LE Monolec SPB, 4,618 miles, 2008 Avalanche

[INDYMAC]

This is LE 8530, which has been replaced by 8531. Previous UOA of 8130 concerned me with high sodium reading. 8130 has about 20 ppm Na, and 8530 has none. I decided to add 6 GM walnut shell veggy pills to the coolant a couple of weeks after filling with 8530. I think it is helping with the HG leak. Anyone know how often to add the pills to the coolant? 2008 Avalanche 5.3L iron block. LE 8530 Monolec SPB (synthetic petroleum blend) 5W-30 PureOne oil filter. OEM air filter. Fuel unknown (probably whatever is cheap). LE L-X fuel additive every 1000 miles. This is my daughter's truck. A rear main engne seal leak is developing already. Gotta love a GM product!

Code:

	Valvoline 5W-30	Monolec 10W-30	Monolec SPB 5W-30
	SN/GF-5		CJ-4/SM		SM/GF-4
	5/18/2011	11/17/2012	4/15/2013
	OLM 47%		OLM 27%		OLM 47%
	55,511 miles	78,500 miles	83,118 miles
	4,628 miles	6,107 miles	4,618 miles
	Dyson (MRT lab)	Polaris-Houston	Polaris-Houston

Iron	   12		11			12
Copper	   37		40			22
Tin	   0		1			1
Lead	   13		13			6
Chromium	   1		0			0
Nickel	   0		0			0
Aluminum	   1		2			1
Titanium	   0		0			0
Silver	   0		0			0
Cadmium	   NA		0			0
Vanadium	   0		0			0
Calcium	   1599		1174			1840
Magnesium   10		970			112
Zinc	   787		1263			794
Phosphorus  563		1008			638
Barium	   0		0			0
Molybdenum  6		49			7
Antimony	   0		0			0
Silicon	   14		13			9
Sodium	   89		140			48
Boron	   7		1			3
Potassium   0		0			0
Manganese   NA		2			0
Lithium	   NA		0			0
V40C cSt	   56.0		NA			NA
V100C cSt   9.4		11.7			9.5
Visindx	   151		NA			NA
TAN	   2.23		NA			NA
TBN	   1.7		3.41			2.18
Flash Point 355F		NA			NA
Oxidation   16		19			13
Nitration   10		16			10
KF	   473		NA			NA
Water% FTIR NA		<0.1			<0.1
Fuel%	   0.953 (FTIR)	<1-estimate		1.0 (GC)
Soot%	   0		<0.1			<0.1
Glycol	   0		Negative		         NA
Sulfate     23		NA			NA

 

[cutlassvillager]

Quote:

This is my daughter's truck. A rear main engne seal leak is developing already. Gotta love a GM product!

A coworker was having their 2012 Suburban with 7,000 miles in for the first oil change and the rear main was already leaking. I saw it with my own 2 eyes. Pretty funny. It's interesting that the OLM didn't seem to match the TBN that well among the three.

 

[INDYMAC]

The OLM doesn't impress me at all. I just tell her to bring it over for around 5K mile OCI's. I may shorten the interval if the HG leak gets worse and the Pb and Cu start to climb again. She still owes on the truck, so I'll try to help her out. I'm hoping someone on here can tell me how often to treat the coolant with the pills.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Yeah that [censored] GM OLM. That must be the reason we have GM trucks with all three V8 sizes with high miles and near perfect operation. One is a Savana 3500 with 500k miles, all original drivetrain, ALWAYS changed by OLM. Works every day with a 4000 pound load on board! Note that not a single one of our fleet trucks uses, drips, or leaks oil. Re: the majic leak stopper tabs we only add them after cooling system service is performed. This is usually around 150-200k miles or so.

 

[fdcg27]

Lord have mercy, but this looks really bad for a short OCI on a low mileage engine. I'd for sure try the magic pills. They might work, and the cost of trying them is low. I wish your daughter good luck with this problem child of an engine. Sucks for her that she got such a piece of garbage engine, although I know it could happen with any vehicle.

