Trans and Diff Fluids

[jtgraham]

Has anyone put fluids other than the GM recommended ones. I see Royal Purple has a ATF that they say is better and they make rear diff gear oil as well.

[AZIROC]

Amsoil

[1JEWLDSSRS]

GM OEM trans, and Mobil 1 engine, GM OEM diff.. 14 years 133k miles..

[bishopts]

Originally Posted by jtgraham

Has anyone put fluids other than the GM recommended ones. I see Royal Purple has a ATF that they say is better and they make rear diff gear oil as well.

Considering you could drain all the oil out of your transmission and drive it around the block with no problems, the "differences" you're going to find in different fluids is going to be very minimal. You're going to read about people switching to a different fluid and now it's better but it's going to be on a level of it was a 8/10 before and now it's a 9/10. Any ATF you use will work fine. All of them are rated for temperatures that are far beyond what your transmission is going to heat up to. They all have detergents to help wet clutch life that your transmission doesn't have in it. I would bet money you could fill it with diesel instead of atf and the car would drive the same.

Fun fact on that is when i was in Cummins training when i worked at dodge i found out you can run diesel engines on ATF you just need to run about 10% diesel in the ATF because ATF alone wont lubricate the injectors enough.

[jtgraham]

Well the TR3160 MT is sometimes hard to put into 1st gear. There is a little play, not much but I am putting in Full Metal Bushings soon. The car is new to me with 108k I have a 21k rear diff coming as well because it is toast. So this car seems to be a little abused. That said, I'm trying to see if a better oil might help the trans synchro in 1st gear it the bushing fix doesn't help.

[bishopts]

Originally Posted by jtgraham

Well the TR3160 MT is sometimes hard to put into 1st gear. There is a little play, not much but I am putting in Full Metal Bushings soon. The car is new to me with 108k I have a 21k rear diff coming as well because it is toast. So this car seems to be a little abused. That said, I'm trying to see if a better oil might help the trans synchro in 1st gear it the bushing fix doesn't help.

is it better going into first once you have been driving for a while and the oil is warm?

also does it seem to go in smoother if you pump the pedal a few times first?

on my car im fairly certain that i need to shim the slave cylinder. if i come to a redlight, when i go to leave i can press the pedal all the way to the floor and i can still feel the shift into first make the car slightly lurch forward and preload the driveshaft on engagement. the pedal feels fine and ive blead it trying to see if i can get anything different. which is why im pretty sure i need to shim the slave cylinder to get just a little bit more travel so that it will truly disengage the clutch disc.

[jtgraham]

Yes, after it warms up it is a little better. Also, if I am still rolling just before I stop it goes into gear fine, but after I stop I sometimes have to push a little harder for it to pop in. I have tried putting it in neutral and pumped the clutch a few times, but that did not seem to do anything. I thing I am going to drain the trans and put in amsoil ATF and see if that changes anything. A mechanic seems to thing it might be a clutch and or slave issue since it has 108k on it and was driven hard before I got it since the rear diff is also needing replaced.

[bishopts]

Lift the rear wheels off the ground on stands,
start the engine,
take off the parking brake,
turn off traction control,
FULLY press the clutch and put it in first.
See if the wheels start turning even though you are still holding the clutch. With full clutch disengagement you might still have slight movement from the pilot bearing turning the input shaft, it will look like a partial creep in the wheels.
But if your clutch isn't fully disconnecting then you're going to see the rear tires rolling enough to see it in the speedometer.

[jtgraham]

The first thing I am going to check is if there is air in the clutch line by putting a vacuum on the line going down in the brake reservoir and suck any air out. If that doesn't help I will try what you suggest. What does it mean if the later scenario happens and the wheels start turning?

[bishopts]

Originally Posted by jtgraham

The first thing I am going to check is if there is air in the clutch line by putting a vacuum on the line going down in the brake reservoir and suck any air out. If that doesn't help I will try what you suggest. What does it mean if the later scenario happens and the wheels start turning?

That the clutch isn't fully disconnecting the engine from the transmission when you press the clutch pedal

[bishopts]

So the red part is the pressure plate.
The black part is the clutch disc.
The silver part is the flywheel.
And the part with the blue line is the throwout bearing which is part of the slave cylinder on our cars.

The flywheel and pressure plate are bolted to each other. The clutch disc is smashed between the two of them. The clutch disc is splined to the transmission input shaft, the flywheel is bolted to the crankshaft.

