Tonyrodz's Tahoe Build Thread

Snowbound said:

Same truck in both videos. But, it wasn’t a rocker arm. It was a lifter.

Lifter was collapsed this much.


This was on a DOD, AFM engine. (Displacement on demand, active fuel management).

I’ll try to make this story short.
I came across this 07 chevy with this lifter noise and threw the guy a low ball price thinking about doing a quick flip. I got it and was going to upgrade the cam, lifters and valley cover to do away with the AFM all together and then just tune it out. Guy down the road who own his own shop tells me he would replace the lifters for $300 in labor. I was busy with work and didn’t feel like getting into it so I agreed. I bought some Elgin lifters that were suppose to be an upgrade to the old design that failed. Jose called me and said the cam didn’t appear to be in the best of shape when he got down to it and said if I brought him a cam, he would do it and only charge another $100. So I got a cam, thinking I should have just got the non AFM stuff like I was originally gonna do but screw it, I’m gonna flip it anyway. I also brought him a new water pump, coolant hoses, head bolts, head gaskets, oil pan gasket, oil filter and oil. So now I’m like $950 into repair with labor but that didn’t seem too bad because I was lookin at making close to $3500 on the flip.
I’m tying to be short but these details matter. I get a call a few days later from Jose and he says it’s done but I need to come down, we have a problem. Now the passenger side is ticking. WTF??!! I can’t blame him. He put in the time and did the work so I gave him his $435 and took the truck home. If I had found something he did wrong I would have went back to him and made him make it right but I didn’t. The lifter in above pic is a new Elgin lifter that was bad. I ordered 2 new ACDelco AFM lifters for that side. There’s only 2 of these on each side of engine for a total of 4 for the AFM.


So now I paid for the job to get done so I didn’t have to do and here I was doing it anyway. I did get my money back from Elgin on the lifters but it took a while and they wanted me to send the lifters and receipt for the replacements.
I had Jose put in new head bolts so I said screw it and just reused them again instead of buying bolts again. If I had planned on keeping the truck I would have bought new again. But now I’m trying to just get it done. It’s bad enough I had to buy another head gasket.

Soaked and primed new lifter and put it all back together. The videos I posted were the before and after I did the work.


Here’s where it got screwed up. I sold the truck. The guy was a decent dude, I told him about the situation how I just did the lifters and he was good with it and I let him beat me up a little but I ended up making about $2700 on the sale not including my time for the repair. Whatever, it’s gone and it’s over. So I thought.

The next week, dude shows up at my house and says the truck is ticking and he’s afraid to drive it. Wants his money back because it sounds like the truck is gonna blow up. He’s afraid to drive it because it’s ticking so bad. I told him, first of all, you bought a used truck, there’s no warranty but I’ll work with him on it. I said the best thing to do is, what i originally planned to do and get rid of the AFM. I said for $1200 I would do the cam, all the lifters, plate and tune it. He said no way. He just wants to have it like it was from factory. So I said ok, for $600 I’ll get it fixed for him. He said he would let me know.
About 8-9 days later I get a visit from the Secretary of State police saying I was in violation of the law selling a vehicle that was never titled in my name. I told them I was just the mechanic and just brokered the deal for the seller since I did the work on it. Soon as they left I found the guys number I bought it from and called him to tell him if he was asked, I just handled the transaction of the sale. He told me they already contacted him and that’s exactly what he told them because he knew I was gonna fix it and sell it. Thank goodness he did. I could have gotten a good fine for doing that.
Anyway, I contacted the guy I sold it to and told him to bring it over. He stopped by, I told him the whole story about the Elgin lifters bad out of the box and how I had to change the passenger side all over again. Showed him receipts and pictures to prove it to him. But now it’s the drivers side ticking. So to be fair and honest, I told him if he buys the parts minus the lifters I would go ahead and replace the lifters for him. He agreed and that’s how we handled it.






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Snowbound said:

Same truck in both videos. But, it wasn’t a rocker arm. It was a lifter.

Lifter was collapsed this much.


