Silverado 4.3L LV3 V6 Bad Engine Teardown! Poor Maintenance & Design Is A Recipe For A Blown Engine
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- Опубліковано 11 чер 2024
- Want to see a particular engine torn down? I may have already done one! No really, check out my other videos for the engine you'd like to see! I've made over 60 other teardowns from Cummins to an LS7, and from Rotary to Ram Ecodiesels. Check them out here • Blown Up Engine Tear D...
My name is Eric and I own and run a full service auto salvage business called Importapart located in the Saint Louis MO area. Part of our model is dismantling and selling parts from rare and niche market engines. If you're interested in buying parts from this engine or the other engines I've torn down, email us at Importapartsales@gmail.com.
In this video, I tear down a 4.3L LV3 Gen5 V6 from a 2014 and newer Silverado or Sierra. This engine is basically 3/4's of a Gen5 5.3 sharing most of the architecture. This engine did not appear to be overly abused but could have been a higher mileage engine. Its unfortunate that the failure point was a problem that plagues this and the previous generation of engines.
I hope you enjoyed this teardown. As always I appreciate all of the comments, feedback and even the criticism.
Catch you on the next one!
-Eric - Авто та транспорт
Can we all take a moment to appreciate the fact that his videos get right to the point. No flashy graphics intro with stupid music for 10-15 seconds. No stupid carnival barker intro or whatever. Just fade in and boom...straight to business and right into the teardown, it's great
Yes! No yelling, no referring to yourself in the third person, just what we came here to see. Thank you!
I like him because he doesn’t have a goofy laugh like Scotty Kilmer.
Totally the opposite of Doug DeMuro, where it's all about him.
Exactly right! There`s Music in almost every video now and i skip Intros as fast as i can.
@@danielknepper6884 Doug is a clown and these new so-call car guys really just want to be entertained.
I love how Adam Sandler takes these engines apart so easily.
Lmao
He does look a lot like Adam Sandler now that you mention it! Lol
@@lynndonovan4941 Sounds like him too.
Omfggggg
dude, cold blooded accurate but coooooold blooded
"Its always more sanitary to go front to back...". You got a chuckle out of me with that...
I very rarely comment, but as soon as I heard that phrase, I had to check. Sure enough, it’s the very first comment! I love subtle stuff like this worked into videos.
Or if she's ugly it's better that way too.
It's even a reference to the mercedes video he did before this, where he made a "back to front" comment.
My chuckle was "There's a little white on the tip"
It normally would have made me laugh, but I was in the middle of eating my breakfast! 🤢. I had to take a moment before I could continue eating my eggs!😂
If you ever come across one of those 5 cylinder engines Izuzu and GM made, that would be an interesting teardown to watch.
Second this
It is called the "Atlas" motor. There was a 4, 5 and 6 cyl. The inline 6 was in the trailblazer. Great motor.
I drove one of the trucks those engines came in - there was a whole family, a 4, 5, and 6 cylinder. I had the 2.9 liter four banger, and it was a good running engine, but if anything went wrong, whatever it was would be almost impossible to reach under the hood.
I, too, would like to see one of the GM Atlas engines torn down.
@@Oddman1980 The 3.5 5 cyl had a lot of timing chain issues. I think that got fixed with the 3.7 5 cyl.
@@guardrail2897 the 2.8 and 3.5 engines had timing chain and valve problems, and yup the 2.9 and 3.7 engines were the fix.
Older 4.3 are some of the best v6 engines ever made.
Except for the center crank journal...! I've broken many rods in the 80s to early 90s 4.3s, always the center journal from oil starvation, but my s10 blazers were work trucks... One of them had 800k on the chassis, 5 700r4's, and 4 4.3's went into that one...!!! We traveled all over the southeast pulling small 10' enclosed trailers full of tools...! We were high rise/ condo builders, actually we were the finishers, the buildings themselves were already built...! Thanks
These are pretty good and they actually made power and were efficient.
May I just say, my wife changes the oil in her 2010 Ford Edge every 3k-5k, tops off all the fluids, (Constantly) checks her disc brakes like a neurosurgeon, listens for every noise she considers not normal and makes me pin it down whether it exists or not! 130,000 miles and it runs like the day we bought it. The Ford mechanic after the warranty checkup actually told her this was the cleanest, best maintained, woman driven Ford Edge he's ever seen. She even picked up on the air conditioner filter that needed changing before the mechanic caught it. I ask you gentlemen, am I a lucky guy or what?
3k change intervals on a 2010 engine when my 1985 engine is fine to 5k+ according to Blackstone Labs oil examination?! Wow what a piece of shit engine. Good on your wife for looking after her car though.
Did she come with a Boat and motor ?
Just be sure to keep an eye on the water pump(internally chain driven on the V6 models) and the power transfer unit(transfer case on AWD V6 models) as they are highly prone to overheating their "lifetime fill" of oil and subsequently having a shorter lifetime then anything else in the drivetrain.
Does your wife's parents own a brewery?
I have seen plenty of Edges with way over 200k miles that run like new, and a couple around 300k
I'm really enjoying your tear downs. Modern engines can be so simple and yet so complicated. I like seeing the different engines and the way each manufacturer interprets what they want an engine to be like. Also showing the quality of them and letting us know the common failures of an engine from either the manufacturer or just neglect. Thanks. This is an invaluable resource for me and so many!
