Oil sample saved my motor after a coolant smell showed up on I-80

Last month I was running a 2015 freightliner through Nebraska when I caught that sweet coolant smell at a fuel stop. My first thought was a small leak, but the truck had 400k on it and I had a deadline. I pulled a sample anyway and sent it to the lab, cost me 35 bucks. Two days later the report showed high sodium and potassium, which meant coolant was getting past the liner. I shut it down and tore the head off in my shop near Des Moines. Sure enough, two liner seals were about to go, and it would have dumped coolant into the oil at highway speed. That 35 dollar sample saved me a 12 grand engine job. Anyone else here do regular oil analysis on older fleet trucks or just wait for the smoke show?

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