This was on a DOD, AFM engine. (Displacement on demand, active fuel management).

I’ll try to make this story short.
I came across this 07 chevy with this lifter noise and threw the guy a low ball price thinking about doing a quick flip. I got it and was going to upgrade the cam, lifters and valley cover to do away with the AFM all together and then just tune it out. Guy down the road who own his own shop tells me he would replace the lifters for $300 in labor. I was busy with work and didn’t feel like getting into it so I agreed. I bought some Elgin lifters that were suppose to be an upgrade to the old design that failed. Jose called me and said the cam didn’t appear to be in the best of shape when he got down to it and said if I brought him a cam, he would do it and only charge another $100. So I got a cam, thinking I should have just got the non AFM stuff like I was originally gonna do but screw it, I’m gonna flip it anyway. I also brought him a new water pump, coolant hoses, head bolts, head gaskets, oil pan gasket, oil filter and oil. So now I’m like $950 into repair with labor but that didn’t seem too bad because I was lookin at making close to $3500 on the flip.
I’m tying to be short but these details matter. I get a call a few days later from Jose and he says it’s done but I need to come down, we have a problem. Now the passenger side is ticking. WTF??!! I can’t blame him. He put in the time and did the work so I gave him his $435 and took the truck home. If I had found something he did wrong I would have went back to him and made him make it right but I didn’t. The lifter in above pic is a new Elgin lifter that was bad. I ordered 2 new ACDelco AFM lifters for that side. There’s only 2 of these on each side of engine for a total of 4 for the AFM.


So now I paid for the job to get done so I didn’t have to do and here I was doing it anyway. I did get my money back from Elgin on the lifters but it took a while and they wanted me to send the lifters and receipt for the replacements.
I had Jose put in new head bolts so I said screw it and just reused them again instead of buying bolts again. If I had planned on keeping the truck I would have bought new again. But now I’m trying to just get it done. It’s bad enough I had to buy another head gasket.

Soaked and primed new lifter and put it all back together. The videos I posted were the before and after I did the work.


Here’s where it got screwed up. I sold the truck. The guy was a decent dude, I told him about the situation how I just did the lifters and he was good with it and I let him beat me up a little but I ended up making about $2700 on the sale not including my time for the repair. Whatever, it’s gone and it’s over. So I thought.

The next week, dude shows up at my house and says the truck is ticking and he’s afraid to drive it. Wants his money back because it sounds like the truck is gonna blow up. He’s afraid to drive it because it’s ticking so bad. I told him, first of all, you bought a used truck, there’s no warranty but I’ll work with him on it. I said the best thing to do is, what i originally planned to do and get rid of the AFM. I said for $1200 I would do the cam, all the lifters, plate and tune it. He said no way. He just wants to have it like it was from factory. So I said ok, for $600 I’ll get it fixed for him. He said he would let me know.
About 8-9 days later I get a visit from the Secretary of State police saying I was in violation of the law selling a vehicle that was never titled in my name. I told them I was just the mechanic and just brokered the deal for the seller since I did the work on it. Soon as they left I found the guys number I bought it from and called him to tell him if he was asked, I just handled the transaction of the sale. He told me they already contacted him and that’s exactly what he told them because he knew I was gonna fix it and sell it. Thank goodness he did. I could have gotten a good fine for doing that.
Anyway, I contacted the guy I sold it to and told him to bring it over. He stopped by, I told him the whole story about the Elgin lifters bad out of the box and how I had to change the passenger side all over again. Showed him receipts and pictures to prove it to him. But now it’s the drivers side ticking. So to be fair and honest, I told him if he buys the parts minus the lifters I would go ahead and replace the lifters for him. He agreed and that’s how we handled it.






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Tonyrodz said:

What a mess that was. I still haven't done anything with it yet. It's been sitting for all this time. I'm gonna have it towed Monday to my friend's place. I'm really hoping it's the best case scenario.

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Snowbound said:

Same truck in both videos. But, it wasn’t a rocker arm. It was a lifter.