 

[INDYMAC]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8

Yeah that [censored] GM OLM. That must be the reason we have GM trucks with all three V8 sizes with high miles and near perfect operation. One is a Savana 3500 with 500k miles, all original drivetrain, ALWAYS changed by OLM. Works every day with a 4000 pound load on board! Note that not a single one of our fleet trucks uses, drips, or leaks oil. Re: the majic leak stopper tabs we only add them after cooling system service is performed. This is usually around 150-200k miles or so.

I'm happy for you Steve. You must be doing something right. My daughter actually loves her truck, even with the cracked dashboard that rattles and flops around. But I warned her that I won't co-sign or help maintain another one. She's on her own.

 

[dave1251]

The OLM is not calibrated to deal with a coolant leak. Now she has a bad rear main also. Unfortunately your daughter bought a dog of a truck like I did with my 08 Tahoe. It happens it is far from the normal but it happens.

 

[CarbonCrew]

I haven't been keep score, but why are you suspecting that you have a HG leak?

 

[INDYMAC]

High sodium content in the engine oil. A process of elimination shows coolant to be the only possible source. You would normally see potassium and glycol show up too, but not always as seen through this UOA trend.

 

[CarbonCrew]

Originally Posted By: INDYMAC

High sodium content in the engine oil. A process of elimination shows coolant to be the only possible source. You would normally see potassium and glycol show up too, but not always as seen through this UOA trend.

I understand your thought process, I too have struggled with a spike in Na. Back in April 2012, I did my first UOA on my wife's RAV4. The report returned 82 ppm Na with no spike in K nor detectable EG content. It freaked me out because I thought my engine with 33k miles had developed a HG leak, but at the same time I didn't make a lot of sense either. Toyota coolant is very similar to Dexcool, if you source out some Dexcool coolant analysis you'll notice low sodium content and high potassium content. It seems likely that coolant would be the suspect for the Na content, but no K and no EG makes me question that logic. The absence of potassium in the UOA is very peculiar. Anyhow, I haven't figured it out and being the our situations were similar, I was curious of your thoughts.

 

[INDYMAC]

Originally Posted By: CarbonCrew

Originally Posted By: INDYMAC

High sodium content in the engine oil. A process of elimination shows coolant to be the only possible source. You would normally see potassium and glycol show up too, but not always as seen through this UOA trend.

I understand your thought process, I too have struggled with a spike in Na. Back in April 2012, I did my first UOA on my wife's RAV4. The report returned 82 ppm Na with no spike in K nor detectable EG content. It freaked me out because I thought my engine with 33k miles had developed a HG leak, but at the same time I didn't make a lot of sense either. Toyota coolant is very similar to Dexcool, if you source out some Dexcool coolant analysis you'll notice low sodium content and high potassium content. It seems likely that coolant would be the suspect for the Na content, but no K and no EG makes me question that logic. The absence of potassium in the UOA is very peculiar. Anyhow, I haven't figured it out and being the our situations were similar, I was curious of your thoughts.

I'll have to admit to cheating on these UOA's. I got professonal intepretation from two people that convinced me that it was coolant and to try the GM pills. Then I read this the other day on BITOG: "Coolant contamination is identified from abnormal levels of the corrosion inhibitor in the coolant leaking into the oil. This results in elevated levels of sodium, potassium, boron, and silicon in the used oil. Sodium and potassium contents will depend on which is used for the corrosion inhibitor. Additionally, glycol components from antifreeze can be present in the oil. Elevated levels of glycol components are not always present with coolant leaks because these components can react with certain additive components in the oil, become volatile, and boil off at sump temperatures. Deteriorated glycol, which forms at oil sump temperatures, reacts with bearing and bushing materials to form elevated levels of lead in the oil." From this: http://www.kleenoilusa.com/pdf/warranty/Cummins-Oil_ServiceBulletin_May-07.pdf I've also heard that potassium can burn off and not show up at all in a UOA. The truck has Prestone DexCool in it, but I have not analyzed it. The Na appears to be dropping along with bearing wear indicators. So w'll stay with the easy fix for now. Hopefully, there will be 0 ppm Na in the next sample.