Reliable Gas Engine Years?

My 2010 Escalade EXT had the first 6.2liter motor with AFM and it was one of the first off the build line as it was a GM corporate vehicle. I bought it with 10k miles and 10 months after production. It's still on the road has 180k miles, it doesn't burn oil and I never had any issues with the motor so I think it's luck of the draw with a bum motor. It doesn't make sense that every motor with AFM was going to fail for those first few years.

mp5pdw said:

My 2010 Escalade EXT had the first 6.2liter motors with AFM and it was one of the first off the build line as it was a GM corporate vehicle. It's still on the road 180k miles doesn't burn oil and I never had any issues so I think it's luck of the draw with a bum motor. It doesn't make sense that every motor with AFM was going to fail early in production.

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I suspect you also are changing the oil at the recommended interval or just prior and using the correct oil type/weight. A lot of failures as I've seen are due to neglecting the oil especially at the very early mileage.

07 & 08 Denalis came with 6.2L L92 engines that did NOT have afm, except for a few built prior to April 1 2006 which had AFM hardware but it was disabled from the factory in their programming.

The GM TSB 10-06-01-008M that applies to most 07-14 TYE should have been done long ago: TSB 10-06-01-008M

99-00 5.3 pretty tuff.

I agree its really hit or miss, but both by maintenance and also how hard you are on them.

My PPV was North Carolina State Highway Patrol vehicle. When I purchased it, it came from auction freshly stripped of all equipment and vinyl, with 179k miles. It came with a complete service history from the day NCSHP purchased it, down to line items for outfitting radio/sirens, to every light bulb and oil change, even every tire replacement and the last item being the decommissioning. Original 5.3, original 6L80. Beyond subject to infinite WOT runs, I think most are more concerned with engine idle hours, as these trucks can sit at large events for hours just idling.

With that said, I had the DoD deleted in the ECM but still have the original hardware inside the engine. The engine tune was only slightly modified, and the transmission was tuned as well (removing converter lockup at low speeds was the biggest, although some pressures were slightly increased). I've got over 278k miles on my Tahoe now. I've done a water pump and a TPS sensor, thats really about it as far as "repairs". Certainly I've changed out a lot more parts, but voluntary (stereo, wheels/tires, suspension, etc). The only thing I've got on my plate to fix today is the notorious fuel-filling issue, where at most pumps I can't set it to fill and forget it. Just a matter of checking out the venting system for the fuel filler neck, which has actually been an issue for this Tahoe since I got it (very common).

So yeah, its definitely hit or miss. I have zero regrets, and if I was in the same spot the day I bought my Tahoe, I absolutely would do it again and buy the exact same truck.