DK91105

Went on easier than it came off was my experience. Looks like you are now at the point I was before yesterday's work. Prep, prep, prep your surfaces. Also make sure you chase all of the head bolt holes. I used a M12 x 1.75 long thread chaser from ARP. P/N: 912-0016. Attach a small hose to your shop vacuum and get in each bore to the very bottom and get all liquids / trash out. I used a small $20 amazon special bore scope that plugs into my phone to verify all liquids were out of the head bolt holes. This will take some time as getting the deck / head surfaces ready for reassembly is quite tedious work. I found that acetone really cuts the old gasket material on the surfaces exceptionally well. Carb cleaner I've seen people use in videos didn't even touch it.

Took the day off and made some big progress on the reassembly. Man torquing those head bolts is not fun leaning over the radiator support. Wore me smooth out today.

CTRL + ALT + DELETE

Here's proof you can do this with out a pan drop or pulling the oil pump forward. Going back on was easier than removal. Nailed the orientation in 1 try. New cam and retainer plate installed prior obviously.

Your cam is obviously waaaaay worse than mine. I'm going to do this myself and highly suggest you do it as well... get 2 oil change kits. Before you start it up again change it. Run it for a bit, let it get up to temp and then drain and change oil and filter again. You do not want any of those particles in between your friction surfaces. I unbolted the pump but didn't slide it forward. It let it wiggle a tiny bit but I did not want to mess with that seal on the pickup. Looks impossible to replace if you screw it up. How did you slide the pump forward at all? it seems locked in place because of that seal the the dowels. What were your symptoms prior to tearing into it and are you going back stock or delete?

If you're going to be installing it, go ahead and delete all the DFM stuff out of it before you install it. Will be 100x easier on a stand than doing it in the truck.

Heads cleaned up pretty good but I decided to make them perfect. For $200 a local engine machine shop took .003" off of the mating surface and gave them a bath. Not all the carbon came loose but it looks a lot better overall.

If you heard lifter noise (tapping) a week ago you should have stopped to investigate it then. It was in the middle of grenading itself and you kept on driving it. What happened more than likely based on your description was that one of the DFM lifters started to fail (known GM issue) and started to gall. It quickly spread the contamination through your engine and ruined the bearing surfaces. Pull the oil filter and cut it open. I bet if you remove and spread out the element it will look like you found gold on the Yukon river.

It was unlocked but I didn't rotate it to get the chain off. Once I turned it to where I needed to get the phaser plate out of the way that's all I needed. That allows it to drop down just enough to get this to work. I haven't reassembled it yet but I will be locking it back before I attempt it. This way I know it's right when it's back on and the arrow is pointing straight up.

Stop what you are doing and put the #1 piston back at TDC and at that point the arrow on the cam gear should be pointing straight up at 12 o'clock. Then go back under the truck and install the lock that bolts where the starter goes. From there mark across the flex plate and onto the lock tool with a sharpie or scribe so when you go to put it back you aren't depending on the timing chain marks or something else that could move if you drop the chain or it slips a tooth on the crank sprocket. After that remove the cam bolt and turn the crank to about where you have it so that the phaser plates notches straddle the oil pump like you have pictured. From there pull out on the cam gear until it disengaged from the cam and drops down a little. DO NOT pull on the phaser plate. You can pull it apart fairly easily. There is a clock spring type setup in there and you can not put it back together if you seperate it. You will have to buy a new one and they aren't awful expensive but still around $200 I think. You already have the tensioner release I see so your next step is to grab the chain on the drivers side and lift / pull on it until you get all the slack available on that side. Once you do put a sturdy pick or screw driver around the 2:30 / 3 o'clock position and gently pry the chain back in a manner that is trying to push the chain behind the cam gear. You will know if you have it right as a little pressure will just about allow you to put the chain completely behind the gear. Once there take a 2nd pick tool and walk it one tooth up. Repeat this until it walks off the back of the gear. It took me 3 moves once I found the right spot. It will take some light force but certainly nothing that feels excessive. If you are going balls out trying to pry it off you aren't in the right spot or have it setup right. After it's off put #1 back at TDC and reinstall the lock tool where the starter goes while paying attention that the marks you made previously are lined up. When you reinstall the gear make sure when it's on that the arrow is back at 12 o'clock.

Yes, walked it right off. Once I found the sweet spot it wasn't even hard.

