Background- 2008 Suburban 1500 LTZ 5.3L (>130K) identified tapping. Parked the vehicle. Low compression coming from one bad lifter. Purchased an AFM/DOD delete kit with new cam/tuner, new lifters, timing chain assembly, gaskets all around, etc etc. Used the manual to put the truck back together with all the torque specifications and order… turned the vehicle on and it’s leaking coolant from the head gasket.

1. We took the time to go back down to bare metal so insure a good seal with the new gaskets, what are the odds we had a defective gasket? And is that common?

2. Looking for suggestions because this is our main mode of transportation. No shops around here can diagnose us for over 2 weeks and we just dropped $2k on all of the replacement parts.

Really need to get this thing back on the road I’m working order. Thanks in advance.