and was wowed again. Traded it for a 2014 Z71 and then bought our travel trailer (a 24' Palomino SolAire 20RBS) and the Tahoe towed it like a champ but it was a little slow on the hills, especially the 7% grades. After researching this site and reading the recommendations of others, I sold the 2014 Tahoe this year, and bought the Silverado. Still in the recommended break-in period but will be towing our trailer to Eagle Nest NM soon. I am really enjoying this truck, and have enjoyed reading and browsing this Forum over the past month. Y'all sound like great people to hang with! I will post a picture as soon as I can get one taken and reduced to fit here.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Out of the break-in period now and this Silverado is getting 21.1 mpg averaged over the last 1780 miles. A friend has a 2016 with the same engine and tranny and he is grumbling about averaging 17 mpg. His wife said "you'd do better, dear, if you didn't have a lead foot!". He can't stand dawdling around so he drives like a wanted desperado being chased by the police. :crackup: Serves him right.

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I have the same issues at times, it is hard to resist putting your foot into it a bit. We still average about 19mpg with mostly city driving, so I can't complain too much. It's a far cry better than our old 318 Dakota that gets about 13mpg! I was able to get 23.6mpg out of it on a long highway trip though. I'll still likely disabled AFM and replace the lifters when the warranty is up...I just don't trust those AFM lifters as many of them I have heard about collapsing. I love the technology on this truck, but some of the sacrifices in reliability they have made are a little silly, all in order to make small improvements in MPG on a TRUCK. I love saving fuel and money as much as the next guy, but being stranded because of a failed lifter will cost a lot more - especially out in BFE, and right outside of the warranty period.

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Ah yes! The 318 V8! Had one in the first car I ever owned: a '67 Dodge Dart 4-door sedan. A sweet motor that gave me about 23 MPG when properly tuned and adjusted. Fond memories!

 

Ahem, back to the thread discussion. From what I have researched, the AFM lifter failure seems confined to the Vortec 5.3L. I haven't encountered anything about this in my research on the 5.3L Ecotec3 or the 6.2 Ecotec3 motors - yet. I'm still looking. One thing I have found is that to eliminate the AFM in the motor requires some interesting modifications, not just simple reprogramming (new lifters, rods, crank shaft, reprogrammed tranny & ECM, etc.) that will void any warranty you still have. I purchased a full 100,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty with road-side assistance for this truck new truck just like I had on my Tahoe, so if something goes wrong or fails, the only cost on repairs to me is $100. Everything else is covered. Now, the 2014 Tahoe I sold had the Vortec 5.3L. It had lifter noise when cold that cleared up when I shifted from Pennzoil semi-synthetic to Valvoline semi-synthetic. After that, no more typewriters under the hood. Collapsing AFM lifters? Probably not but you never know. Still doing research.

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Found a couple of references on SilveradoSierra.com to AFM lifter issues on #7 cylinder resulting in a bent push rod in the 6.2L. The dealer replaced all of the odd number lifters and rods and the motors are still running fine. The mileage of failure varied. One was relatively low and the other was much higher though both were less than 100,000 miles. The incidents appear rare.

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Right, it does seems rare enough that it's certainly not a priority enough for me to want to void my warranty. The first order of business after the warranty period is digging in with HPtuners to get the trans working like I want it. At that point I may want to put a small cam in anyhow, and it's a good time for AFM delete, new headgaskets, ARP headbolts, and all that good stuff...if I plan to keep the truck long term. I see a number of reviews and quality concerns that make these trucks seem like they are not intended to "go the distance" either due to complexity or designed service life. Those are usually my first mods being a mechanically inclined gearhead, none of my stuff is fast, but they are all bullet proof. The old TBI 350 Yukon GT has 255k miles on it, can't beat that for simplicity unless you manage to find a good 12v Cummins, or run a carb'd gasser.

 

I'm with you on those smaller displacement underdog motors too, while Dodge never really had a great OD transmission, the 3 speed TF held up well and the motors are just as reliable as the tried and true SBC. I also still have a little Plymouth valiant! 318, auto, factory AC car. It needs a lot of work to knock the ugly off, but it's a neat little car.

 

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