Don't forget that Governments around the world are putting huge amounts of pressure on manufacturers concerning emissions and buyers are the same about fuel economy and it all costs in the end.
Watching these modern engine teardowns makes me appreciate the old inline sixes and the 1st gen. small blocks even more.
i think i'd prefer the slow old 4.3 a little more than the soot direct injection here - even if it is faster
Wasn't the clean cylinder the one with the failed lifter? Without having fresh air to support combustion, the fuel that was still being injected would clean everything up pretty well.
Might explain the new plug and lead as well, fitted in an attempt to get that dead cylinder working again.
It could also explain the bearings, I'd bet it was causing a rich misfire (plug change to try fixing), and most of the fuel was washing down the cylinder. All that fuel in the oil makes for bad times for the bearings.
The thing about failed lifters is it doesn't get that bad overnight. People brush it off and then it cascades into this. That cam lobe ware thru 1/2" of the lifter's body!
If there is no fresh air, there also is no fresh fuel. THINK.
@@jimdavis6833 It's direct injected. That means the fuel is injected directly into the cylinder like a diesel, rather than into the intake port. So yes, on this engine there is fuel without clean air.
@@jaredkennedy6576 My mistake. I'm not up to date, because I gave up working on engines when they started needing $20,000 worth of equipment to troubleshoot and repair. I'm from the days when a timing light and compression tester plus dwell meter was pretty much all you needed, except for hand tools.
This was very educational video. I haven't seen one of these engines pulled apart. Really good stuff.
This guy was great in Rookie if the Year. Never would of imagined him tearing down engines.
Another awesome teardown. Seeing the complexity of the "new" stuff keeps me in my comfort zone of iron pushrod engines of the 60's and 70's.
Indeed. Simple and robust. Rugged. Easy to work on.
@@TestECull Yep you got it brother and they'll definitely outlast just about any EcoBoost engine out there.
@BL Dontmatter Yep you got it brother.
@BL Dontmatter They're known to fail at 90-110k in the F-series. Just simply asking too much of too little. Ford should have just put a more modern EFI on the 87-96 spec 4.9 I6 and pressed it back into service woulda sold so so so so so many trucks with engines that'll never die.
@BL Dontmatter f150 is the best selling truck in America cause you gotta buy a new one every year
I have one of these in my 2014 Sierra with about 250,000 miles and its been solid so far. It did pop the head off one of the exhaust manifold bolts so that's still a thing.
overall these engines are virtually bulletproof over any ford , and took a ton of abuse/ neglect to get to this tear down stand , most will never see this type of abuse ~Very rare
Over 260k and 10k hours and it's still going. About to do a oil pan reseal and replace the original vacuum pump and belts.
How is that transmission holding? Just got one myself couple days ago with 133k miles
@@kingsmvp3858 It was a company truck before I got it and never had the fluid changed, so it came apart at about 235k miles. I put a used one in and have been driving it ever since, its at about 271k now.
I work at a GM dealer and I've never seen one of the gen 5 4.3s have a lifter fail or any other major failure for that matter. Usually they're really solid engines. You can tell from the amount of varnish and sludge that this one was seriously neglected. That said the oil pumps on the Gen 5 V8 engines fail regularly in cold weather. The slide breaks and then you have no oil pressure. The lifters on the V8s fail regularly too especially on the 6.2. Don't get me started on the ones built post Covid in the 2021 models I've seen those have valve springs break at 50 km and lifters fail in 5000km. Seen three 2021 6.2s spin rod bearings at low mileage too.
You're absolutely correct people also bash on the 3.6 V6 engines to and it's literally because people do not keep the oil changed and full on these motors. People simply do not understand what preventive maintenance is. GM makes very solid engines, it's people's poor habits that give their products bad names. I will say this I do not believe in going over 4,000 miles on an oil change I think that's a lot of the problem on these newer engines as people go 5,6, even up to 10,000 miles on not changing oil and I think that's the Killer.
@@kskip4242 I agree a lot of issues with the modern engines are due to bad maintenance habits. I own a 3.6 with 260000km myself and it has never been apart at all and runs perfect. I do change the oil every 5000km with synthetic though. The early direct injected ones in 2009 or so were pretty bad but the later ones are solid as long as people change the oil regularly. Pretty much the only common thing on 2012+ ones is the front cover leaking and the water pumps leaking.
@@nickbrooks3253 Yeah I have the lfx 3.6 in my 2012 impala and ive beat the snot out of it and with regular service it still runs strong at just over 200 thousand. Question, I just changed the water pump on it because the gasket, not the seep hole was leaking, so after I get the new one on with new metal gasket, that sucker was still leaking! I went ahead and drove it ( leaking) up to operational temp and 99% of the leak stopped, but still has a slight leak! What gives?
@@kskip4242 I've got the exact same car as you then. Did you use new bolts? They're supposed to be one time use. I find with those metal gaskets the surface has to be super clean or else it will leak. If there is pitting or anything on the sealing surfaces you can use a little rtv as well when installing the pump and it shouldn't leak again.
