2026 Tahoe with 6.2, im all good?

Been checking oil level since delivery to now. 4k miles and hasn’t burned a drop using the factory 0w20. I would think if I had bearing issues it would show some consumption.

have you done an oil change yet

randeez said:

have you done an oil change yet

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Yes at 1000 miles. So it really is 3000 miles with no oil consumption. I should clarify I forgot about the first change…..

I’ll probably change it at 5k miles again and let it roll until 10k for the following change, see how she does. .

ReaperHWK said:

Been checking oil level since delivery to now. 4k miles and hasn’t burned a drop using the factory 0w20. I would think if I had bearing issues it would show some consumption.

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Engine bearing issues will not make themselves visible in oil consumption.

Oil consumption is a loss of integrity somewhere in the valve train or piston rings. It can also be something simple like a PCV valve being stuck.

To get early indication on bearing health, you can do oil analysis. Wear metals should settle out to a very low part per million concentration.

Speed diagnotix has a kit that allows you to pull a sample from your dipstick tube. I'd look into that.

The 6.2 engine bearing issue has numerous cases well beyond 10,000 mile mark.

Correct. Oil in and of itself is usually not a main factor in bearing failure. Oil with 10,000 miles on it can still protect your bearing just fine. Most oil that people change or throw out at 1-3 or 5000 miles is still fully capable of protecting an engine for many, many more miles. Bearings fail first and foremost, because they are incorrectly assembled or installed. Secondly, they fail because they are contaminated with Abrasives or Contaminants floating around in an engine. Thirdly, they fail because of insufficient lubrication or oil starvation. All/any of these factors can be apparent in a 6.2 that fails. It really comes down to correct clearances and component quality. That's why 0W-40 engines still may or may not fail eventually.....

The GM test 100% revolves around oil consumption. If you burn more than 1qt every 2k miles you get a new motor. If you don’t you get changed to 0w-40 for the recall motors.

So the bearing issue must be significant to cause oil consumption, meaning if you got a bad crank bearings it should be measurable by the same way GM checks.

Agree oil analysis would be a good idea though; I’ll do that on the 10k change so the oil would have 5k on it.

Bearings degrading have very little to do with oil consumption. The type of driving and operating conditions factors into oil consumption more than anything. Cold climates with a higher percentage of fuel dilution and sustained highway driving and/or heavy loads or towing play a factor in oil consumption.

Excessive blowby will also contribute to excessive oil consumption. Oil viscosity can also influences oil consumption, thinner oil can have higher vapor content which allows the PCV to pull more oil vapor into the intake systems.

You are doing all the right stuff like changing the oil first 1k miles etc.
Checking oil level is good and besides getting oil analysis don’t worry about it.
The oil analysis will give you data but with a new truck under warranty it doesn’t really matter.

If it comes back with some bad levels but still runs normal there’s not much you can do. It’s still under warranty and if you took the results to the dealer I would bet money that they would not do anything. Maybe say something like “Ya we will look into this but don’t call us we will call you.”

Just enjoy your truck, statistically speaking you are more likely to get in a serious car accident than have engine failure.

We are playing Russian Roulette but the number of chambers is hundreds of thousands empty but there are some live rounds in there.
Unfortunately any of our 6.2l motors can fail and it can happen at any mileage.
At least we have warranty! LOL!

Next time you drain the motor oil, after it's all drained out, before buttoning up the pan, snake a flexy scope inside the oil pan, get a good look around in there.
If you notice anything of concern in there, you'll have a better answer than any guesses we can take from here.
If everything looks good, congrats.

ReaperHWK said:

The GM test 100% revolves around oil consumption. If you burn more than 1qt every 2k miles you get a new motor. If you don’t you get changed to 0w-40 for the recall motors.

So the bearing issue must be significant to cause oil consumption, meaning if you got a bad crank bearings it should be measurable by the same way GM checks.

Agree oil analysis would be a good idea though; I’ll do that on the 10k change so the oil would have 5k on it.

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If you burn more than a quart every 2k miles you might need a new engine. Is GM requiring multiple visits to verify consumption?

the 18th letter said:

If you burn more than a quart every 2k miles you might need a new engine.

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GM says if you burn up to 1Qt every 1,000 miles, you don't have a problem.
Therefore, if you burn more than a quart every 2,000 miles, you should start shopping around for a different vehicle, or a different car company.

Oil consumption has zero impact on engine replacement. If you read the owners manual, many cars will burn oil, especially those that are higher performance and with complex turbo chargers.

Do you really think any manufacturer is going to replace an engine because it uses a 4 quart of oil. There must be more wrong in order for them to spend $10k.

As already mentioned above, oil consumption has nothing to do with bearings.
Oil consumption is solely related to traffic on the highway and driving style. I have friends whose oil does not go away at all from replacement to replacement of 7,500 miles.
I drive aggressively and fast, so I don't run out of oil for the first 2,000 miles or so, and then the oil consumption is consistently 0.5 quarts for every 600-650 miles.
If, after an oil change, I drive around the city calmly, then there is no oil consumption and 3-4 thousand miles.
But in order to understand if there is a problem with the bearings, it is necessary to cut the oil filter when changing the oil, and take out the paper element from it, and unfold it. If there are metal particles there, there is only a possibility of bearing problems.

the 18th letter said:

If you burn more than a quart every 2k miles you might need a new engine. Is GM requiring multiple visits to verify consumption?