Lifter was collapsed this much.


This was on a DOD, AFM engine. (Displacement on demand, active fuel management).

I’ll try to make this story short.
I came across this 07 chevy with this lifter noise and threw the guy a low ball price thinking about doing a quick flip. I got it and was going to upgrade the cam, lifters and valley cover to do away with the AFM all together and then just tune it out. Guy down the road who own his own shop tells me he would replace the lifters for $300 in labor. I was busy with work and didn’t feel like getting into it so I agreed. I bought some Elgin lifters that were suppose to be an upgrade to the old design that failed. Jose called me and said the cam didn’t appear to be in the best of shape when he got down to it and said if I brought him a cam, he would do it and only charge another $100. So I got a cam, thinking I should have just got the non AFM stuff like I was originally gonna do but screw it, I’m gonna flip it anyway. I also brought him a new water pump, coolant hoses, head bolts, head gaskets, oil pan gasket, oil filter and oil. So now I’m like $950 into repair with labor but that didn’t seem too bad because I was lookin at making close to $3500 on the flip.
I’m tying to be short but these details matter. I get a call a few days later from Jose and he says it’s done but I need to come down, we have a problem. Now the passenger side is ticking. WTF??!! I can’t blame him. He put in the time and did the work so I gave him his $435 and took the truck home. If I had found something he did wrong I would have went back to him and made him make it right but I didn’t. The lifter in above pic is a new Elgin lifter that was bad. I ordered 2 new ACDelco AFM lifters for that side. There’s only 2 of these on each side of engine for a total of 4 for the AFM.


So now I paid for the job to get done so I didn’t have to do and here I was doing it anyway. I did get my money back from Elgin on the lifters but it took a while and they wanted me to send the lifters and receipt for the replacements.
I had Jose put in new head bolts so I said screw it and just reused them again instead of buying bolts again. If I had planned on keeping the truck I would have bought new again. But now I’m trying to just get it done. It’s bad enough I had to buy another head gasket.

Soaked and primed new lifter and put it all back together. The videos I posted were the before and after I did the work.


Here’s where it got screwed up. I sold the truck. The guy was a decent dude, I told him about the situation how I just did the lifters and he was good with it and I let him beat me up a little but I ended up making about $2700 on the sale not including my time for the repair. Whatever, it’s gone and it’s over. So I thought.

The next week, dude shows up at my house and says the truck is ticking and he’s afraid to drive it. Wants his money back because it sounds like the truck is gonna blow up. He’s afraid to drive it because it’s ticking so bad. I told him, first of all, you bought a used truck, there’s no warranty but I’ll work with him on it. I said the best thing to do is, what i originally planned to do and get rid of the AFM. I said for $1200 I would do the cam, all the lifters, plate and tune it. He said no way. He just wants to have it like it was from factory. So I said ok, for $600 I’ll get it fixed for him. He said he would let me know.
About 8-9 days later I get a visit from the Secretary of State police saying I was in violation of the law selling a vehicle that was never titled in my name. I told them I was just the mechanic and just brokered the deal for the seller since I did the work on it. Soon as they left I found the guys number I bought it from and called him to tell him if he was asked, I just handled the transaction of the sale. He told me they already contacted him and that’s exactly what he told them because he knew I was gonna fix it and sell it. Thank goodness he did. I could have gotten a good fine for doing that.
Anyway, I contacted the guy I sold it to and told him to bring it over. He stopped by, I told him the whole story about the Elgin lifters bad out of the box and how I had to change the passenger side all over again. Showed him receipts and pictures to prove it to him. But now it’s the drivers side ticking. So to be fair and honest, I told him if he buys the parts minus the lifters I would go ahead and replace the lifters for him. He agreed and that’s how we handled it.






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Rocket Man said:

He doesn’t have AFM or DOD, not sure if you know that.

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Scottydoggs said:

not only did his truck never have it, hes got a aftermarket cam. and that can make lifters and or rockers, or springs or rocker bolts to break. rare that a lobe would round out, but that can happen.

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