The blown-up engine of a 2023 Cadillac Escalade has just arrived in a repair shop. The experts will dissect it to see what went wrong. The Caddy had only been driven four miles from the dealership before the powerplant blew up.

Dave and his team received some information about the V8 they are inspecting. The owner had just left the dealer’s yard when the engine of the brand-new Cadillac Escalade failed, and they had to call a tow truck to take it back. But why did it fail so soon? That is what Dave is trying to find out.

The engine arrived in Dave’s repair shop from a supplier that had an arrangement for a dealer buyback vehicle. They told him that when they got the oil pan out, it was full of oil.

Dave starts disassembling the engine, and a portion of a connecting rod falls right out. The rod simply split in two. It looks like there was carnage under the hood of the 2023 Escalade.

The lifters seem fine, and the camshaft looks as if it was brand-new (it actually was!). But something broke the wrist pin clip. From that moment on, everything went downhill.

One of the technicians on Dave’s team suspects that something from the engine insulation assembly blew it up. The experts also consider human error, but that would be very unlikely. Rather a part or an assembly issue caused that sort of failure.

Even though they rarely get their hands on such new engines, basically right off the factory assembly line, they have their guesses when it comes to this V8. They assume that the rod collided with the crank or the engine casting, leading to the powerplant shutting down.

{YOUTUBE=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnF5SFcgxJc]

Owners of GM models with the 6.2-liter engine tell their stories

Dave drives a truck powered by the same 6.2-liter himself. Once, while he was on vacation, his engine started to misfire. The next morning, it did not fire up at all. It turned out a lifter fail was to blame.

The issue was fixed under warranty, but Dave has developed a repugnance against GM’s Active Fuel Management, which is a fancy name for the variable displacement technology developed by the auto giant. The technology allows the engine to “switch off” half of the cylinders under light load for better fuel economy. Photo: Dave’s Auto Center | YouTube

People rushed to the comments section to share their experience with the 6.2-liter V8 engine. The owner of a 2022 GMC Sierra wrote that his 6.2 locked up at 1,700 miles, and that was just the beginning. “Next motor locked up at 400 miles later on Christmas Eve, 200 miles from home.” Third was a charm, but problems were far from over. Then, the transmission gave in, he told.

Another user, who worked for a dealership, remembers that a customer bought a new vehicle powered by the 6.2-liter V8 “and it blew up the day after he drove it off the lot. That was the second 6.2 that we had blown up that week,” he recalls.

A local dealership reported that its technicians had been dealing with many engines of vehicles that had barely been driven a few hundred miles and still had plastic covers on the seats the day they returned to the dealership on a trailer.

The former owner of a 2022 Yukon XL Denali says he sold his vehicle at 28,000 miles. “It’s been towed into the dealer four times for major electrical issues. We had some serious lifter noise and drove it in to get that looked at. We have been without our primary vehicle for weeks over the last 27 months. It’s gone,” he says, adding that he will probably never buy another GM-branded car again.

We have been keeping up with the adventures of a tow truck driver, Dustin, who has been towing many GM-branded SUVs and pickup trucks that have broken down lately. Some owners called him to pick up their brand-new vehicles after just a few hours of ownership and a few miles driven from the dealer. Photo: Billyonroad | YouTube

Last week, we told the story of a Cadillac Escalade ESV owner who suddenly heard a noise and called a tow truck. The dealership technicians diagnosed the Escalade and told him it was an engine failure due to the lifter valves.

NHTSA is investigating the matter

In mid-January, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into General Motors’ already infamous engine failures, following 39 complaints related to engine failures received by the NHTA’s Office of Defects Investigation.

The powerplant under investigation is the 6.2-liter V8 L87, introduced for model year 2019 as the replacement of the L86. The unit features the Active Fuel Management, the technology designed to allow the engine to alternate between the eight- and four-pot modes. It is the engine that Dave and his team tore down to see what went wrong and why it blew up at only four miles.

The documents of the investigation claim the failures were caused by broken connecting rods. Again, that is exactly what Dave found in the Escalade engine.

However, this Escalade is far from being the only vehicle involved. The investigation involves 877,710 vehicles. Chevy Silverado 1500s and GMC Sierras, Chevrolet Tahoes, Suburbans, Yukons, and Cadillac Escalades are to be investigated.