[RyeLou]

My car has just short of 100k miles on it right now, but my intentions are to keep it another 2 - 3 years. With the mileage, I'm getting more and more concerned about the stock lifters and the engine in general. I don't beat on my car, but I do the "spirited driving" thing from time to time. I daily drive my G8 and work 25 miles from home. Whenever my wife and I go out I always drive, etc. etc. The point is the mileage will obviously continue to climb quicker than average.

If I go through the engine and replace worn components and get rid of the DOD hardware and cam, what other reliability issues could I run in to? With my other mods I don't really feel too concerned with my transmission, and I'd pick a cam designed for the stock stall since I do as much driving as I do.

Obviously the performance gained from replacing the cam would be awesome, and I'm not overly concerned with gas mileage. There aren't any cars I would currently want to replace mine with, so I'm looking to revamp mine while actually helping reliability based on the mileage I'm at.

Thoughts? Am I way off base on this in thinking a performance adding modification could actually help reliability?

 

[foreosu]

Subscribed... I'll be in the same boat soon. 85k miles and paid off.

 

[DanSVT03]

You are one of the lucky ones to have made it this far without a lifter failure. A proper DOD delete cam swap & tune will make your vehicle more reliable. I just had all of my stuff ordered today for this. Year round daily driver here too.

 

[RyeLou]

Subscribed... I'll be in the same boat soon. 85k miles and paid off.

The math was the other part of it. I still owe about $10k, but even with my employee discount at GM I'd be looking at $25k plus for a nicely equipped Malibu. Plus that would leave me wanting a second car all together, which is going to turn in to a used money-pit. If I put $2,000 into the G8, I'd be set for these next 2 - 3 years fairly easily I would assume.

 

[foreosu]

How much, including labor, should someone expect to pay for a DOD delete cam/lifters/etc swap? Only $2k? I was think $3k minimum.

 

[foreosu]

Also, I'm wondering how much sense it would make to put $3k into a car with 85-95k miles on it. I want to drive my car another 3+ years minimum, so I know I would keep it. Just the age old question about how reliable it will be with 120k+ miles, with a cam, etc in it.

 

[RyeLou]

How much, including labor, should someone expect to pay for a DOD delete cam/lifters/etc swap? Only $2k? I was think $3k minimum.

$2k is everything for the cam swap and DOD delete plus some wiggle room for other parts I find I will need while I'm in there. I'll be doing the work myself.

With labor I think Livernois charges $3k plus tax on parts.

Edit: They charge $3,499 plus tax: http://www.livernoismotorsports.com...DOD-Delete-Camshaft-Package%2d-Installed.html

 

[RyeLou]

Also, I'm wondering how much sense it would make to put $3k into a car with 85-95k miles on it. I want to drive my car another 3+ years minimum, so I know I would keep it. Just the age old question about how reliable it will be with 120k+ miles, with a cam, etc in it.

I had the same thought process, but justified it like this:

A new car is say $300 (round number, probably on the lower side of a new car payment) In a year, you will pay $3,600. So the $3,000 you pay to get you through the next 3 years, really comes to just under $85 a month over that time period. That gives you $215/month to spend on maintenance and repairs. Obviously you won't spend $215 a month, but you may spend $500 one month, nothing the next three, $100 after that, etc. etc.

Either way, the idea is that my car has been VERY problem free (knock on wood) for the first 100k. I've looked over everything myself and had various ASE Master Mechanics do the same, and we've found nothing that should cause any type of alarm right now. That could obviously change going forward, but you could run in to issues with a new car just as likely.


As a side note, I realize this may be a little over thinking the issue. However, my wife likes numbers...so I came up with numbers that make sense.

 

[DougHG8]

This topic comes up pretty frequently so I'll add my experience and thoughts for your consideration. I have about 103k miles on mine now. Around 60k of those with a DOD cam and the AFM lifters still intact. I ran around 600hp for most of that but the last 20k is more like 700+. I had to have the bottom end replaced because the stock rods bent under the strain with several road course track days and 1/4 mile runs. When Rick (G8-4-Speed), my installer/tuner, took the motor apart the bearings, lifters and cam looked pristine. We replaced the pistons, rods and crank with forged components and put the AFM lifters and cam back in. Some people have had problems with the DOD lifters, some have replaced them, some of those have had the new non-DOD lifters fail. My thoughts are that if they haven't failed yet, you're probably OK but that's just my opinion. I don't loose any sleep over mine at all. Btw, we didn't replace the bearings either as they looked new and the clearances checked out just fine. I run Mobil 1 5w40 and change it around 10k mile intervals. I'm looking forward to another 100k miles of fun!

 

[RockyMtG8GT]

You are one of the lucky ones to have made it this far without a lifter failure. A proper DOD delete cam swap & tune will make your vehicle more reliable. I just had all of my stuff ordered today for this. Year round daily driver here too.

I have 102k miles and never had lifter issues.... I think reading forums makes one think its normal for lifter failure when in fact it's probably rare but those that have had failures come to forums looking for answers.

That being said, dod delete is probably great preventative maintenance the higher the odometer goes.