@@nickbrooks3253 yes I used the bolts that were brand-new that came with the pump. I'm guessing there might have been something on the surface that I didn't get off or maybe a little bit of pitting in the aluminum or something it's not leaking anymore.Thanks for replying back.I went back over the bolts with just a bit more torque is how I got it to stop seeping.
Best quote from this video. "Well....that's never going back together"! We have all thought it and it's about time someone said it.
The 4.3 in my old chevy truck was a powerhouse. It was based on a 350 minus 2 cylinders. Had carb issues but ran good.
Mercruiser put a lot of those old 4.3 engines in boats under 30 feet. They ran pretty well and had enough torque to power a smaller boat.
Yeah, couldn’t see why he unloaded on the 4.3 vortec. Tbi, sure, rag on the power but reliability, checks out.
Used a lot of them in hyster tow motors/fork lifts
Those intake gaskets though! Arghh!
@@rexmedina4561 Giving it a turbo and a special port-injection system, and AWD, allows it to compete with Ferraris ala what the Syclone bragged about when it was in production being able to beat a Ferrari at the time IIRC.
Looks like that engine had a typical “fleet” life. Probably spent its entire life at either full throttle or idle, and maybe got an oil change once a year from the cheapest possible quick lube joint in town.
@BL Dontmatter 100% I always believed that oil changes should be based on the amount of hours the engine is run, not mileage.
@@Resurrection9 also how the engine is ran during those hours. Oil in an engine in a track car has a much shorter service interval than oil in a normal car because of the sustained high rpm high heat environment
@BL Dontmatter dang I can change mine at 5000 miles and it’s still clear
@@Resurrection9 that’s why I like the way bmw does there oil change system. It’s Calculated by fuel burned.
@@Resurrection9 I believe fuel burn is the best method of determining oil life. Idle hours count, but an engine being run hard will need more frequent oil changes. Either way this engine was neglected.
It looks like the few oil changes this engine had were far apart.
21 mins. "always more sanitary to work from to back". Damn, you drop that in an engine tear down. Brilliant. That's why I am subscribed.
Never seen one of these torn down. Thanks for providing me with a quality video for my first time.
I don't think I have even worked on them besides a simple oil change.
Used to have one of these in a 2018 Silverado. Was a perfect engine in that truck.
Was much better on gas around town than the 5.3. Honestly, most pickup owners could have a 4.3 instead of a 5.3 and not know the difference. For what the vast majority of truck owners do, it is more than capable.
Worked fine for towing around a 24' Grew boat on a tandem axle trailer. That whole package weighs about 5000-6000lbs and it was no sweat really.
I had this engine in one of my work trucks, a 16' extended cab. I liked it because it was lighter and more nimble than the 5.3 which is a bonus for all the off-road driving I did with it.
My dad has an early 2000s Silverado 2 wheel drive truck with a 4.3. I drive a 4 wheel drive one with a 5.3. He went with me to trailer a car back through a bunch of hills in Arkansas. More than once he told me “man I wish I’d bought a V8 truck”. Every time I take him to lunch he says the same thing. You’re wrong. I’ve owned one 4.3 V6 that was in a Blazer & I’d never do it again. Gutless engine with horrible gas mileage. Like mentioned by others, it never could compare to the Ford 300. Chevy should’ve done I6s if they wanted a 6 cyl in a truck or SUV.
My favorite time on a Saturday night!
I have this engine in my 2016 Chevrolet Silverado single cab short bed 4x4 and so far at 83,000 miles it’s been great! I disabled the dod system with a Range plugin dongle and so far it’s been doing well! I run Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5w30 and change it at about 4000 miles, I figure it’s cheap insurance to do a more frequent oil change and have given serious thought to adding a catch can as I’ve seen a lot of people saying it really helps! Thanks for a great video!
Love your narration & sarcasm
Makes watching your videos very entertaining. Keep up the good work!
I've got that engine in my '16 , a good engine ,always wanted to see a detailed tear-down ,thank you.Unfortunatly the one example you have must have been beat the crap out of with poor maintenance
Looks like it was a construction truck and had an oil change once a year 😬😬
"a good engine" Yea, until your lifters fail. GM started their decline in 2007 and never recovered. They have no interest in making things right. Meanwhile, Toyota pays out billions to replace rusty frames on trucks 10+ years old with a ton of miles on them.
Alot of lifter failure us due to the thinner oils (5w20) in a hydraulically actuated system. And extended oil change intervals or neglect. Surprisingly this is the first LV3 I've heard have a lifter failure, and they're the only one of the 3 ecotec3 family that runs 5w30 and not 5w20. So maybe that's a factor. However that engine wasn't maintained...
@@matt9c1 I've seen plenty of those frame-swap trucks on CSW!, but it's a little sad how rusty _they've_ gotten, and the condition of the rest of the undercarriage? Ugh. Toyota needs to learn that rust coating doesn't mean coating their parts in rust....
