Hamilton Cam Flat Tappet Conversion?

[KJC]

I haven't posted in a while.

I just bit the bullet and ordered Hamilton's flat tappet conversion kit for my 2020.

The truck is just shy of 70k miles with no noises or problems.

I just decided that the $$ was cheap insurance vs. waiting for it to eat itself.

I am planning to tackle this myself toward the end of the month.

I plan to lift the cab off for easier access as I don't think it will take longer to lift the cab than it would to disassemble the entire front end and then still fight for access to those back cylinders.

If anyone has done this and wants to give pointers on do's and don'ts, I'm all ears, LOL!

I will update you when I get started.
Kyle

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[BrentM]

Nice, that sounds like a good plan.

I am interested in how this goes as I also have a 2020.

Please keep us posted.

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[KJC]

I got around to doing the conversion over the weekend.

Everything went better than what I had pictured in my head.

It was surprisingly easy to lift the cab. I disconnected the heater hoses and pulled both radiator hoses.

I removed the air and battery boxes on the passenger side and unhooked the wires for the grid heater off the solenoid.

I pulled the AC lines off at the pump and unhooked the transmission cooler lines at the quick-connect fittings under the air box.

I took the front half of the master cylinder off, leaving all brake lines attached, and unhooked the two power steering lines behind the master cylinder at the firewall.

I had to remove the power steering fluid line from the reservoir at the pump and unhook one line by the windshield washer fluid reservoir.

I disconnected the steering midway just below the rubber boot.

I left the battery tray on the driver's side, but I had to pull the TIPM up and disconnect one of the big connectors from the bottom and another wire connector under it.

Another big wire connector was on the side of the battery box between the TIPM and windshield washer reservoir.

There was one big wire connector on the firewall, two connectors on the driver's side behind the front wheel well, one connector behind the front bumper on the driver's side, and three wire connectors behind the passenger side front wheel well.

I forgot to mention I pulled both wheel well liners.

I disconnected the shift cable at the transmission and the emergency brake cable.

There were four cab mounts on each side.

I left the main bolt for the front two and took off the two nuts holding the mount to the frame.

I pulled the main bolt out of the center for the rest of the cab mounts.

I think that was about it for lifting the cab.

I could move things just enough while lifting the cab to keep the top corners of the box from hitting the back of the cab.

Once the cab was up, I pulled the charge air cooler. The front bumper did not need to come off.

From there, the cam and lifter swap was pretty straightforward.

I will post pictures of my original cam later.

I did this in time and, hopefully, dodged an expensive bullet.

The original cam had a sizable chunk missing from one of the lobes.

All said and done, it took about 20ish hours from start to finish.

You need a somewhat competent buddy to help with the lifter installation and feed the new lifters in the tray from the front while you fish them up through from the top.

I hope this all makes sense and maybe helps someone else.

Kyle

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[AK Bob]

Thanks, excellent write up and very helpful guide to lifting the cab.

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[Fire29]

I also just bit the bullet, LOL.

My motor just started ticking at 50k miles.

So im gonna be getting into this also.

I do have a question as far as the cam goes.

Would anything need to be adjusted when it comes to tuning?

Sorry if this has been covered.

Still learning. Haha

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[KJC]

The Hamilton cam is very close to stock, so no new tuning is required.

There is no real noticeable difference with my truck other than it does seem louder and might spool just a bit quicker.

Kyle

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[CrazyTrain]

We can’t wait to see the pictures.

Good write-up.

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[bigboost]

I plan on doing this sometime in the future on my 22; it's been making noise for a while.

Great write up.

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[CrazyTrain]

I plan on doing this sometime in the future on my 22; it's been making noise for a while.

Great write up.

What mileage are you at, and when did you first notice the noise?

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[bigboost]

What mileage are you at, and when did you first notice the noise?

Currently, at 58K, it has been intermittently making noise since 42K, only at idle.

I think it's just sticky at the moment because with any amount of throttle, it pumps up, and the noise goes away.

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