they are a dime a dozen here in houston. pick any given junk yard around here and they probably have a dozen or more 4.8 and 5.3 engines. gen IV may be a little tougher, but not impossible

 

I had the same thing happen to my car, non dod of course. If u do change out ur cam and lifter be sure to do an oil pump. We figured it was an oil related issue and the pump did have a lot of grooving on the rotors when I pulled the old pump apart.

 

That sucks Josh , might as well fix it while it's down , make it a more fun / reliable daily .

Damn DOD bullshit !! Thankyou govt for messing up a good thing .

What is exactly the failure , just the did lifters are that bad / poorly made ?
How many miles on this engine ?

 

Fix it. This was an early problem with some of the AFM engines. Cylinders 1,4,6, and 7 are the AFM lifters. Replace the AFM lifters with new ones. Also replace the lifter guides/retainers, whatever you want to call them. And put in a factory cam. If its a daily driver why go aftermarket? Then I want you to pull out the VLOM filter screen and replace it too. It's under the oil pressure sensor.