I've been, since owning a GTX, trying to find ways to get around the fact that our transmissions are made of glass. They break all the time, and at the same time, Mazda says to run ATF in them. I am not the only one to have decided that a thicker lube may provide some cushioning effect and since I started running a 50/50 mix of Redline MTL and Heavy Shockproof, I've only blown up one BF gearbox and one BPT gearbox, despite much rally and autocross abuse. But now that I'm playing with these 2 monter proteges, I wanted to see if there was anything better out there. Lo and behold, I got in touch with a machinist/drag racer named Bill Scribner. He's a huge Torco fan and here's why...
The drag cars he builds and maintains for customers are in a different league than anyone on this board. We're talking 2500HP here. And the rear ends on these cars don't last long, in fact the guys that ran heavy shockproof were getting one (1) pass outta the spendy race-spec rear end, with galling gearsets needing replacement before they went out again. Heavy shockproof, Amsoil, Mobil1, any of those high quality sythetic gearlubes, regardless of weight, are all service rating GL-4 or GL-5. By comparison, ATF is typically GL-3, light duty/light temp. Mr. Scribner reports that when those drag cars are running Torco RGO racing gear oil, 85w140, non-synthetic, service rating GL6, the rear ends went from dying every qtr mile to surviving all season.
Golly.
So I went and put that stuff in the rearend, centerdiff, and trans in my rallycar. Gears are gears. If it was gonna mess with the synchros, I'd find out soon enough. Well, what I have found is that the stuff is incredibly goopy, thick and sticky and a horrible mess to clean up if you spill it. Brakecleen can't touch it, the film strength is such that scrubbing it down takes much much elbow grease, and you still have a layer of gearlube on whatever it landed on. Starting the car on a cold morning, I notice the idle drops a couple hundred rpm when I let the clutch out; it's that stiff when cold. But that effect goes away after no more than a minute, and putting the clutch in or out then does nothing to the idle speed.
Shifting when cold feels exactly the same as that car did before I put this goop in it, and when it's warm, it shifts much, much smoother and faster than it ever did before. Up and down, the synchros are *happy* and so am I.
I have a trans temp guage in that car, and it shows that the temps I get on a transit, just legal driving down the freeway, are a good 30 degrees cooler that it was before. On stage there is only a 10 or so degree difference but that's still an improvement. The only other variable there is that I had to move the trans cooler from in front of the radiator to behind it. Even with that less-than-ideal setup, it's still running cooler that it did with the other gearlube.
That film strength has gotta help this tranny stay alive. Rally is terribly abusive to transmissions, what with the constant shifting and full-load running, and wheelspin and jumps and whatall. I figure every little margin helps. That's 1 rally done, we'll see how many we get before the trans needs replacing.
I am going to run this stuff in my street car. Shouldn't be a problem, unless maybe I find myself in some subzero weather...
The drag cars he builds and maintains for customers are in a different league than anyone on this board. We're talking 2500HP here. And the rear ends on these cars don't last long, in fact the guys that ran heavy shockproof were getting one (1) pass outta the spendy race-spec rear end, with galling gearsets needing replacement before they went out again. Heavy shockproof, Amsoil, Mobil1, any of those high quality sythetic gearlubes, regardless of weight, are all service rating GL-4 or GL-5. By comparison, ATF is typically GL-3, light duty/light temp. Mr. Scribner reports that when those drag cars are running Torco RGO racing gear oil, 85w140, non-synthetic, service rating GL6, the rear ends went from dying every qtr mile to surviving all season.
Golly.
So I went and put that stuff in the rearend, centerdiff, and trans in my rallycar. Gears are gears. If it was gonna mess with the synchros, I'd find out soon enough. Well, what I have found is that the stuff is incredibly goopy, thick and sticky and a horrible mess to clean up if you spill it. Brakecleen can't touch it, the film strength is such that scrubbing it down takes much much elbow grease, and you still have a layer of gearlube on whatever it landed on. Starting the car on a cold morning, I notice the idle drops a couple hundred rpm when I let the clutch out; it's that stiff when cold. But that effect goes away after no more than a minute, and putting the clutch in or out then does nothing to the idle speed.
Shifting when cold feels exactly the same as that car did before I put this goop in it, and when it's warm, it shifts much, much smoother and faster than it ever did before. Up and down, the synchros are *happy* and so am I.
I have a trans temp guage in that car, and it shows that the temps I get on a transit, just legal driving down the freeway, are a good 30 degrees cooler that it was before. On stage there is only a 10 or so degree difference but that's still an improvement. The only other variable there is that I had to move the trans cooler from in front of the radiator to behind it. Even with that less-than-ideal setup, it's still running cooler that it did with the other gearlube.
That film strength has gotta help this tranny stay alive. Rally is terribly abusive to transmissions, what with the constant shifting and full-load running, and wheelspin and jumps and whatall. I figure every little margin helps. That's 1 rally done, we'll see how many we get before the trans needs replacing.
I am going to run this stuff in my street car. Shouldn't be a problem, unless maybe I find myself in some subzero weather...
pm if interested
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