You can get the cam out without touching the oil pump or dropping the pan on a L84. I just did it, its tricky but if you are 4wd like me it saves an absolute ****** ton of time. If you aren't changing the lifters you aren't saving anything. You can disable the DFM all you want but until you physically delete it there is ZERO evidence that you are helping save or increasing the longevity of anything. You have to get rid of the crap DFM lifters. Go with genuine GM LS7 lifters and change the cam. Texas speed has a great kit and you can option it however you want.

Well well well.... finally got it all the way down and lookie what I found. An initial visual inspection of the lifters didn't yield any obvious clues but when I pulled the cam out.... So to folks who say tapping noises are nothing to worry about... I was definitely on borrowed time with this engine.

Put the piston at TDC and it won't be able to drop in enough to lose it. Can I contact you? I've got some questions about my own dfm delete going on.

OP did you get it figured out? I just received my ECU back from HP tuners. It cost me $300 for an unlock. Once the truck is back together and I plug in hp tuners to tuners out the DFM it will be another $400 ish. I don't believe there is any hand held tuner or other application that can unlock the ECU to truly disable to DFM. There are things like the pulsar LT that will turn it off. I asked about that option as it's much cheaper than the HP tuners route. Nobody had a straight answer if that would be OK or if turning it off in HP tuners was really 100% necessary.

You're going to have to pull the radiator and fans for sure to get the cam out. It's not fun. A/c condenser and trans cooler can be left in. Separating them from the radiator is fun.

Well, I'm almost all the way down. Last hurdle is to get this cam out without dropping the pan. Seems to be easier said than done. I've got the tension off the chain but I will can't walk the chain off the cam gear. I've watched some videos and get the idea but I gave up for today.

I appreciate the offer and ill take you up on it! What puller did you use to remove the balancer? I have 3 different kinds of pullers and NONE of them work for this balancer.

Here is a bunch of stuff that's about to get deleted. Delete kit comes with a bunch of block off plugs with o- rings to get rid of all this.

I've been working on stuff my whole adult-ish life. Done engine swaps, builds, etc... other than that previous experience though I know nothing about these engines and every nut and bolt is a learning curve. Absolutely zero clue how to take any of this apart besides a little intuition about how I think it should go. ALSO I'm a YouTube certified master mechanic. anytime I'm up against something iffy I just Google it and watch a video. Replacement items are lifters, cam, all gaskets etc... don't think pushrod replacement is necessary.

I think I'll be purchasing a catch can before this truck is back running again. Take a look at the buildup on the valve stem, all 8 intake valves look the same. This is 81k miles with an impeccable oil change maintenance schedule. I had a VW once that was direct injected like these engines and at about 65k miles on it, it started running so rough it was hardly drivable until it was scraped off. The buildup on the valves was worse than this but not a whole lot more. This for sure 100% hurts performance.

I've already sent it to HP tuners for the unlock. Once I get it back and it's ready to start it will have to go in and turn off the DFM and while I'm in there the auto stop / start. Any reason for the weight change on the oil? Yesterdays progress, remove the front accessories. I'm not in a rush on this. Truck is paid for and I have a spare vehicle. I just do a few things a day and in a few weeks it will be done.

So far....

That's my thoughts as well. I ordered a whole delete kit from Texas speed and have begun tearing into it. It's not a fun job so far.

2019 silverado, 5.3 L84, 81k miles. Last few weeks I have been hearing a light tapping noise. I am well aware of the regular noises the engine makes and this is a new one. Ive been around engines all my life and Ive heard what excessive valve lash sounds like and this definitely sounds like it. I put my mechanics stethoscope on and listened to the engine on both sides and the tapping sounds like its coming from the drivers side. The sound is roughly 1/2 engine speed and never goes away after engine is warmed up fully. At idle its not even audible but as soon as I pickup the RPM to 1500 it gets very noticeable and only gets louder with higher RPM. It does not feel like its down on power and no codes have been thrown. I pulled both valve covers today looking for obvious problems. All rockers feel ok wiggling them around by hand and I cant find any excessive play in any of them. All springs and retainers are present and look to be in good condition. I eyeballed the push rods as best I could with a light and inspection mirror and I didn't see anything obviously bent I also checked to make sure none of the rocker arm bolts were loose while it was apart. The thing is the noise is not awful yet and hard to pickup on video but its definitely there. I want to address this before it becomes potentially catastrophic. I'm out of warranty and when I called the only GM dealership id let touch it they quoted me 6k to put the same junk lifters back in and that was if the cam was ok. I priced a whole set of parts to delete and tune out the DFM and while I can definitely swing it the labor is quite intensive and something Id rather not do unless it was absolutely necessary. What else can I do to make sure It is lifter noise before I open it up?