Lifter/pushrod failure questions?

Adamace1 · October 2, 2021

I'm wondering if there is any common maintenance between the people who have lifter/pushrod failure.

1. Did any of you owners who had failures do your own oil change? As in you know what oil/ filter was put in, and you know it was at proper level. Or is it serviced away from you so you don't know what oil is put In it?

2. When did you change your oil? How many miles on oil? What percent of oil life was left?

3. Do you idle alot?

I change my own oil mobile one 0w20. Ac delco pf63e filter.

I change at below 5,000 miles usually 30 to 40 percent left on oil monitor. No engine problems yet. 2021 with 24k miles

I do idle a couple hours a day with my truck.

Edited October 2, 2021 by Adamace1

shakenfake · October 3, 2021

Idle a couple of hours a day?!?!

There is no correlation between these things though. The lifters are just crappy

Adamace1 · October 4, 2021

All dealers I have been to treat me/ customers like crap. I'm willing to bet there not changing oil filters/skipping them, putting the cheapest oil they can buy into customers vehicles. I had a impala that the dealer left the drain plug loose. Leaked all over my garage. The "service manager" said I need to drive it back to their dealership 45 miles away so they could redo the oil change right. I said the drain plug is loose and it's so low on oil it doesn't show up on the dip stick. He said bring it back we will redo the oil change. I said no I'm not driving it like this. Has to redo the oil change myself because the dealership didn't understand what a loose oil plug and running a engine low on oil can do.I'm wondering if service like this. And taking shortcuts is causing some of the failures.

Idle a couple hours a day, I was wondering if people who had failures idle alot. Alot of ram owners say they have lifter failures on hemi's when they idle alot. Wondering I'd chdvy owners are seeing the same thing.

Edited October 4, 2021 by Adamace1

CamGTP · October 4, 2021

I have not seen or heard anything that is related to high idle hours. The lifter failures happen when those lifters do as they are designed to do with the AFM/DFM system.

I'd challenge your bet that dealerships cut corners with not changing oil filters and running the cheapest oil on the market. I have never been too or worked at a place that didn't change the filters, that stuff just doesn't happen and would NEVER fly if some big wigs found that out. Also a GM dealership can not just pick any oil they want to run. All the oil they buy must meet the specs that the manufacture has set.

Mistakes happen with vehicles. You just got shitty service with that service advisor and dealer which is unfortunate. I may be lucky but if I bought a new GM truck I have 6 different GM dealership within 20 miles of my home, so I'd many places to go if someone gave me a hard time.

shakenfake · October 4, 2021

Yeah how in the hell do you idle a couple of hours a day? I could understand maybe like 10 minutes a day but 2+ hours in one day means you must live out of that thing

Grumpy Bear · October 4, 2021

On 10/2/2021 at 10:14 AM, Adamace1 said:

I'm wondering if there is any common maintenance between the people who have lifter/pushrod failure.

1. Did any of you owners who had failures do your own oil change? As in you know what oil/ filter was put in, and you know it was at proper level. Or is it serviced away from you so you don't know what oil is put In it?

2. When did you change your oil? How many miles on oil? What percent of oil life was left?

3. Do you idle alot?

I change my own oil mobile one 0w20. Ac delco pf63e filter.

I change at below 5,000 miles usually 30 to 40 percent left on oil monitor. No engine problems yet. 2021 with 24k miles

I do idle a couple hours a day with my truck.

Melling, the supplier of lifters to GM has noted that failures are often the result of poor oil maintenance or poor oil selection. VLOM screen fouling. Lifter bore wear. Oil aeration. Anything that restricts or lowers oil pressure below 22 psi at the time of switching AT THAT FAILED LIFTER or an oil that does not protect for wear; lifter bores and lifter internals.

You are suffering neither. Tis wise not to not push the oil past 5K. Wouldn't hurt to cut down on that idle time either.

shakenfake · October 4, 2021

Source?

I highly doubt that considering we are seeing failures before end of warranty where the owner is often times still taking the truck in for maintenance. If someone had lifter failure and then deletes the system I can just about guarantee you that their oil change schedule doesn't change yet somehow they miraculously go farther with the non-AFM lifters. I think that if what Melling said is a cop out.

Grumpy Bear · October 4, 2021

38 minutes ago, shakenfake said:

Source?

I highly doubt that considering we are seeing failures before end of warranty where the owner is often times still taking the truck in for maintenance. If someone had lifter failure and then deletes the system I can just about guarantee you that their oil change schedule doesn't change yet somehow they miraculously go farther with the non-AFM lifters. I think that if what Melling said is a cop out.

Give that some more thought.

It's Tim · October 4, 2021

1 hour ago, Grumpy Bear said:

Melling, the supplier of lifters to GM has noted that failures are often the result of poor oil maintenance or poor oil selection. VLOM screen fouling. Lifter bore wear. Oil aeration. Anything that restricts or lowers oil pressure below 22 psi at the time of switching AT THAT FAILED LIFTER or an oil that does not protect for wear; lifter bores and lifter internals.

