2015 Silverado wiped camshaft

[TB24]

My 4.3 2015 Silverado went down this weekend. Pretty loud metal to metal sound, I assumed it was an afm lifter that went down. Got the stethoscope out today and found number 4 intake lifter was the culprit (non afm). The truck has a little over 100,000 miles on it.


Has anyone done a cam on the gen 5? Looks like I’m going to have to pull the engine.


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[MIKE S]

We do the 5.3 and 4.8 all the time at the dealer. Can’t say we have ever had to do a 4.3. We do them in the truck.

[TB24]

Thanks for the info, it just looks like I have to take the oil pan off because of oil pump location. If I have to take the oil pan off I feel like I might as well pull it. Be easier to inspect things also I guess.


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[fitz]

We do the 5.3 and 4.8 all the time at the dealer. Can’t say we have ever had to do a 4.3. We do them in the truck.

  What is the bill for a repair like that at the dealer?
  Theres a good chance many of these owners find themselves in the position that they still have a loan on the truck but it's out of warranty. 
   I would expect a new truck to make it past 5 years / 100k before the motor had to be opened up.  My 2019 Ford F250 started knocking at 2,800 miles.  Luckily ford bought that truck back under the Lemon Law.
  I'd like to say they don't make em like they used too, but the soft cams in the late 70's 305 motors and the early 700R4 trans weren't any bargain. 
  Good luck with your cam swap, let us know how it works out.
 

[MIKE S]

I looked back and found we did a 4.3 about two years ago. The charge to warranty was about $4500. Customer pay probably would be about 30% more. These are not inexpensive or easy to do. Since they are direct injected you must replace the fuel pipes from the high pressure fuel pump an fuel rail crossover as these are one time use and under very high fuel pressure. You don’t want to have a thermal event 🔥. Also the injectors all need to be resealed since they go into the combustion chamber. Unless you have the correct tool to install and resize the seals I would pay the dealer to install seals. Heads, front cover, oil pan under intake cover needs to be removed along with the balance chain and oil pump. Speaking of oil pump you have to use a special alignment tool on the oil pump if you are going to use it over. If you don’t you will ruin the pump otherwise you will have to replace it. Cam bolt is an actuator valve and must be replaced once removed. All head bolts must be replaced and exhaust manifold bolts should be replaced or they may break on install if they didn’t break on removal. You may want to price a remanufactured GM engine. 3/100 warranty parts and labor even if you install it. 

[fitz]

Thanks for that info.
Looks like a retail customer would be looking at a $5,850 repair.  Thats a lot of money to be spending if your truck is out of warranty. I guess they dont stay new forever.

[MIKE S]

You say your just over 100,000 miles. You may want to call GM customer assistance and make a case. The factory may offer some assistance. In other words they may offer to pay a percentage of the repair. The service manager will enter an estimate of repairs at warranty price into a factory calculator and it will determine what if any amount they would offer. It’s worth a try. If you are going to have it fixed by an outside repair shop,do your homework to make sure who you chose knows these engines as I have pointed out these have specific procedures on repair. Don’t let them shortcut it.

[TB24]

Thank you Mike. That’s a lot of useful info and I appreciate it. I was aware of most of it except the resealing of the injectors. Luckily my dad has been a diesel mechanic at a gm dealer for 35 years. So we have a lot of good connections and people to ask questions to and help us if needed.

We are planning on doing it ourselves luckily we have the room and tools. I will keep everything updated in case anyone else has the situation in the future. Might be a couple weeks before we really get into it.


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[TB24]

Finally finished our garage up and got time to tear the 2015 down. Got our new Quincy air compressor in


Took the cylinder head off of the truck and found this on the number 4 cylinder (non afm cylinder)



We are going to take a better look at the cam tomorrow, but right now leaning towards the gm reman engine for the warranty and for wondering where those metal shaving are if we just replaced the cam.


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