2013 LX 570 120K Head Gasket? High Potassium in Blackstone report (1 Viewer)

[LX570Cruiser]

Bought this LX used a few years back with 80K miles. Radiator did have the normal hair line crack, but nothing nasty like I've seen others post. It was replaced along with the water pump, hoses, etc. No history of overheating as far as I know. Been having to fill the overflow reservoir occasionally. Always assumed this was the valley leak and have been kicking the can on taking a closer look.

Finally got around to doing a Blackstone oil analysis, they're reporting high levels of potassium. Is this possibly the head gasket? Rig seems to run fine, no stumbling, no mis-fires, no white smoke besides cold start up, which reminds me, I'll take a sniff on next cold start up to see if it smells "sweet".

Also hooked up an OBDII reader, no codes. So question remains, where is my coolant going and why is it in my oil? Currently on a road trip so won't be home for a few weeks, but thinking a leak down test would be prudent.

 

[bloc]

I'd want to eliminate valley plate as the source of coolant use, and that isn't too difficult to do. Could even be on your trip, just get a good flashlight and dig much of the foam block out from the front of the intake manifold.

A leakdown isn't a bad test to run, you could also consider getting a quality bore scope and checking the tops of the pistons to look for any one of them being different than the other seven.

Testing for combustion gases in the coolant is something I've heard of in the past.. not sure how definitive or whether that is even still a thing.