CT5BW Blown Motor Registry

[Connecticut5V]

I started a list of the reported blown motors on this forum. It's far from scientific because not all people who have had this issue are on the forum, and not all on the forum who have had an issue will post about it, but I'm hopeful it will shed some light on the failure modes if nothing else.

At a glance it seems to be an issue with every model year, the bottom-end tends to give out at fairly low miles, and the lifters can fail at pretty much any mileage. I didn't include transmission but it seems like it's happened for both manuals and autos.

If I've tagged you here and you have a correction or an update, let me know.

User	Mileage	Model Year	What Broke
@AACaptRet	~5000 miles	2022	bottom-end
@Nadnerb	~200 miles	2023	bottom-end
@Carguyshu	~3500 miles	2022	bottom-end
@CT5BW757	~10000 miles	2023	tick (lifter?)
@CT5BWenthusiast	~21000 miles	2023	Rod Bearings, Lifters
@SS Performance	~5500 miles	2024	bottom-end ?
@Magnetic Flux	~6500 miles	2024	lifters
Philsblackraven	~14500 miles	2022	spark plugs?
@Motobones	~3128 miles	2024	??
@S2K_MoZo	~2100 miles	2024	bottom-end
@Firefrog	~3500 miles	2023	bottom end
C&D's Blackwing	~1800 miles	2022	Cylinder number six failed
@FARMER	~3500 miles	2023	bottom-end ?
@marcmac	~21000 miles	2024	lifters
@Slick Blackwings	~18,000 miles	2022	bottom-end?
@Jakemey	~8,500 miles	2022	bottom end
@Keith l	~3,600 miles	2024	bottom-end

Add me to the list 23’ BW 16,000
Tick/Bent valve

 

[mithrander]

Add me to the list as well 2022 CT5BW 5600 miles Rod bearing and crankshaft scoring leading to engine failure. Now have new engine courtesy of GM. Hopefully this one lasts longer

 

[CB34]

Add me to the list as well 2022 CT5BW 5600 miles Rod bearing and crankshaft scoring leading to engine failure. Now have new engine courtesy of GM. Hopefully this one lasts longer

Wow - just getting in under the warranty expiration.

Might pay to drive it a bit more before the warranty is gone for good.

 

[white98ls]

Wow - just getting in under the warranty expiration.

Might pay to drive it a bit more before the warranty is gone for good.

Isn't the powertrain warranty 6/70k?

 

[Lee#144]

Add me to the list. 2022 CT5BW 26k miles ate two plugs. New engine on order

 

[Lee#144]

Just wanted to reattack this issue as next week will make one month since the dealer ordered my engine. As of today no ETA on when it will be here. What was your wait time like? Is there a GM point of contact I can reach out to other than my service department?

 

[Slick Blackwings]

Sorry to hear it’s taking so long, we must’ve gotten lucky motor was ordered and arrived in just over a week. we had our car back finished in three weeks time. Good luck.

 

[Ergoc5]

Add me to the list. 2022 CT5BW 26k miles ate two plugs. New engine on order

That is scary after 26k miles ..so this can happen at any mileage...for some reason I thought most of these failures occurred early in the car's life.

 

[dribs15]

Sorry to hear it’s taking so long, we must’ve gotten lucky motor was ordered and arrived in just over a week. we had our car back finished in three weeks time. Good luck.

So that was your A10... and not your M6, right? Did you ever get your M6 issues corrected?

 

[Lee#144]

Sorry to hear it’s taking so long, we must’ve gotten lucky motor was ordered and arrived in just over a week. we had our car back finished in three weeks time. Good luck.

Well not that it will help much but I opened a case with Cadillac. I’ll give it a few more days and then try reaching out to some corporate types. Fingers crossed this issue is rectified soon. They gave me a loaner but I miss my damn car!

 

[Slick Blackwings]

So that was your A10... and not your M6, right? Did you ever get your M6 issues corrected?

Haven’t driven M6, so I guess the answer is no. Probably going to ship it to Sewell’s Dallas. Hope all is well!

