Transmission Whine?????

[ventura ace]

I do believe that many people (maybe most) have had good success with the GL-1 fluid that is specified in the manuals (or 80 - 90W gear oil, non EP). For some unexplained reason, I experienced very difficult shifting with the GL-1, so that is why I checked around to see what other more modern oils had the recommend characteristics of GL-1. And that is how I ended up using the Valvoline VR1 SAE50 racing motor oil. This non EP motor oil is equivalent to 90 wt gear oil, and it's been in my tranny for 4 years now and about 25K miles (yes, that's what you drove 2 years ago, Matt). I'd like to correct my statement about the oil looking new when I drained it last week. It has darkened in color somewhat. I poured the oil from my drainpan into a clean opaque plastic milk jug, and the color is a golden brown. The pan is black, because it is painted black. The oil in the pan gives a more golden tint to the black, but you can see one of the pan ribs is very black, since it doesn't really have any oil on it. The oil has a fresh smell to it (not burned). The only quirk to shifting is that I can't really speed shift between 3rd and 4th, or else I'll get a little grind. I do a more controlled slower shift between 3rd and 4th.

Below are pictures that I took this evening of inside the gear case showing, the main shaft and countershaft and each individual brass synchro. I'm not an expert at analyzing these things, so i'll leave that up to you. The ribs on the synchros appear to be pretty sharp, though it would be hard to make a judgement unless I cleaned them up and compared them to new synchros. It looks extremely clean compared to the last time I disassembled the tranny. You can see the darker color of some of the oil that didn't drain out of the drain plug, but ran back down into the 'top' of the tranny when I turned it over to remove the pan (look at the darker color of the wall of the aluminum gear case on the left side of the pictures).

I'll be putting new Valvoline VR1 SAE50 racing motor oil back in when I reassemble after fixing the 2 leaks (front shaft seal and gasket between the main case and rear case).

Inside the gear case and showing residual oil on the gearcase pan.


4th gear engaged, 3rd synchro showing:


3rd gear engaged, 4th synchro showing:


2nd gear engaged, 1st synchro showing:


1st gear engaged, 2nd synchro showing:

[ga.spyder]

Thanks for that ,Alvon.I have heard a lot of claims about other non GL-1 products,but this is the first with actual evidence.Now I would consider the option.It would take me 10 years to put that many miles on mine.Is that Valvoline readily available?
Craig

[ventura ace]

Craig,
I got the Valvoline VR1 SAE50 racing motor oil from a local Napa / Car Quest autoparts store. Ask Denise the next time that you are up at her place. I think they have a 55 gallon drum of the stuff. She might spare you the 1.5 quarts!

Alvon

[pooldoctorstl]

Ace, thanks for posting the pics, and WOW. That is some hard to to argue with evidence that motor oils are ok to run in our transmissions. And like ga.spider said, most of us wouldn't put that many miles on our cars in 10 years.

Thanks,
Jeff

[wachuko]

So using this is out of the question? I ask because I have three bottles of this in the garage... if not then I will order something else.

[kilrwail]

Jaime - Use that in the Porsches - it's perfect. I use Pennzoil Synchromesh in the Spider.

[So Cal Mark]

if it's NON-EP, use it in the trans, If it's EP use it in the differential

[wachuko]

Excellent, thank you both.

[Redline]

So what would gear whine in 3rd and (less so) in 5th and none in 2nd and 4th point towards?

[So Cal Mark]

dodgy bearings

[V12StealthHunter]

Mr. ventura ace could you tell us how the gearbox with VR1 50 is doing. Just curious as its now 8 years since you started using that oil if I understood correctly. One of the few documented long term cases we have here.

I'm due for oil changes for diff, gearbox and engine. Thought of using VR1 SAE 50 oil in the gearbox and VR1 20w50 synthetic in the engine.

thanks.

[ventura ace]

Very happy with the VR1. I am traveling presently, so I can't check my records to tell you how many miles the tranny has with the VR1, but the 8 years sounds about right.

Alvon