Change your oil at least every 5k miles. That's the key. AFM systems rely on tiny oil passages and small screens that act as filters. The biggest reason AFM lifters fail is because the owner pushed oil change intervals out too long and those tiny oil passages became clogged with sludge deposits. The idiotic assumption that if you use a fancy expensive full synthetic engine oil, you can go 7500 to 15000 miles between oil changes is the number one killer of AFM systems. Just because a used oil test says you have plenty of TBN left at 10k miles or you simply believe the oil jug's claims doesn't mean that the engine oil is loaded with carbon soot and unburned gasoline (particularly in engines with direct injection) that go right through the oil filter and caused accelerated wear/sludge in the AFM solenoids, manifold, and tiny lifter mechanisms in AFM lifters. Excessive idling is also terrible for roller lifters, particularly when combined with bad engine oil maintenance.
Nice tear down Eric. As always, it was very interesting. I enjoy every one. Be well. Big Al.
I have a 2014 Silverado with this motor in it, I bought it new. Its been flawless from day one. BUT, I NEVER go the the recommended oil change interval. I stay with 3000 miles and have the dealer do it. Im a machinist and mechanic in my 60's. I've seen it all and will you one thing: Keep oil fresh, keep the trans serviced BEFORE your supposed too. Watch for leaks and give your rig what she needs as soon as she need it. 300K miles is no problem for any of this junk, even the worst of the worst. I drove a 89 Chrysler Laser (Bought that POS new, drove it to the junkyard after 210,000 miserable miles, it was hitting on all four and still pulling well, the rest of that thing was ruined) the formula works every time.
C'mon now! I had a 1990 GMC S-15 Jimmy with the old 4.3L Vortec and I drover it to about 190,000 miles without issues, sold it, and saw it driving around town for another few years.
The GM Atlas 4 5 and 6 cylinder engine family would be a good teardowns. I have to look if you have done them already...
Would be awesome to see each of the 4-5-6cyl variants in a series torn down to see the differences of changes over the years, thats a lot of engines and time though. I love that Calvin has found the breaking point of 800+ whp from a stock bottom end/head 4200, shows they are tough and people are the biggest issue with their failures
I would love to see a 2.7l eco boost twin turbo! Your videos are amazing, I legit look forward to these every week. Please don’t stop.
I tore apart tons of 80s to early 90s 4.3s, they all had broken, failed rods on the center journal... They had an oil starvation issue obviously...! I had a bunch odd s10 blazers back then and they were fuel hogs...!!! Never had any other issues except for the rod on the center journal... Thanks, keep up your awesomeness and go enjoy some nature today...! Don't forget to compliment someone today...
Once again, thanks for another great and enjoyable video, simple and to the point with funny remarks along the way. God bless you
Great video. In defense of the Vortec V6, my 93 S10 2 door blazer was pretty quick and would get 24MPG in mixed driving. No NA 4Cyl could get 200HP and 260 lb-ft of torque in 1993 and the Ranger 4.0 V6 was at 145HP. With electric fan, shorty headers, cat-back, CAI, 3.73 gears, and under drive pulleys, I was hanging with Mustang 5.0s and beat a few who must not have been good with a manual trans. It was trouble free to 219,000 miles and still going but passed on for the rust here in MI.
In the 90's my dad used a couple of Astro/Safaris to pull travel trailers...200/260 were pretty darn good numbers for a v6.
@@elmarko9051 yes my 03 astro has a built 4l60e and chirps in second torque for the win
I owned several Vortec 4.3 and actually driving one currently and yes they are good. However that Ford 4.0 was rated at 160hp and was most certainly under-rated. It really put out more than that, easily as much as the Chevy. They were badass engines.
Same here 2000 Chevy 4.3 250,000 and I'm going to replace the intake gasket this weekend, very small coolant leak. I get over 20 mph n highway. Not bad for a 23 year old truck. Heck I just bought a new car in September and it's been back to the shop last month because of coolant leak.
So I can't say one thing bad about the old 4.3.
Hey bud, congrats on your 100k level. I was actually in the process of making an engine drip tray to saddlebag over the engine stand, but looks like a company already is making it.
I know you spend a lot of time reading comments and questions, I was wondering if you could do a tear down on a mid- late 90s Northstar 32valve engine. I’ve been fixing cars 20 years, but mostly for a dealership, and I’ve never seen the guts on that gem of an engine. Thanks
I own a 4.3 LU3 vortec that statement about HP and MPG are so true
Was just working on a fleet van this week that had one these was curious about the engine then boom you upload this 👍👍
I would like to see you restore that same engine with all the necessary replacement parts.
Sometimes on a V engine, one cylinder head will be cleaner than the other one. If one head had a PCV Valve and the opposite head head a fresh air inlet, the head nearest the PCV valve will get dirtier. Dirty vapors form both sides of the engine eventually reach the PCV valve.
It becomes even more obvious with this engine because the owner didn't change his oil when needed, or the OLM was too optimistic about what oil life the driver could expect.
I looked online to see what parts are available for rebuilding this engine. I was surprised to see very few.
That's exactly right. More so depending which valve cover has the oil fill I would think. I have 2 older gen 4.3L. One in a 2002 s-10 the other in a 2005 astro van. PCV is identical on both with the exception that the astro PCV valve is part of the cover and non-serviceable. The astro (with 509,000km) looks to be relatively clean evenly on both heads under the covers and it has the oil fill on the left cover which has the PCV valve. On the s-10 (with 401,000km) the right head is considerably cleaner than the left head under the covers and the oil fill is on the right cover which is where the PCV fresh air inlet is. Both vehicles get the same oil around every 5000km for the past 10ish years that I have been servicing them.