When the pedal is not pressed, the whole assembly spins together with the engine. When the pedal is pressed, the throwout bearing presses the fingers in the pressure plate and it works like a lever pulling the pressure plate contact surface away from the flywheel. Then you have disconnected the input shaft from the engines drive.

But. Lets say something is wrong. Maybe the distance the slave cylinder can travel isn't as much as the pressure plate needs it to be to get full release. Then you will have a partial disconnection that still has a little push getting from the flywheel to the input shaft. Then you get kinda clunky shifts at low speeds very similar to if you just didn't push the pedal all the way down. Higher speeds you wont notice because your getting a gear float effect along with the mostly disconnected clutch.
At stops you have the engine that never stops and the secondary shaft that is stopped because the output shaft is stopped. But the input shaft didn't stop, in neutral you wont notice it but when you go to put it in 1st. You're engaging a shaft that isn't turning to a shaft that has partial unwanted drive. Your sycros will do their best to make it work but you will still feel a clunky feeling of the syncro speeding up the gear for mesh.

[lowke]

Originally Posted by jtgraham

Well the TR3160 MT is sometimes hard to put into 1st gear. There is a little play, not much but I am putting in Full Metal Bushings soon. The car is new to me with 108k I have a 21k rear diff coming as well because it is toast. So this car seems to be a little abused. That said, I'm trying to see if a better oil might help the trans synchro in 1st gear it the bushing fix doesn't help.

I went under my car to put in fmb a year ago and the rubber bushings were tight so I left them in. There is another rubber piece in the linkage that is bigger. I think that makes the shifter vague especially when the car is hot. I wonder if the V6 1le shifter would cure this. My shifter doesn't flop around. I think that's what the fmb fixes.

[Patriot Motorsports USA]

Originally Posted by bishopts

Considering you could drain all the oil out of your transmission and drive it around the block with no problems, the "differences" you're going to find in different fluids is going to be very minimal. You're going to read about people switching to a different fluid and now it's better but it's going to be on a level of it was a 8/10 before and now it's a 9/10. Any ATF you use will work fine. All of them are rated for temperatures that are far beyond what your transmission is going to heat up to. They all have detergents to help wet clutch life that your transmission doesn't have in it. I would bet money you could fill it with diesel instead of atf and the car would drive the same.

Fun fact on that is when i was in Cummins training when i worked at dodge i found out you can run diesel engines on ATF you just need to run about 10% diesel in the ATF because ATF alone wont lubricate the injectors enough.

This post is completely false, misguided and its info like this that gives forums a bad name. Admins should delete this drivel.

The A10 and the TR6060 transmissions are designed with specific fluid viscosities and hydraulic compressibility for the transmission to shift, function and not put the car into limp mode immediately. Deviations from this formula are critical and if you wish to roll the dice with a >$7500 USED price for a transmission, go for it!

The OEM GM fluids are junk. Mobil1 is in the same trash can as both products, along with WalMart SuperTech come from the same base stocks in Texas. DEXOS is only a bare minimum additive schedule... so if you actually want to preserve your drivetrain, spend a few dollars more and buy quality products designed to actually perform and are test-proven on the track.

My ZLE has 14,630 actual track miles and is driven daily at times with 37,000 total miles. I use Amsoil 15w-50 racing oil exclusively, not switching between an EPA/GM scam to use a lighter oil on the street. I still can get 24mph HWY cruise on a roadtrip without taking any chances.

Changing the ATF in the A10 or M6 will protect it better and improve cooling dramatically!

The eLSD receives a severe amount of heat through the tunnel, enough to shut off any GoPro mounted to the rear bumper within 7-9 minutes of operation. Using cheap GM gear lube is not recommended for any other use I can think of with a ZL1.

As someone who did testing for RP Oils with their Parent company Synerlec decades ago in a full-tilt-boogie Texas World Speedway 7-day nonstop lapping session... Their racing fluids are simply unmatched in quality and the highest prices, but their consumer O'Reilly branded stuff is no better than Pennzoil store products.

[jtgraham]

Upon further testing I found that if I pump the clutch petal about 8 or 10 times when the car is not running I can shift into 1st easily. If I start the car it does the same. If I let it sit for a short time it is hard to go into 1st again. You can't suck out any air in the line from above in the brake reservoir like on gen 5's but I did find the lower air bleed on the passenger side of the trans and it appears to have a built in quick turn plastic handle to open and close. I can't tell if the slave cylinder is replaceable from the outside or if you can only access it when youchange out the clutch.