Im sure that for every bad one thats vocal about it theres 100 good ones that arent.
have an 06 LH6 I picked up for a swap into S10.Intent is to have a nice stock setup for
dependability and a little higher performance than the 4.3.

so is it a bad idea to leave the AFM alone(cam and lifters are in fine shape)
idea was to get a little better fuel economy,but still have the power if needed

 

Main problem with AFM/DOD, is the expense of fixing it when something goes wrong.

Apart from that the LH6 should do fine for the purpose at hand.

 

might be a roll of dice
parts have 100k on them now
but to do a delete now would cost as much as
fixing later wouldnt it?just a little more labor

 

 

I have never personally seen a block being taken out by a faulty AFM/DOD Lifter when I worked at a Dealer. Maybe a scratched lifter bore, but nothing that needed the block to be scrapped. Honestly, AFM/DOD issues are not as bad as people make it seem, last I heard it was less than 10% of engines built from 2007.5-2013 that had reported issues with oil consumption. You only hear of the problem ones, and never the ones that lasted.

AFM/DOD can be a flip of the coin when dealing with a used engine with no past history. Iron Blocked 5.3's have very few issues (LMG, LY5), while the aluminum blocked ones had the most (LC9, LH6). I have seen all original working AFM/DOD engines last 200,000+ miles, and some last 50k miles.
My current truck had 118,xxx miles before I did a cam swap and removed all the AFM/DOD hardware. I have a 2007.5 LMG 5.3 and never had a single issue, no crazy lifter noise, and it never used a drop of oil between the 5-6,000 mile oil changes.

Now, since the engine is out, I would just swap the cam and lifters, Timing Set with 3-bolt cam gear, Valley Cover (Non-PCV Version unless boosted), gaskets and hardware, and remove all AFM/DOD Hardware.

 

If you're leaving the engine stock and want something in for cheap, disable it in the tune and keep driving it. That being said, since the engine's already out access to everything is much easier to handle it now, and we can provide a nice street friendly cam kit and DOD delete package for not as much money as most would think to pick up some power and have a lot more reliability. If the engine has ~100k miles or more on it, then it's really a no-brainer and do it to save yourself the headache later. Feel free to call or e-mail us if you have any questions on a kit that would work well for your engine and swap!

- David @ Vengeance

 

I've never heard of AFM/DOD taking out an entire block... sometimes the cam, but the whole block seems a bit extreme.

I have the alum 5.3 in my trailblazer (I think they came with an LM4?) with about 113k on it and no issues other than one day I had a loud tick coming from the motor. Ran some marvel mystery oil through it and have had zero issues since. That being said, if a failure does occur, it is not cheap to fix. The lifters alone are around 50 a piece, plus potential for wiping the cam, all told even if you do the work yourself it's something like 1k-1500 (depending on extent of failure) to fix. Whereas I've seen kits for deleting it as low as 700.

 

On a heavier vehicle like a Suburban, I'm not sure AFM/DOD is even worthwhile. While driving ours ('08 w/5.3) I noticed about the only times it would go 4 cyl. mode is either going downhill or when lifting off the throttle. Almost never at steady cruise. If there is ever a need to go inside this engine the AFM/DOD is going out. New lifters and a wee bit more cam....