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Not sure the specifics of their recall test. Myunder recall.

AI and GM says you guys are incorrect.

You gotta love AI.

You do understand a few things, these engines already have oil squirters that spray oil on the underside of the pistons to cool them. Sure these may not spray directly on the cylinder walls, but there is already a fair amount of oil being sprayed upward toward the cylinders. If the oil control rings are functioning correctly and not stuck they should be able to scrape and control oil on the cylinder walls without to much problem, even more oil sprayed directly on the cylinder.

Not sure how long any engine will last with 5x the amount of oil leaking/spraying out the main bearings and how this would impact oil pressure. I assume this could equate to 5x the oil clearance over spec??

The majority of the manufacturers claim 1 quart of oil consumed per 1000 miles is considered acceptable. I am sure some may claim a higher oil consumption is acceptable? I sure would not want an engine that consumes more than 1 quart between oil changes because the intake valves and catalytic converters would not be very happy. 1 quart per 1000 miles equates to 5-6 quarts of oil per typical oil change, which is nuts, but some engines and the way the vehicle is used may consume this amount of oil. But nothings I would consider as "normal".

My 2006 f150 with 230k miles consumes 0 quarts between 5k mile changes…..

So does my 807hp hellcat redeye. 0 qts between changes.

Not sure how oil consumption is “normal” and not just covering up bad clearances and engine design.


Anyway my point of this post was to say that I have zero recorded oil consumption on this 6.2 and I’ve read many that do that failed the PICO test. I was just saying I feel good about it and my motor may be solid with a good manufactured crank after the recall period ended, meaning GM fixed it on a 2026…

I will get an oil analysis at 10k and post it (that oil will have 5k of mileage on it and be a good solid sample)

The crankshaft finish was not really the problem. Plenty of post July 2024 6.2l builds still failing. More that acceptable levels of 2025-2026 6.2l failing, many before the first oil change, not so different than the 2022-2024 models. Again the earlier crank issue is not the primary cause of the failures.

Another contributor to oil consumption on these engines can be the DFM system as well, mine is disabled, or for the most part disabled, no real oil consumption on my engine, but I am also running 0W40 oil and have been since 500 miles. Catch can has about 1 inch of oil at 3700 miles when I change the oil and the oil shears from 0W40 viscosity range to 0/5W30 viscosity range in 3700 miles!

I would hate to see what happens to 0W20 oil with 80-100% highway use in 3500-7500 miles with regard to shear!! Would love to see an oil sample from a 2026 6.2l failure on original oil within the first oil change. I might even pay for the analysis out of my own pocket if I could guarantee the oil sample was from a legit 6.2l failure before the first oil change. Might yield some interesting info and data . Not so worried about the wear metals, more interested in the oil fuel contamination and viscosity/shear.

ReaperHWK said:

AI and GM says you guys are incorrect.

View attachment 482289

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The particular failure mode being described in the AI summary and associated source articles is confounding two things--piston ring wear and bearing wear.

To get a normal wear pattern develop on bearings to the extent that oil flow is increased and being sent to cylinder walls, in such an excess quantity that it overloads the piston rings, would only occur if, and only if, the engine had tremendous miles on it.

In this scenario the rings are already worn. Thus you can't directly link worn bearings to high oil consumption.

The specific situation going on with 6.2 bearings is accelerated wear due to manufacturing problems primarily, and secondarily from the bearings being exposed to mixed boundary lube for much longer than expected. (You see very early failures before 10,000 miles and then at higher miles like 20,000-80,000 miles.)

In no case has there been even a weak correlation between oil consumption and early bearing failures. The piston rings are not worn. They are not experiencing additional wear due to high oil flow impinging on them from the failed bearings. The bearing failures happen quickly. These engines aren't being driven around knocking like crazy for 3 or more oil change intervals.

jfoj said:

The crankshaft finish was not really the problem. Plenty of post July 2024 6.2l builds still failing. More that acceptable levels of 2025-2026 6.2l failing, many before the first oil change, not so different than the 2022-2024 models. Again the earlier crank issue is not the primary cause of the failures.

Another contributor to oil consumption on these engines can be the DFM system as well, mine is disabled, or for the most part disabled, no real oil consumption on my engine, but I am also running 0W40 oil and have been since 500 miles. Catch can has about 1 inch of oil at 3700 miles when I change the oil and the oil shears from 0W40 viscosity range to 0/5W30 viscosity range in 3700 miles!

I would hate to see what happens to 0W20 oil with 80-100% highway use in 3500-7500 miles with regard to shear!! Would love to see an oil sample from a 2026 6.2l failure on original oil within the first oil change. I might even pay for the analysis out of my own pocket if I could guarantee the oil sample was from a legit 6.2l failure before the first oil change. Might yield some interesting info and data . Not so worried about the wear metals, more interested in the oil fuel contamination and viscosity/shear.

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This^^^^
Seems like oil shear after it's got some miles on it is a topic where everyone wants to whistle past the graveyard.
I change the oil on my daughters 25 Equinox every 4k miles.
Overkill? Perhaps, and it does not look that bad coming out of the pan, but it runs out of the pan like water.