The OLM is only a reasonable calculator of need if you're using a high quality oil that meets the performance characteristics the PCM is using for its calculations. Put in the cheapest barf-mart garbage you can find and its calculations will be hopelessly optimistic.
I enjoy watching all the engine tear downs. This is the best video. You would have to work in a garage that works on engines to see this many types. Great job thanks.
Best part about this channel are the sounds. So crunchy!
great video. Watching this makes it hard to understand why there was no love for the 4.8 gen-four GM engines. Mine is a 2009 so it has no DoD or variable valve timing. Just a simple V8. Still quiet and runs great after 150k miles.
In my experience the Gen V V6 that replaced the L20 4.8 as the base engine is more reliable. I owned 2 4.8. 1 blew a spark plug thru the valve cover and needed a new head. Both required new ignition coils on #7 cylinder every 100,000 miles. The V6 has more oil consumption but no extra maintenance costs like the V8.
@@joshuahedrick I had a GMC Acadia 3.6 bought new that was bulletproof, and the 4.8 in my 2009 Silverado as well. Great service from both.
been waiting all day... thank you kind sir.
I don't even hate to say it but my old 97 blaze with the vortec 4.3 was the best truck i ever had. It had more low end grunt than my trailblazer and towed better too, even might have got a smidge better mileage. I miss that old truck, it did everything i ever threw at it and was a reliable daily driver, after i fixed all the nickle and dime issues.
Great tear down and channel. On of my favorites. Keep up the slo-mo. Too funny!
Just for giggles one day you should tear down a Briggs and Stratton LOL. Maybe as an April 1 video.
I have been hounding him to find a flathead car engine for the channel but an old flatty Briggs might be the closest we get. And hell that's one he could start up on the teardown table before he tears it down!
You need to check out Mustie1 on YT.
That variable oil pump works exactly how an auto transmission pump works. Try taking a look at a 4l60e pump and you’ll see what I mean.
What i'd love to see is a teardown of any 80s/90s Mercedes engine, OM601, OM602, OM603, OM606, M102, M103, M104, M111, M119 etc. This was a great teardown by the way.
I’m impressed with how you removed the the crank pulley with just an impact and no puller. I tried all my impacts and including a Fuel like you used and they wouldn’t budge it. I got a flywheel lock off Amazon and had to reinforce that, then it took a breaker bar with 4 feet of pipe.
What's wrong with a 4.3 vortec? Best motor I've ever had. 236000 and still going strong.
A little tlc and they'll run forever.
Richard Tracy - They're just fine if you don't expect too much. Great in the S-10 stuff. Not so great in Silverados. Like Eric said......"the power of a 4 cylinder, with the fuel economy of a V8".
Literally everything on them and bolted onto them fails prematurely. I've never come across one that wasn't an absolutely hunk of garbage and having an owner swearing to never buy any GM product again.
Mines in a 96 c1500 w/t , just did the spiders once, and a fuel pump. Guess I got real lucky.
Well, if all you want is a longblock that never wears out, you're in the money. But if you want an engine that's got the power of an 8 with the economy of a 6 you'll want a Ford 4.9, not a GM 4.3.
I had this engine in my 2014 Sierra. It was a nice little engine, good power, torque, and gas mileage. At 253k miles the lifter failed on cylinder number 5. Just sold the truck after debating a new engine. I changed my oil every 6k with full synthetic oil.
Little engine? Compared to what?
@@nexushexus4365 350 gas (5.7), 4.8, 5.3, 6.0, 6.2......lots of other options for GM trucks over the years.
Probably failed at 50k miles not 250
@@sef2273 253k to be exact.
Thanks for the video. It’s great to try and figure out why the engine failed.👍
TY for the Video. Always enjoy them. It made my sunday morning
the old 4.3's are unpowered gas hogs sure, but they are so damn reliable
They move a 5800 lb van pretty good and reliably
I have one of these in a service truck, so far I'm impressed. I wish they used this in the Colorado / Canyon trucks. Its a much better option than the 3.5 (?) that they are using.
Agree. The 3.6 that the Colorado/Canyon uses is a revvy sporty engine that makes good high RPM power. The 3.6 has proven to be very reliable too, but the 4.3 here is a proper truck engine with more power at lower RPM where trucks need it; the 4.3 would have been a better choice for GM's mid size trucks.
I hear for 2023 GM is going with the 2.7 4 cylinder turbo engine for the Colorado/Canyon, and the 2.8 diesel and 3.6 V6 are going away.
The engine in the video looks like a company fleet situation. Tons of miles, minimal care. That thing was nasty inside. There have been problems with AFM/DOD. Apparently current engines don't have it due to the chip shortage, a silver lining perhaps.
@@Duken4evr29 They have the AFM lifters, the ECU is just missing the chips to control them
Just saying love your Work. Enjoying the journey watching what you do
Love the detective work. We get customers all the time who " don't know what's going on " only to find the cold, hard evidence.
There’s a TSB about increased soot in the oil from the direct injection wearing out the pins in timing chains causing them to elongate.
