See Inside a New Cadillac Escalade’s 6.2L V8 Engine That Failed After 4 Miles
As GM struggles to manage a surge in 6.2L V8 failures, an engine shop in Utah pulled apart an example that failed after just four miles of driving. The post See Inside a New Cadillac Escalade’s 6.2L V8 Engine That Failed After 4 Miles appeared first on The Drive.
Another 6.2-liter GM V8 has gone to an early grave, this one failing with just four miles on the odometer. This tear-down from Dave’s Auto Center gives us a look at a freshly minted L87 V8 as they pull it apart for their YouTube channel, clearly eager to find out what happened to an engine that has barely been used since it left the factory floor.
This L87 came to Dave’s Auto Center through a GM buyback. It briefly powered a 2023 Cadillac Escalade, the same vehicle that stranded our tipster at Chey Cab, but unlike hers, this engine’s demise does not appear to be due to lifter failure. Instead, the notes left behind by the techs indicate that this L87 died due to a connecting rod failure—a claim confirmed early on in the teardown, when a piece of it rattles loose while they’re removing the main harmonic balancer.
Connecting rod failure is a commonly cited condition among customers who have complained to NHTSA of premature failure of their GM V8s. In this case, the consensus appears to be that the rod failed due to a poorly installed wrist pin—in other words, an assembly defect, and a serious one that was overlooked during quality checks. Beyond that, the teardown includes a look at the push rods (no major damage) and the lifters (again, healthy).
Regardless of the cause, this engine was in a 2023 Escalade that GM bought back, which means it’s yet another casualty of (and contributor to) GM’s ongoing repair backlog that has left Chevy, GMC, and Cadillac owners nationwide without access to their trucks. While many of these engines are in fairly new models and still under warranty, customers are at the mercy of a replacement pipeline that ran dry months ago, with owners and dealers fighting over the few complete motors that are still in circulation. GM customers are being told that 2025 models are shipping with a “new engine assembly” and should not be susceptible to the same issues.
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The post See Inside a New Cadillac Escalade’s 6.2L V8 Engine That Failed After 4 Miles appeared first on The Drive.