 

[bluegoat06]

+1, 85k miles here, and I've driven her hard in 4 years. At one point I had 6300rpm shift points. (For about year and a half), no issues with my stock lifters yet, knocking on wood.

The most reliable setup would be to go with a GM cam and valve train without dod, not that an aftermarket cam won't be reliable, but there are more chances for things to go wrong when you have to refresh the valve train every 20-30k miles. My last cammed car went almost 80k miles without a single incident, changing valve springs every 20k miles. With GM can and parts is pretty much set it and forget it, but you'll sacrifice power.

Is all about your goals and the way you'll be driving the car.

Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App

 

[RyeLou]

+1, 85k miles here, and I've driven her hard in 4 years. At one point I had 6300rpm shift points. (For about year and a half), no issues with my stock lifters yet, knocking on wood.

The most reliable setup would be to go with a GM cam and valve train without dod, not that an aftermarket cam won't be reliable, but there are more chances for things to go wrong when you have to refresh the valve train every 20-30k miles. My last cammed car went almost 80k miles without a single incident, changing valve springs every 20k miles. With GM can and parts is pretty much set it and forget it, but you'll sacrifice power.

Is all about your goals and the way you'll be driving the car.

Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App

Is changing the valvetrain really necessary every 20 - 30k miles? With the valve springs availble I think this seems a bit excessive.

 

[RyeLou]

My thoughts are that if they haven't failed yet, you're probably OK but that's just my opinion.

For the most part, I agree. I feel I've been pretty lucky with my car in that it's required very minimal maintenance even, let alone repairs. I don't ever worry or feel like something is going to let go while driving down the road, but it's also not unheard of if it did. I still make multiple 200+ mile trips in my car each year.

The other piece to this puzzle I'm leaving out is the threads for the driver side rear spark plug are quite messed up. I don't know if there's enough room to get a repair kit in there or not. If not, obviously things will have to come apart, and on the flip side, if I choose to replace the cam and DOD hardware anyhow, this could be taken care of at the same time.

 

[GT Drew]

Valve springs every 20K = lift of .600" or more. Keep lift in the .550's and springs will last for years. The LS3 cam and LS9 springs keeps looking better.

 

[DanSVT03]

How much, including labor, should someone expect to pay for a DOD delete cam/lifters/etc swap? Only $2k? I was think $3k minimum.

Should run you between $2,500-$3,000. Bear in mind that any decent sized cam will need a stall converter paired with it. Otherwise it will suck to drive. That adds another $1,500 to the tab.

I have 102k miles and never had lifter issues.... I think reading forums makes one think its normal for lifter failure when in fact it's probably rare but those that have had failures come to forums looking for answers.

That being said, dod delete is probably great preventative maintenance the higher the odometer goes.

They're more common than you think. I've read about many on here. Mine failed at 20k miles. My tuner's failed at just 400 miles. Some people are lucky and never have an issue. There's no way to tell if your lifters will fail or not. Kind of just luck lol.

 

[RyeLou]

Valve springs every 20K = lift of .600" or more. Keep lift in the .550's and springs will last for years. The LS3 cam and LS9 springs keeps looking better.

That makes more sense. For my specific application, seeing as I drive my car every day and it's a 25 mile freeway trip each way to work, I'd be getting a cam that wouldn't require a stall and wouldn't otherwise be as aggressive as other options.

Something like Livernois Stage 1 cam should work well: .581 intake / .590 exhaust.

 

[DougHG8]

That makes more sense. For my specific application, seeing as I drive my car every day and it's a 25 mile freeway trip each way to work, I'd be getting a cam that wouldn't require a stall and wouldn't otherwise be as aggressive as other options.

Something like Livernois Stage 1 cam should work well: .581 intake / .590 exhaust.

Mine is a DOD cam of course and Rick changed the springs during the bottom end rebuild for good measure but they had about 60k miles and were still fine. If you take the heads off anyway, you might want to consider getting Rick's porting done on them, intake and TB as well. Definitely quite a wake-up for a good price!

 

[RyeLou]

Mine is a DOD cam of course and Rick changed the springs during the bottom end rebuild for good measure but they had about 60k miles and were still fine. If you take the heads off anyway, you might want to consider getting Rick's porting done on them, intake and TB as well. Definitely quite a wake-up for a good price!

With trying to stick with a $2,000 budget (not counting a tune and doing the work myself), I don't know if I'll be able to swing Rick's porting. Once I start pricing things out I'll look more in to it.

 

[DanSVT03]

That makes more sense. For my specific application, seeing as I drive my car every day and it's a 25 mile freeway trip each way to work, I'd be getting a cam that wouldn't require a stall and wouldn't otherwise be as aggressive as other options.

Something like Livernois Stage 1 cam should work well: .581 intake / .590 exhaust.

Livernois Stage 1 will push at the stop lights on the stock converter.

 

[RyeLou]

Livernois Stage 1 will push at the stop lights on the stock converter.

I was just using it as reference, but that's good to know. I'll probably have someone spec me a cam for what I'm looking for.