Jason of Engineering Explained has a great episode all about this issue.
Yup. But again it comes down to maintenance. "Oil is cheaper and easier to change than the engine!"
Change the oil every three to four thousand miles solve the problem. These long extended oil change intervals are a joke.
The ports n intake valves look heavily carboned up ..Ford fixed this on the 5.0 by adding another set of port injectors that run part- time..
@@aaronhumphrey2009 I own two of the direct-injected 3.6 LFX V6 engines and supposedly they do the same thing but I keep my oil change with full synthetic every three to four thousand miles and use premium gas and don't have any of that problem. I think a lot of the valve cocaine comes from using the wrong oil not keeping it full and letting it go really long in between services.
I think if that were my engine I'd be embarrassed by how dirty that was inside.
Clearly not enough oil changes and probably running it well past 0% oil life a few times to build up that much varnish.
@@I_know_what_im_talking_about And probably running the cheapest oil he could get, just to make sure he'd have a problem.
overall these engines are virtually bulletproof over any ford , and took a ton of abuse/ neglect to get to this tear down stand , most will never see this type of abuse ~Very rare
thx, I am happy to see the tear down. I plan on using a V6 in my project.
The 4.3 V6 came out in 1986, and was available in the Chevy Monte Carlo, unlike Olds, Buick, and Pontiac which stuck with the 3.8L V6. The bore and stroke of the original 4.3 was the same as the Chevy 350.
Got to stay on top of those pesky OCI's, especially for all GDI engines. Best oil/filters and frequently changed. This engine deserved better. RIP
Probably best practice to change oil way before the computer says it's time on those DOD engines. Still seems like a lame idea to me.
All these "Teardowns" are great. Have you considered a video of doing the opposite, where you start with a block and put an entire engine together? I think that'd make for a great video
micheal baker - Since Eric is in the business of selling parts.....i'd say you're barking up the wrong tree. It would be cool, but he's getting some actual work done with these teardowns.
@@christopherweise438 yeah, when you put it like that, it would seem counterintuitive to "build" an engine solely for the sake of making a video
@@michaelbaker9347 - I'm just happy he takes us along AND explains everything as he's doing it. I've learned so much from Eric's videos, and i even grew up with a grandfather that owned a repair shop that i used to hang out at.
Adam, I really didn’t think I’d sit through this entire video…but I did great job!
You're right about the Vortec 4.3 . I had a Chev Astro van with that lump in it. It couldn't get out of its own way but drank gas like a Cadillac. And the oil pump is the same design as what's used in the front pump of the transmission. Reliable and can move a lot of oil.
As soon as GM went to their active fuel management crap their reliability went way down. Great video!
I love watching your tear downs. So I'm going to throw one out there, a Cadillac LH2 engine, or even just some kind of a Northstar, maybe??
Shouldn’t be too hard to find a scrap Northstar, afterall…
Why you wanna torture the poor man like that? :D
I bet the starter will still be in place 🤣
@@acemobile9806 and yet… it only takes 60-90 mins to change and isn’t plastered in road crud. Also not many people seem to complain about that on 2UZ Toyotas!
I have 275,000 miles on the LV1 version of this engine (comes from the factory with no AFM) and it's been ultra reliable with absolutely no problems. With the exception that it does consume 1 quart of oil every 2,500 miles or so. But, I blame myself for that problem because for the first 100,000 miles I was not running full synthetic oil which is recommended by GM.
Very informative. I've been looking for something technical like this about this motor. Thanks.
My neighbor had a 4.3 Vortec in his S-10. It made so much noise when he pulled out of his driveway that I thought he'd be going 110 past my house. Nope, only 25.
From my experience, this was was caused by a lifter. If the customer hears a valve ticking on this motor, they need to turn it off immediately, and get it towed to avoid damage.
Also you need to remove the oil pan before you take off the timing cover.
If only the average owner had that kind of common sense. An AFM lifter doesn't guarantee a destroyed engine unless you ignore the obvious knocking noise and keep driving it anyways. It takes a long time to grind down a lifter like the one in this engine.
Changing the oil frequently and never going beyond 5k miles makes far more of a difference than running any overpriced boutique full-syn engine oil. Just because the TBN of the oil suggests that it has thousands of miles left in its usable life doesn't mean that it isn't loaded with abrasive carbon soot and other combustion byproducts that the oil filter will never capture. The most common way to cause an AFM lifter issue is dirty oil. Sludge and abrasive carbon are are the single biggest cause of AFM lifters problems. Sludge and carbon accumulation are terrible for just about any complex modern engine, which is why so many engines with complex variable valve timing/lift systems have major issues or even die an early death -- VVT solenoid failures, timing chain tensioner failures, cam phaser failures, stretched timing chains, etc.
Great videos, very informative and interesting to view. Man these new engines are getting more complicated every year give me a good old 350 sbc anytime!
21:00 "More sanitary to go from front to back..." I spat a mouthful of food all over keyboard and monitor. Thanks for that. I do recall you saying this on a previous video but I didn't catch on then. Love your work.
Direct injection would be great if it weren't for the smog crap !! Thanks EPA !!
99 Sierra with the spider 4.3, over 200,000 miles. Original plastic distributor gave out. Good power & starts every time.
