Lifters coming apart

[Schuylkill-trans]

Greetings everyone: We here at STS are new to your forum. Our question is on the 6.5 Liter Diesel engine. The problem is the lifters are comming apart with limited mileage and operation. Average mileage is between 25 and 40 thousand miles. What is happening is the snap ring that holds the lifter together is dislodging allowing the internal piston end cap to offset or become cocked in the lifter body. When this happens the lifter now becomes as a "Solid" lifter, and ends up bending the push rod. The resultant is a loud popping through the intake. We have 18 Chevy 3500 vans "ALL" have had to have the lifters replaced, and a few are now having their second and third lifter replacement.

Anyone having Similar problems or anyone knowing a remedy please contact us through the forum.

[a5150nut]

I have a 94 k2500 with 175000mi onit with no lifter problems. And I havn't seen any messages here in regards to lifter problems.

My fisrt though would be fleet vehicles are being over reved. Driven like a gas motor instead of a deisel. I have worked around Internationals that had a problem with bent pushrods because they were being over reved coming down hills.

my $0.02 :eek:

[JoeyD]

What about wrong oil? With all the trucks in one shop there must be some thing wrong somewhere. What does the dealer say? Is this an isolated issue?

[TurboDiverArt]

I vote oil or something. It's got to be connected to something outside the actual motor. Even if it was over-revving I'd think that all the trucks would be over-revving. Although if they were HD trucks with 4:56 gearing and were driven at 80 MPH or something, who knows, you'd be pulling some serious RPM. Even 4:10 gearing's got to be close to 3000 RPM's at 80 MPH. I think with my 3:73's at 80 MPH would be about 2600 so 4:10's would be up there.

If the trucks are manual sticks it would be easy to over rev. If drivers were beating the trucks by revving them too high on shifts I'd bet they are hard on the clutch too. If manual, any clutch problems with them wearing fast?

Do the drivers warm up the trucks or just start and go? Have you noticed the lifters failing in the winter when the oil is cold or anything?

If you don

[Schuylkill-trans]

These are passenger cutaway vans,4:10 rears and auto trans.The vehicles are plugged in at nite as well as warmed up before the drivers get them. I don't think it's the oil as we've used this top brand for several years and no other vehicles of other makes have any problems. The ones done under warranty by four different dealers have no explanation nor has any oil issues come up.Some of these have let loose in only 3000 miles after being done with the dealership oil still in. The ones done with aftermarket lifters have not had any more problems. GM is of no help.

[David Brady]

I've never heard of this before either, but give us all information you can, the years of the engines, mileage, warm up procedures, and type of oil. Maybe the dealer is part of the problem and you may have to look around for good mechanical help. The more info you can post the more likely someone will see something.

[Schuylkill-trans]

Vehicles are 2000 and 2001. warm up is 15 to 30 mins after unplugging.

[Schuylkill-trans]

Current mileage is 90,000 to 120,000.Problem starts about 35,000 miles and varies per vehicle

[rjwest]

Have you had the oil analyzed?????? This may help if it is a filter or oil problem. or contamination getting into oil.
Are you using filters with " anti drain back valve "

[eracers999]

I would say that you have run into a rare but bad batch of lifters. Really no otherway to look at it. I dont care what you do to this motor, run it out of oil, put a brick on the pedal all day or use the worst oil known to man, the lifters should NOT be a issue. Who ever made them (lifters) are responsible for the DEFECT.
Kent

[JohnC]

I recall that when the 6.2 first came out there was a new oil spec that specifically addressed wear in the lifters. If you are using a non-diesel rated oil then I could imagine that you'd have lifter problems up the wazoo, but any oil that meets the current Diesel specs ought to work fine. That said, I don't think I've heard of a single lifter failure (Turbo Al excepted) till this.

[tom.mcinerney]

Schuylkill Trans--
You mention: "...only 3000 miles after being done with the dealership oil still in."
How long do you run before/between oil&filter changes? We change oil by 3000 Mi unless a bypass filter installed, because the high 'soot' of these 'indirect injection' diesels cloggs filters.
There have been mention of occassional, but very rare, roller-rockers on this board, never more than one in an engine; and iirc they sometimes somehow "spin"??

[tom.mcinerney]

>>Current mileage is 90,000 to 120,000.Problem starts about 35,000 miles.
Since these are VANS , got me thinking of how it is hard to maintain cooling air flow in that configuration. With the C/K series, we find the airflow drops off after a while; the stacked heat exchangers can't sustain airflow. Do you folks make a point of cleaning leaves, feathers, etc out from between the radiator and AC condensor? It can be bad there; and behind the oil-coolers there's usually a pad of dusty fibers....

[GARY PAGE]

I vote real, real bad cam bearings and a lot of front to back movement of the cam, my 02. I bet oil pressure is down too, right?

[britannic]

Going too long between oil changes in these diesels is a killer for the lifters, the soot builds up and starts scoring them internally. I always changed the oil at 3500 miles, oil analysis would help with knowing when to extend the interval.

[Schuylkill-trans]

oil changes are 3000 to 3500. oil problems have been ruled out.cam wear was never an issue by any of the GM dealers.The engines have a rev limiter and the trans cannot be downshifted until speed is within range.That leaves over rev out.The valves have not been an issue either.

[Cowracer]

not that it has any bearing on this, but are you using 10w-40 oil? That is a big no-no in these engines. I dont know if it would affect lifter life, though.

Tim