M1 EP 5w30, 10k mi, 06 4Runner V6 (1GR-FE)

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Pleased with wear. Should I be concerned about sodium?

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Are you using additives at all?

If not, then it could be a concern. I know regular coolant usually shows up with sodium and potassium both. I have never seen any data on the Toyota red long life stuff. Is that what's in your vehicle?

Maybe somebody here knows. Does the Toyota red coolant show potassium and sodium both, or just sodium?
 
I use the spec'ed Toyota SLLC coolant, which is pink. I changed it at 105k and it has held it's level in the overflow reservoir for over 20k miles. I'm not sure if it has potassium in it.

I haven't used any oil additives. I did put a bottle of Techron in with the gas once or twice.
 
No sodium there. Picked up a little sodium in the road salt this past winter, coming in thru your air filter maybe?
 
Just curious - what is your OCI per the owner's manual? My 1GR-FE manual on my '15 Tacoma says 5k OCIs. Since it is new, I am sticking with it for now. Even though the dealer will change the oil, I do it myself and use the same M1 EP as you.
 
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Originally Posted By: ExMachina
No sodium there. Picked up a little sodium in the road salt this past winter, coming in thru your air filter maybe?


I'm going to run with that and not worry.

Just to confirm the link above, I dug out the leftover jug of SLLC from my coolant drain and fill from 20k miles ago. It indeed has potassium in it, so I don't believe this is a coolant leak.

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On the sodium - is it possible that you're close enough to the ocean to get some sea spray & humidity that might be fine enough to get through the filter?
 
Originally Posted By: bigt61
On the sodium - is it possible that you're close enough to the ocean to get some sea spray & humidity that might be fine enough to get through the filter?


Now that's an interesting observation. Yes, in fact this 4Runner is used to drive directly on the ocean beach here, usually two or three days a month from April to October, and sporadically less in the cold months.

I also removed the HCF filter from the airbox and eschewed the OEM air filter for an aFe dry filter. Perhaps I need to revert to OEM. This forum is great.

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I find this UOA fascinating. I am puzzled as to how sodium can get in the engine without silicon (sand) getting into the engine as well, from the non-OEM air filter setup.

I strongly suspect bigt61 nailed it - but how can the sodium get in while sand does not? His silicon level is completely normal.
 
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His current UOA is consecutive from the last one. Yet, his Sodium level is up by almost 30ppm, and we know Mobil 1 does not have sodium in it. So I do not think this is from previous fill.

I do know that for some reason, it takes several fills/drains to get the sodium level to come down after using an oil with sodium as an additive, but no way would I expect it to increase from a previous UOA using an oil with no Sodium as an additive.
 
Originally Posted By: Nate1979
Was a different oil used before this run?


No. This is the third consecutive fill of M1 EP.
 
Originally Posted By: btanchors
I find this UOA fascinating. I am puzzled as to how sodium can get in the engine without silicon (sand) getting into the engine as well, from the non-OEM air filter setup.

I strongly suspect bigt61 nailed it - but how can the sodium get in while sand does not? His silicon level is completely normal.


All I can think is particle size. I changed out the aFe filter and put OEM back in so hopefully that helped. There was definitely an accumulation of both sand and salt on the outside of the air filter. The sand came off easily, but there was a salt ring at the boundary of the gasket of the air filter. i had go at it with a damp cloth to get it off.
 
Me like. Flash, visc, insols, TBN all healthy. Sodium is from your ocean serenity sessions.... I'm jealous!
 
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