What more could you ask for?
great engine,i PURPOSLY bought a 03 1500 BECAUSE it had the 4.3,some guys need a power trip to compinsate for tiny "equipment"lol
What more could you ask for? A new distributor, I guess.
The spring got me 😂😂 I felt like I was actually there. Head went back a good foot & all that.
Brilliant I love to watch the teardowns I've learnt so much how different engines work keep going love and give old blue a cuddle from me 😂😂😂
I work with GM dealers daily and I've had many dealers tell me lifters and transmissions fail as low as 500MI !! To this day. GM is a sad company. This isn't acceptable in a $50k suburban let alone a $120 Escalade
It’s a supplier issue using bad alloy mixes. It’s been fixed now.
Spark plug wire and coil is never going to fix that misfire lol
These videos are my therapy.....
Love the content man!! Thanks for sharing.
Good teardown. I can't see why spending a little time polishing up the impact spots would make this an unusable block. I've see a lot worse. And at the price of a "good used" being $3500 this is a great candidate for a rebuild.
The block can be easily cleaned up. Need to hone the cylinder and lifter bores. Replacement bearings, pistons, cam, lifters, etc would probably make it not cost effective.
GM really screwed up on this version of the 4.3 v6 engine, I had a 98 GM 4.3 vortec engine with almost 198000 miles when I sold it and only had to replace the water pump and fuel pump in 10 years of ownership. That we the best truck I ever had and could get over 25 mpg on the highway.
Ditto ... loved my '98 Chevy 4.3 V6 ... never a moment's issue with it ... regular oil changes and put good Gas in her. And plenty of pep for a vehicle weighing 2 tons !!! Only engine I've had better in my 2.4L Toyota HiLux Turbo Diesel ... not available back home in USA but WOW ... indestructible (see UK Top Gear where they tried to destroy one ... hilarious !!!).
Do you have any experiance with this engine? ive had both versions and can say that GM did not screw up, this is a great engine and will last if maintained.
Same at least according to my uncle. He had a '96 & drove that thing until the body ceased to exist around the engine, I reckon it had at least 400K. He swears the old 4.3 is the best engine GM made.
Seems like when there is one improvement, there opens a new failure. Thanks for sharing this video.
Seeing the inside of that variable oil pump was very cool
Have you did a LU3 4.3L (2003-2013), if not would you
I cant wait for you to do the porsche engine!
I think he did. Subarus are flat engines
I don't think this engine ever saw an oil change. This is that magical lifetime oil.
Mate, love these videos. Thank you.
I'm guessing the clean cylinder is the one with the broken lifter, and guessing it was an intake lifter so it wasn't breathing but was getting fuel via the DI and that cleaned it up. The old Vortec 4.3 was ok on gas, I've still got one, runs great, sweats coolant out the intake gaskets. Typical GM for that era.
I had a 1989 S10 Blazer with an earlier version of this engine (RPO LB4), and later a 2001 Astro (RPO L35). Both had decent power and got decent mileage. Kept them both for 10+ years with no serious issues, although I had to replace some of the cheap plastic vacuum lines in the Astro (major PITA). Good engines IMHO.
power of a broken 305 with the gas usage of a 350. lol
@@throttlebottle5906 Well it was literally a 305 minus 2 cylinders, so not sure how your expectation's of high output is supposed to trump basic knowledge of physics.
A completely stock '92 S10 with the 4.3L and 700R4 sure had me surprised, thing had way more power than any 4 cylinder (contrary to this breakdown queen's experiences) of it's time especially torque where it mattered down low for a truck. Even as a flying brick with a whopping 150hp it would smoke any stock all motor 4 cylinder hatchback off the line of it's day and many years after considering I had it around 2003 to 2007ish with over 250k miles before giving it to my X (what a waste that was). I had two problems with that truck, the cheap radiator and the heater core leaked and had to be replaced, I believe that was around the 210k mark, not a big deal considering it spent those last few years in Phoenix. Dry heat is good against rust but it's harsh on all the cheap plastics in cars. My 1976 Blazer faired better than newer cars for the 15 years I lived there
Recent cars, pcm shuts off the injector after a certain missfire counts.
Started out right off knocking on the old 4.3. One of the best engines I've ever had and a certainly not a gas hog. Get real. My 2001 1/2 ton Silverado got 25 mph on the road, 21 in town, with decent power & torque. Good for a truck.
Dang. I never got over 21 on highway in my 03 Chevy 1500 4.3 the 7 years I've owned it.
warren,homie u damn right! 1986-2013 4.3 was a bad mofo! got one in a s-10...fk'n thing flys 92 tbi
No you didn’t. Not even my manual S-10 broke 21mpg on the highway, completely empty. Updated spider injector got it up a little, but I have a very hard time believing a 4.3 got better MPG in a larger, heavier vehicle.
They weren't overly fuel efficienct... But they were reliable. Not too often I've ever heard them fail.
Don’t believe the on board computer. They lie.
My favorite Saturday night mystery...
I followed this tear down with lively interest. Why? Well, because my friends keep bringing me their problems to fix. And, I always recommend they maintain the simple stuff. Like oil and antifreeze change. So where the oil pan pickup tube was a crafty bit of dismantle, and more. The timing chain bits. Thanks for the post. I enjoyed watching as refit is part process after....things are dismantled. M.