 

[Slick Blackwings]

Well not that it will help much but I opened a case with Cadillac. I’ll give it a few more days and then try reaching out to some corporate types. Fingers crossed this issue is rectified soon. They gave me a loaner but I miss my damn car!

You want help, get Lemon law attorney, got compensation for loss of value when you go to sell it.

 

[blkout]

I still believe the failure rate is stupendously low for these engines but it appears at least based on this thread that vast majority were 2022-2023 cars. Makes you wonder if there weren't some minor changes in the 24-up cars or if there was a bad batch of engine parts in a small number of cars.

 

[jbawden]

I want to think that ^^^ but I'd say it's above average norms from a major legacy OEM. It's really the only mechanical weak spot in an otherwise robust package.

 

[blkout]

I want to think that ^^^ but I'd say it's above average norms from a major legacy OEM. It's really the only mechanical weak spot in an otherwise robust package.

The thing is, this engine has been used since 2015 and there's been very few failures across all product lines. I doubt Cadillac did anything significant to this engine from what Chevrolet did in the C7 Corvette Z06 and 6th Gen Camaro ZL1, and even the previous Cadillac CTS-V. Its been an overall remarkably reliable engine other than the known defective oil pump failures in the 2017-2018 Camaro ZL1s.

 

[NorCal Blackwing]

I still believe the failure rate is stupendously low for these engines but it appears at least based on this thread that vast majority were 2022-2023 cars. Makes you wonder if there weren't some minor changes in the 24-up cars or if there was a bad batch of engine parts in a small number of cars.

I know I'm going to get ripped for this, but the same problem on the L87 6.2L V8 was also apparently corrected after 24. Yes, I know they are different engines. Same suppliers for certain components though?

That being said if you've got warranty coverage just make sure your oil level is always good and use this thread if someone tells you it's an 'isolated incident'

 

[FLYARMY]

Who's name is signed on your engine cover. There was a "certain" person who had the most failures on their engine builds.

 

[CB34]

The thing is, this engine has been used since 2015 and there's been very few failures across all product lines. I doubt Cadillac did anything significant to this engine from what Chevrolet did in the C7 Corvette Z06 and 6th Gen Camaro ZL1, and even the previous Cadillac CTS-V. Its been an overall remarkably reliable engine other than the known defective oil pump failures in the 2017-2018 Camaro ZL1s.

Anything manufactuered after 2020 is suspect at this point due to the post-COVID supply chain crises. We still haven't fully recovered IMO and the failures happening in the LT4's and the L87's are absolutely connected in one way or another. Given the very low production rate of these cars, I'd also say the failure rate is definitely above average just by looking at this thread as a sample size. Hell, even C&D's test car which they had for 40k miles blew up.

Not good.

 

[jbawden]

Who's name is signed on your engine cover. There was a "certain" person who had the most failures on their engine builds.

I think that was just a brief period of some good belly laughs a few years ago, but it's purely coincidental. It's not like these people are blueprinting the builds, its just one person taking all the components off of a parts cart needed to assemble an LT4 using calibrated tools. It was/is a supplier and/or manufacturing issue well before April got her hands on the bits

 

[jbawden]

The thing is, this engine has been used since 2015 and there's been very few failures across all product lines. I doubt Cadillac did anything significant to this engine from what Chevrolet did in the C7 Corvette Z06 and 6th Gen Camaro ZL1, and even the previous Cadillac CTS-V. Its been an overall remarkably reliable engine other than the known defective oil pump failures in the 2017-2018 Camaro ZL1s.

I agree that the larger family of LT4 have been a great engine. However, it's entirely plausible that the engineers for the BW version of the LT4 used different suppliers, manufacturing standards, or myriad other elements that could be the basis of BW failures. The trend at the end of an engine life cycle should be going the other way; fully sorted and dead nuts reliable.

As I've said before, a bearing failure out of warranty is not the end of the story for me. I can R&R the engine myself and have a shop improve the overall package for a fraction of the cost of a stock replacement from GM.