Experience with 2016 Escalade? GenV 6.2 and 8L90

A 401 CJ said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Opti said:

In reply to Sonic :

If you are used to working on MB, I wouldnt be scared of a head pull on an LT. Its easy. GM will tell you its an engine out service, its not.

GM says it is an engine out job?  Alldata doesn't 

The only thing that sucks about doing it engine in is torquing the head bolts.  I have a fancy digital torque wrench (bought day before having to do heads..) and I was seeing up to 265 ft-lb on the bolts while bringing them up to angle.

Either that's a very long wrench, you used a cheater bar, or you compete in strongman.  I can't begin to pull 265 in an engine bay at that angle.

Oh even better, I was doing only the left bank, so I was pushing, not pulling   And I'm very right-handed.  So, yes, was a bit sore after getting them all up to angle.

A lot of dealership guys just burp 'em down with a 1/2" impact and call it good.  Realistically, that really is good enough most of the time, I just can't bear to do it that way.

(And what is up with the head bolt with a 13mm internal hex?  Can't find a socket for that, can't even find a 13mm Allen wrench to cut up to make a socket.  I used a 1/2" Allen and crossed fingers)

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Tekton makes a 1/2" drive 13mm hex socket if you want to pick one up for future use.

In reply to eastsideTim :

I don't see doing too many more.  As an indie, valvetrain failures are very rare.  This was only the second lifter failure I had ever seen.  And it is really unlikely that a truck that has a failure outside of warranty will be worth putting $4000+ into engine work.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Some of these trucks and SUVs having failures are still worth north of 30k.

In reply to Opti :

True.

Most that I see that are old enough to have out of warranty issues, if they have the money to fix it they are as likely to just trade it in. 

Not that I really miss doing a lot of heavy R&R, but it is soothing/relaxing.

A 401 CJ said:

NickD said:

Opti said:

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Sorry I got mixed up. GM says camshaft is an engine out job, it isnt. No one says heads are an engine out job. With LSs I rarely saw a hurt cam, with LTs, I rarely see an undamaged cam when a lifter dies. 

Interesting. At our dealership we do E36 M3loads of LT lifters, but we don't often do camshafts. In fact, in all my Gen V lifter jobs, I personally have never done a cam. The guy in my neighboring bay had one that needed a cam this summer that caused some head-scratching. He pulled the old cam out, and it came out just fine. New camshaft arrived, it slid in like 2 journals and wouldn't go in any farther or come out. He finally got it out after lots of finangling and called TAC and there were concerns about maybe a shifted cam bearing or a burr on the bearing, so they had him pull the engine and send it out to a machine shop, where it was determined that there were no damaged bearings. Ended up finding out that the new camshaft was bent.

How does that even happen?  Usually they break if dropped.

No clue, because the packaging wasn't damaged either. 

I daily a 2017 Yukon XL Denail with the 6.2.  I'm at about 73k now and am the second owner buying it used on 2018 with about 15k IIRC.  Since I purchased it I've had a random stumble while idling that is significant enough to get passengers attention but which throws no codes and has not been witnessed by techs at GM.  I also had the shift shudder issue about a year ago that was solved by a transmission fluid change as the OEM fill absorbed water per the GM TSB.

The truck has been a great vehicle especially compared to my Jeep GC which it replaced.  I'm now nervous about the longevity of the motor.  Ugh.  

Today's project is actually a 2021 Silverado with 59633 miles that developed a 2-piece lifter on cylinder 8

I wasn't sure where to put this update but this post seems most appropriate at the moment...

I towed with my new to me escalade last weekend. 219 miles over some decent hills. This is the 6.2 with a 6 speed. The towing performance was excellent. A lot of power, enough gears that it doesn't put on a show, contrary to my previous statement 6 gears was better than 4, I would not be surprised if 8 was better than 6. My camper is just over 5k lbs and it is a big sail in the wind. Gas mileage was a 30% improvement over a L05 GMT400. That isn't really a great story, 7.8mpg instead of 6.0. I guess that did save $40 on that trip but either one is pretty rough. 

I say this is a great platform for towing, the long wheelbase, auto load leveling, brakes, and sway bars are nice. On my GMT400 I had to use weight distributing bars and it was a comparatively difficult drive. Due to the higher hitch height I couldn't use the load distribution bars and I don't think I needed them. In the attached pic the truck is off and I think the air suspension lowered because it seemed more level than this when I looked at it on the trip.