Gotta love a 90 degree, pushrod v6😁. My 1983 Chevy Impala is powered by a 3.8 (229) V6, a distant ancestor to this one, and predecessor to the first generation 4.3 V6. It's a great engine, that keeps happily doing its thing. A little sluggish off the line, but with surprising mid-range pull
3800 s are not related to the small block chev. the 4.3 is totally different. other than they both have 6 cylinders from a 8 cylinder block. the 3800 has a very interesting history. makes great reading. my buick 3800 has almost no parts in it. therefore less to go wrong.
@@cocodog85 you're thinking of the Buick (231) 3.8. It just so happened, that Chevrolet produced its own v6 with a similar displacement from 1980-1984. It was second in the line of "small block" v6s, between the 200 (3.3L), and the most known of the family, the 262 (4.3) V6, which had a production run lasting over 20 years
110hp has no midrange pull. 0-60 takes nearly 20 seconds
Enjoyed that one, sometimes that dual overhead cam turbo stuff seems like way overkill. What's with GM and lifters
The lifters don't tolerate neglect. The average car buyer today won't even check the oil level between changes... which they think they can go 10k miles between changes... even if they let the vehicle idle for a half hour every morning before driving 2 miles to work. That kind of habit leads to excessive carbon soot (abrasive) and sludge deposits in the tiny passages that feed the AFM control system. The lifters activate and deactivate based on oil pressure, which is turned on and off by oil solenoids. Clog those channels up and the lifters don't lock and unlock like they should. Run dirty oil filled with abrasive carbon soot (coming from combustion byproducts, particularly with direct injection which tends to be more "sooty") through those lifters and they increase the chances of an issue with the pin that has to move freely to "collapse" the lifter and deactivate the cylinder. Excessive idling in the winter and not getting the vehicle up to temp will cause the engine oil to become diluted with fuel. Gasoline is a terrible lubricant and if you accumulate a lot of it in the engine oil, tiny mechanisms such as the ones found in AFM lifters will further increase the likelihood of a problem.
There's also the issue of human perception vs statistics. GM builds and sells well over a million V6 and V8 engines with AFM lifters every year. When you have tens of millions of trucks, SUV's, and sports cars with AFM lifters, even a lifter failure rate of 1% means tens of thousands of vehicles that need to be repaired. If the owner is smart and stops driving the vehicle as soon as they hear the lifter tick, there usually isn't any serious damage and the lifters get replaced. But if you neglect basic maintenance and have bad driving habits, you end up with a lifter like the one that came out of this engine. They had to have driven hundreds if not thousands of miles with a LOUD lifter tick. Judging by the sludge, the owner of the vehicle this engine came from barely met the minimum maintenance requirements. In all likelihood it was a company truck and the company changed the oil sparingly and the employees drove the truck into the ground.
The same kind of neglect that frequently kills AFM lifters is the same kind of neglect that causes the common issues in engines from all manufacturers -- VVT solenoid failures, cam phaser issues, timing chain tensioner issues, timing chain stretch, etc.
@@karlschauff7989 You'll love this story I got from one of the owners who also works the counter at my local parts haunt. Some old guy comes in with one of these DOD engines and it's got a lifter tick. It isn't very old. He wants sea foam to put in the oil to clean the lifters. Parts guy asks what oil he's using. 10w40, the only thing you should ever put in a Chevy. Parts guy politely informs him that the designs on these engines has changed a great deal in the last 30 years, and he really should use the oil specified on the cap, I think it was 5w20 5w30 DexOS. The old guy is belligerent, 10w40 is the only thing you should ever put in a Chevy, give me my sea foam and don't argue with me. Parts guy knows the guys at the dealership in town, and wouldn't you know, a few weeks later this same old guy's motor was junk with less than 20,000 miles because he refused to give it what it needed. Of course, that's not neglect, that's outright abuse for stubbornness' sake. I just thought you would find the story interesting.
Now you didn't need to go talking smack about Vortec 4.3's. 😉 True, the stock intake manifold gaskets were pathetic. My 2001 and 2002 S-10 Crew Cabs both got big, squishy FelPro gaskets and upgraded spider injectors long ago. I love 'em! 🙂👍
Sanitary front to back...I luv it😂🤣
Oil pump looks just like a transmission pump!
The best thing about the newer 4.3 is that it doesn't have the GM permenant cylinder deactivation system that the V8s do.
I think it does have DOD, did you see the DOD lifters?
@@Discretesignals oh if that's the case then it's a waste of aluminum
what does "permanent" deactivation refer to because I can control will the throttle pretty easily to switch between 4 to 6.
@@Discretesignals So what does that mean? Thanks
@@schoolmaster8038 It's a joke people talk about with GM engines. The cylinder deactivation caused the deactivated cylinders to be starved of oil which caused premature wear which lead to that cylinder being "permanently deactivated" because the engine just grenaded. According to GM this problem has be fixed, but I've seen as new as 2020s still have the same problem in the 5.3L
Thanks for the interesting dismantle
Love my 4.3, no problems and it's in a big boat. Better parts on marine applications.