Valvoline 5W-30, 7930 mi, 2003 Xterra - potassium?

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hi guys, looking for some advice here.

our xterra has always been treated to relatively short synthetic OCI's due to the small oil sump capacity, usually in the range of 4000 miles per change. this past summer was unusually hectic for us with a move to another state and all the driving around that comes with new home projects so i lost track of the miles a bit and ran this change far longer than usual. thankfully it was a lot of easy highway miles though.

i'm actually pretty happy with the wear metals, all things considered....however the potassium and sodium levels that Blackstone points out here do have me a bit worried. i've read that the Valvoline products tend to run high in sodium, so i'm willing to sit on that reading a bit to see what the current change of Castrol Syntec shows in comparison. but i'm not sure at what point potassium becomes a real indicator of a coolant leak instead of just an artifact of a particular oil blend. what do you guys think?

aside from the readings the truck drives great and pulls down gas mileage thats as good as its ever been.

previous change was PP 5W-30. i use Wix and Nissan OEM filters.


xterrablackstone_zpswyd0vtxf.jpg
 
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I wouldn't take Blackstone's advice of running 8k then checking again for coolant. I'd run a short OCI to see if the potassium goes down first.
 
Originally Posted By: ThirdeYe
I wouldn't take Blackstone's advice of running 8k then checking again for coolant. I'd run a short OCI to see if the potassium goes down first.


yeah i have no intention of leaving my 4-5k mile comfort zone...i may even run the current change shorter to ensure i don't let a potential leak go too long before getting the oil analyzed again.
 
7900+ miles and a TBN of 2.1 on Synpower? The naysayers will scream foul. Great report. As KCJeep said, Sodium is a VSP additive and no cause for concern. Potassium may or may not be related and thus, worth keeping an eye on.
 
Blackstone said the same when.they saw my firstsample with Valvoline. The amounts stayed steady though so IMO if yours does the same at the same interval it will just be the additive package.
 
I have used Valvoline dino and synthetic. Great oils.
Never saw any potassium and the sodium was less that half that number so I would suspect a coolant problem.
 
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head gaskets and stupid intake manifold plenum's leak. ask me how i know. it was funny watching the water vapor and bubbles spewing out the exhaust manifold.
 
thanks for the insight guys. i'm going to keep an eye on the coolant level and do an analysis on the next OCI as well.

time to prepare the wallet for a probable beatdown
tired.gif
 
At such low levels of potassium its highly probable that you would not notice any coolant loss. Hundreds or thousands of ppm you are more likely to notice. On vehicles I've owned when its over 10 ppm something is ultimately wrong. When it gets to 25-50 ppm I start planning the repair.
 
Originally Posted By: brian
On vehicles I've owned when its over 10 ppm something is ultimately wrong. When it gets to 25-50 ppm I start planning the repair.

Yep pretty much. With the 2 GM V-6's I owned I did both at <20 ppm. I was told that they could fail pretty fast. Then again who knows.
 
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