You are suffering neither. Tis wise not to not push the oil past 5K. Wouldn't hurt to cut down on that idle time either.

It's telling that they mention nothing about beating the **** of the vehicle and causing excessive wear.

KARNUT · October 4, 2021

1 hour ago, shakenfake said:

Yeah how in the hell do you idle a couple of hours a day? I could understand maybe like 10 minutes a day but 2+ hours in one day means you must live out of that thing

In Texas on pipelines or utility lines. Or anyone working outside. I Alabama, Florida etc in the summer or northern states in the winter. Long idle time is the rule not at al unusual. I would often when I was working. Start my truck drive up to 100 miles to the job sites. Where’s its 80 degrees in the morning with high humidity. Never shut off my truck all day. Most construction, welder rigs, road crews. Probably most outside working people who use their trucks as intended, for work. Extended idle times is pretty normal.

diyer2 · October 4, 2021

I know this from my own experience. I have done more frequent oil changes than most. Never had a motor failure or lifter failure.

I had to replace leaking valve cover gaskets on my 1993 5.7L at 115 K. The valve train and head valleys were clean. Just the normal metal discoloration. This is the sludge collection area.

I agree with Melling that oil quality and oil change frequency could affect the lifters. Common sense to me. The motors of today are more complicated, more parts than days of old.

In my experience motor failures were top end failures more than bottom end failures. The top requires good oil flow to lube the valve train. Also helps with cooling IMO. The bottom of a motor is bathed in oil.

I have replaced more valves, lifters and heads than bottom bearings.

Doing more frequent maintenance than any manufacturers maintenance schedule suggests has served me well.

shakenfake · October 4, 2021

1 hour ago, Grumpy Bear said:

Give that some more thought.

lol?? I asked for source for your bogus claim the melling said it is an oiling related issue and that was your response.

1 hour ago, KARNUT said:

In Texas on pipelines or utility lines. Or anyone working outside. I Alabama, Florida etc in the summer or northern states in the winter. Long idle time is the rule not at al unusual. I would often when I was working. Start my truck drive up to 100 miles to the job sites. Where’s its 80 degrees in the morning with high humidity. Never shut off my truck all day. Most construction, welder rigs, road crews. Probably most outside working people who use their trucks as intended, for work. Extended idle times is pretty normal.

Pipeline was my only thought on why you wouldn't shut your truck off. Hell when I was framing and landscaping I just left all the windows down. I've worked the outside jobs and used the work trucks but we normally brought our own generator to power everything and no trucks were left on. Not all jobs require that though so I understand that

My main point from what I said is that given the same oil change intervals between the two different sets of lifters the AFM ones are the only ones to fail. This is why I think that the answer from Melling is a cop out.

Edited October 4, 2021 by shakenfake

TxTruckMan · October 4, 2021

Does anyone know which are the lifter prone to failure? 4.3L 5.3L, 6.3L, All? AFM, DFM, both?

I thought I read someplace else that it was a bad batch of lifters. Not sure how oil could make much of a difference if it's a defective part. Just hope that it fails under warranty so that GM pays for it instead of you.

And idling a gas engine for long periods of time isn't usually recommended as you build up a lot of heat under the hood. Without good airflow you're likely reducing the life of some of your under-hood components - battery, electronics, plastics, etc.

Adamace1 · October 4, 2021

I work in construction in NC. When it's hot out I will use the ac to cool down/ do paperwork. If I stand outside in 90 degree plus temps and high humidity I will sweat all over the paperwork and ruin it. It's part of my job.

I'm was just curious if someone that has had lifter/pushrod failures changed their own oil. So far nobody has said yes. I'm just wondering if me doing the extra maintenance is worth it. Thanks for any input.

And to the person on dealerships, I have been to 6 different chevy dealers each one has screwed me after I bought a new vehicle from them. Over filling oil 1.5 quarts, not rotating tires, not changing oil filter. Putting wrong oil in, leaving oil drain plug loose, leaving oil filter loose,not noticing I signed my name and date on oil filter and leaving it in my car when doing an oil change. Ect ect.

Edited October 5, 2021 by Adamace1

newdude · October 4, 2021

38 minutes ago, TxTruckMan said:

Does anyone know which are the lifter prone to failure? 4.3L 5.3L, 6.3L, All? AFM, DFM, both?

I thought I read someplace else that it was a bad batch of lifters. Not sure how oil could make much of a difference if it's a defective part. Just hope that it fails under warranty so that GM pays for it instead of you.

And idling a gas engine for long periods of time isn't usually recommended as you build up a lot of heat under the hood. Without good airflow you're likely reducing the life of some of your under-hood components - battery, electronics, plastics, etc.

The most recent failure run is a production issue, bad batch if you will. Many have been happening with less than 8,000mi on the odometer. The 4.3, 5.3 and 6.2 all use the same part # lifter, both AFM and DFM style engines.

Most of these lifter failures that have happened since AFM's inception were higher mileage failures, say 50,000+up.

Edited October 4, 2021 by newdude