Sounds like you got a cam lobe wiped out to me. Forgive if you posted this earlier.

 

It didn't go the way I had planned. But I know I need lifters for sure now. Put the non-afm valley cover on, and couldn't get it to start with the new ecm, tried programming calibrations with efi. For anyone wondering, a new ecm must be dealer programmed first. Which you can do at home if you have the $900 mdi2 and pay gm $45 for the correct files. I did not, I towed it in yesterday and reset calibrations with efilive to turn off afm when I got back home.

While warming it up to do case relearn, it sounded like it wasn't missing for almost 30 seconds. Then developed a pronounced miss. Checked and found steady miss on 4&6, none on 7. Pulled valve cover and neither exhaust rocker was moving for 4&6. I guess afm lifters are incompatible with non-afm valley cover. I believe if I keep running it, I'll loose 7&1 too. Time to come apart.

My original problem may very well have been with the solenoid in the valley cover, or possibly the ecm. I'll either find out when I take it apart today, or never find out at all.

 

Rotated engine and all rockers move. They only stop when running. Took everything apart. Lifters all are solid. Won't ever know for sure, but I suspect the real problem was either the afm solenoid for 7 or the ECM. Equally possible the lifter wasn't living up to its full potential, really doesn't matter at this point. It is in pieces ready to take the block and heads to the machine shop.

 

To properly do the delete kit you need to change the cam, lifters, and valley cover all to non afm/dod parts and anything related to the cam change. Texas speed, Brian tooley racing, all have good kits.

 

After talking to a few more people and a little better understanding of how the system works, I believe I figured out what happened. The afm system passes extra oil to the special lifters to allow them to collapse, thus not pushing the valves open. My #7 afm actuator solenoid was just a little off, resistance wise. I'm betting the lifters having almost 200k on them with an afm solenoid passing a small amount of oil caused my #7 valves to not open to the desired degree. Thus reducing airflow and causing a rich condition in #7 because of said reduced airflow. Not as much of a problem when the rest of the engine is running lean, but more of a problem when everything else is rich. Causing a near constant misfire on #7. Before it would have only been a random intermittent misfire as I had.

Take what you will, but that is what I believe my problem was. Deleting the dod/afm system and rebuilding the whole engine should take care of everything.

To do the delete I am replacing several parts as well as the ecm programming;
BTR torque cam
Delphi lifters
BTR beehive valve springs
GM non afm cam gear
GM non vvt front cover
GM non afm valley cover
GM standard flow oil pump

Not to mention every other part that may need to be replaced in the engine for a complete rebuild. Currently I'm just over $2,000 in parts, before any machining has been done. Should be all the new parts I need, except the rebuilt heads, and new pistons the machine shop will acquire for me.

 

Got the truck back together. Runs better now than it ever has for me. No solid misses. But it is still getting random misfires with a slightly rough idle, where it should be smooth as glass. It does run well when driving. History misfire counts up to the teens after 5 minutes of running, but only on cylinders 2,4,5,7. Being that I have replaced everything else and am thousands of dollars into it, I'm just going to replace the coils, (though I do not suspect them of causing the rough idle) and my suspiciously cheap new injectors. I haven't replaced the wiring, but did load test it which would have found loose connections, so I'm at the point of blaming the new injectors. They weren't the cause of my solid misfire, but could still be flowing different enough to cause problems. I'll throw the coils in tomorrow, already got the new ones, then throw the injectors in Thursday when they get here. Seems when I have a problem, it isn't ever one thing, it is a combination of several separate problems.

 

Replaced coils, no change. Replaced injectors, change. It was running rich, long term trims around -19, random misfires, and rough idle, with calculated alcohol % at 0. Now with new GM Injectors, it is running lean (and setting a code for it again). Fuel trims around 21 now and calculated alcohol content up to 3.5%. Idle isn't the smoothest, but it is not detecting any misfires now. I don't know how I could possibly still have any problem. I've replaced every sensor and controlled part having to do with engine management. It does not have factory intake tubing or cam. AFM/DOD and VVT are gone and I put a BTR mild torque cam in, but it was suppose to work well with factory tuning. How after all of this am I back to almost my exact same problem? Random misses are gone, that is all I have to show for spending close to $5000 since November. Do I simply need to get a tune for my ecm, or do I still have a problem?

 

Sounds like the new injectors are rated for a different flow. Being a little rich at idle before is normal for a cam. You have to tune it to the truck.I don't know the specs of a btr mild torque cam. I do know even a little more lift can have driveability issues. A cam usually always needs some kind of tune. The bigger the cam the less stable they are at idle. You need to have a tune put on the truck.

 

I should have known better. Here are the cam specs. BTR TRUCK TORQUE CAM - 30202111R1

SPECS: 202/202 .511/.511 111+1

I was only looking for a mild upgrade over the factory cam, to make up for the vvt removal and have something focused on making power instead of meeting emissions. If you make more power with the same fuel input, then it is more efficient. The first set of injectors I put in were almost indistinguishable from factory ones, and purchased from a company claiming to be a GM dealer that had recently gone out of business. Should have know you can't really get a new set of injectors for the price of one, people are just too good at faking stuff these days. If they put as much effort into actually working and producing something good as they do into scamming people this world would be a much better place. Those injectors obviously didn't flow to the correct spec, or close to any particular spec, as they were not flowing the same between the eight I had. I have faith that the new ones that are in it now are good, and flow properly. No more misses at least. So each cylinder is getting the same amount of fuel and air.

So what to do next. I have efilive, and have paid for the license for this truck to shut off the dod/vvt. Can anyone recommend some place I can get a good tune from? I can do some logging if needed, or take a standard tune more balanced for my cam. I would want it to remain unlocked so I can continue to make changes in the future. I've done some of my own tuning on my diesels, but I know diesels better, and am use to the tuning maps that really make a difference there.

 

More power=more fuel required no matter what. If you add a bigger cam it's gonna need more fuel. Your cam needs to be tuned to add fuel for its power band. Cams cause turbulence in airflow entering the chambers at idle up to 1000 rpm or so. So that's why you have to pull fuel at idle because the combustion chamber air is being tossed around causing the fuel/air not to mix properly. Also you have to turn off misfire dtcs at idle because the pcm thinks the engine is missing with a bigger cam. I have a btr truck norris .553 lift 107 lsa cam in my 5.3 and had to pull 8 percent out of my ve tables so my wideband would lean out at my stoich setpoint of 14.63 instead of 13.9.

Ebay /Amazon are notorious for fake knock offs. I bought a 04 2500 with a 6.0 with number 7 and 8 injectors not working. Had a set of ebay injectors someone gave me. 1 of them worked. And I threw that one in the trash with the others. I have and buy many ls 00-06 ls vehicles for parts. I found an intake with factory acdelco injectors in it and swapped two into the truck. It runs perfect now.
Black bear performance does remote tunes. They most likely have a base tune saved from something else they can load on your pcm. Other than that it will be basic unless you go data log every time they make a change with a wideband to be safe. It took me 4 drives on my maf and 7 on my ve.