L77 DOD Elimination and Cam Upgrade

[IDLife Caprice]

Well I figured that I would begin a new thread to document the progress on my 2013 Caprice PPV 9C1 cam swap. I have decided to yank the DOD system and remove it altogether along with the DOD/AFM camshaft. So if you'd like to follow along, I am posting the photos in my Second Service photo album on Facebook and I will share a few here to help those follow along who might not be on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 226&type=1

[CrashTestDummy]

Wow. That's nasty. I'm guessing it idled a little rough, because that valve looks like it hasn't opened in a while.

[IDLife Caprice]

Wow. That's nasty. I'm guessing it idled a little rough, because that valve looks like it hasn't opened in a while.

I pulled the valve cover off to find why it might have a miss... yes, it is MISSING a rocker arm and pushrod! Makes me wonder if the service tech of their motor pool sabotaged the motor so the car would go to auction and he could buy it later. There was a bidder hitting it pretty hard but he missed the final bid cause I had a trump bid loaded on a second computer.



The rest of the ports are very clean and the valves have no junk on them... does not look like this engine has 109K miles at all!!

[IDLife Caprice]

Just got to this point and now calling it a DAY! If anyone knows of a way to repair this other than trashing the entire block... let me know. Remember the hole missing the rocker arm... well here is why!



Here is the view of both lifters... it was not the DOD lifter that failed.

[CrashTestDummy]

Gone, that's just wow!! Hopefully a supervisor said ' just put it back together and we'll retire it'.

I'd hate to think it's anything more than that.

[xcidmigs]

I'm guess the cost of new/used block is going to be close to what a machine shop says it costs to fix that... Maybe time for a LS3 conversion? sell that whole mess down the road to someone who does their own machine work? DId you pull the oil pan yet? Maybe removing the rocker made the engine noises less horrendous sounding so they could maximize what they were going to get back from that.....

[CrashTestDummy]

You could probably sleeve that bore. They do make sleeves for lifter bores, but it's usually to allow different-size lifters. I bet with all the lifter issues these engines seem to have, sleeving one or two isn't a big deal. I'd talk to a machine shop to see how much of that kind of work they see.

With either a repair, or swap, the engine will have to come out anyway. I'd definitely check into sleeving the lifter bore. Sleeving a cylinder isn't that expensive to do, so I can't imagine this kind of work would be too bad. That way, you can get the engine you want. Of course, an option is to drop a 6.2 in it.

[IDLife Caprice]

I'm guess the cost of new/used block is going to be close to what a machine shop says it costs to fix that... Maybe time for a LS3 conversion? sell that whole mess down the road to someone who does their own machine work? DId you pull the oil pan yet? Maybe removing the rocker made the engine noises less horrendous sounding so they could maximize what they were going to get back from that.....

Exactly... I honestly thought from hearing it run and doing my sue diligence online that it was just going to be a lifter fix aided by a cam swap and DOD deletion. Now the game is changing as it was said before, it is ultimately cheaper to swap a block. I am in the Atlanta area now, looking for a replacement. For $1500 I can drive to Summit Racing's warehouse and take delivery today... its only money, right!?!?!? I simply cannot fathom shelling it out without looking at ALL the options today.

YET... the desire to drive this car is killing me and will far outweigh all common sense in building what I should!

Livernois does a bushing install that would run about $750 for all lifters... then of course the cost of aftermarket lifters is added to that and shipping both ways to Michigan for the work. By the time its added up, I am no better off than buying a replacement block.

Finding an LS3 is starting to look better.

[orgdnr]

Call around to local machine shops and ask to bush the damaged lifter bore. It shouldn't be more than $125 to fix the one.

[IDLife Caprice]

Just found a cleaned and virgin LS2 bare block. Crossing my fingers the price is right! I can swap all my internals, add the cam with new lifters and be DONE with the misery of searching. I will say... finding a LS3 for both replacement and parts has been far easier but nearly twice as expensive! For the same money as buying a stock LS3, one could bore the LS2/L76/L77 to the 4.065" as the LS3 and buy a really trick set of pistons AND delete the DOD for the cost of just getting a stock replacement LS3.