Supreme Pizza

Like noisy tires eh? Try these:

If it has performance issues, then the problem is not isolated to an 02 sensor #2 issue. The vehicle will require some sort of repair. Vacuum leak, upstream O2 sensor, etc.

GM is not going anywhere. They will be around for a long, long time. If they go bankrupt.... AGAIN.... the government will give them free money to help them out. For example: The U.S. government lost $11.2 billion on its bailout of General Motors, according to a 2014 government report. The government invested about $50 billion to bail out GM as a result of the company's 2009 bankruptcy, and at one time held a 61 percent equity stake in the Detroit-based automaker. So if they make sh1tty cars and go bankrupt - they are rewarded with $50 billion dollars. So they get the same pay, regardless of the quality of their work. If you do really really well - then you don't get that free handout because you don't need it. By that logic - why work harder? Why strive to be the best?

I would check the OBD2 codes at the local auto parts store. (Its free). You probably have a stored or pending OBD2 code on bank one or bank two. If it says sensor #1 - fix it. If it says sensor #2 - you can safely ignore it. (oxygen sensors)

The brand of oil is not as important as how good your maintenance habits are.

What year to what year need to be programmed?

This might seem a bit extreme, but what about tack welding the bolts in place. You could easily remove the tack welds as needed with a grinder, or hammer and chisel.

Disable the AFM ASAP.

Start saving your pennies. New trans soon.

On a side note - the heads have holes in them that allow the pushrod to pass through them. If they made those pushrod holes a little bigger, you could easily remove the defective lifters without removing the heads. Just pull the valve cover, pull the rocker arm, slide the pushrod out, and then stick a magnetic tool down the hole, and the lifter would come right out. Then just put the new lifter in, slide the pushrod in, install the rocker, install the valve cover and away you go.

Ya, that's a good idea. That's probably the easiest and most direct way to do it. I would check the voltage at the battery. It will probably be something like 12.66 volts give or take. Then once the charger is hooked up, that voltage should go up. For example it might show 12.87. Then back to 12.66 when you disconnect the charger.

A 2 amp trickle charger is not very "powerful" - pardon the pun. They mainly just .. maintain. If you are using any significant power from the truck, you would probably want a more powerful charger. You can also get a low battery alarm, or an automatic low battery disconnect - which cuts off the power if the battery is starting to get almost low enough that it would not be able to start the truck. As far as the feedback is concerned - the power will flow both directions through a wire, as long as its not equipped with a diode.

I am always looking for new simple ways to fix things. So how about this idea: As you already know: When an AFM lifter fails - the lifter basically gets stuck in the collapsed position which makes the lifter shorter. The pushrod no longer actuates the rocker. So what about this idea: Pull the pushrod out, and replace it with a longer one. This would allow the collapsed lifter to actuate the rocker arm properly. It was also prevent the lifter from "un-collapsing" in the future. In theory, that cylinder would begin to operate normally - and without a check engine light being triggered. Obviously you would want to disable the AFM at that point, and the new pushrod would have to be the perfect length. Maybe this would not work at all. In fact I assume that there is some major problem with the idea that I have overlooked - but that's why I posted this idea. What part of the equation am I missing? Why would this "fix" not work?

In order to check the lifters, you really need to start and run the engine with that valve cover off. It will run on the opposing bank just fine. After all, that's basically what AFM does, just using different cylinders. Anyway, if you have a bad lifter, it can cause the rocker to move when turning the motor by hand, and when cranking, but then when the engine actually starts, the lifter causes the rocker to stop moving. I know, because I had a bad lifter, and the compression test came back good. Then I cranked it over with the valve cover off, and everything looked fine and the rockers were moving. Then i started the engine, and bingo bongo - no rocker movement on #7 intake. Then I shut it off, and cranked the motor over without starting it - and the rocker started moving again. When driving the rig, you could feel the missing cylinder kick in here and there and then cut out again.

You could anything from a standard tune-up, to a full on supercharger. If you want power - do both. OK, maybe not the cheapest option, but: 150+ HP increase