The Great Oil Debate

fake

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So here is a comparison that I’m sure nobody has done yet. My car is a 2011, bought brand new in March 2011. Build date is December 2010. This is my 5th Mustang, all manual cars. This car is not my daily driver and as of this post, I have 2000 miles on her.

With all of the 11’s and some of the 12, we started out with Ford Motorcraft QS fluid. In cold weather I would experience the 1-2 lockout or nibble. I also had the gears grind on me twice. Once it warmed up, it was ok, but still notchy.

June 2011, I had 900 miles on the car and switched to Red Line MTL. I immediately noticed a change in every gear. Since it was already summer, I could start out with a bone cold car and shift with one finger. The ease and smoothness with the MTL was awesome. However, it is a lighter oil than the factory fill. This concerned me because summers here are in excess of 100+ everyday. I ran the car throughout the summer and all of fall with no problems. I never experienced any gear whine, lockouts, or notchy shifting.

Since it has been getting colder than crap here, I have been experiencing the 1-2 nibble. I would have to shift from 1-3 until the MTL warmed up.

The past month or so, the new rave is Amsoil MTG. I bought some and switched it out this morning. MTG is the same oil weight as the stock QS fluid. Unlike the stock fluid, MTG is a FULL synthetic oil. I drained the MTL to save just in case I do not like the MTG. Once I drained the MTL, I noticed something I did not like. Metallic coloring/sparkles….. Nothing large, but there was enough in the MTL where I could see the majority of the oil was completely saturated in this microscopic metallic soup. Could this have been from running a thinner oil most of the year?

Filled the car with Amsoil MTG this morning and immediately noticed that it was nowhere as smooth as the MTL. Outside temp was 50 degrees. There was a more pronounced 1-2 nibble and every gear did not feel as smooth. Once I drove it enough to warm the MTG up, everything smoothed out, except for a slight 1-2 nibble. Down shifting is silky smooth except when coming to a stop and slipping into 1st. It takes a little more effort to slip into first before you come to a stop. One thing I do like, is the MTG is the same specs as the factory fill and far exceeds all the factory specs. Summer time will be the test for me. I’m sure once it gets back to 100+ during summer, the MTG will exceed the Red Line MTL in protection.

So my take on all of this is getting the factory crap out of your car ASAP. If you live in cooler states, I would recommend Red Line MTL. If you live in HOT climates during the summer, get Amsoil MTG. I think MTL may be a tad too thin in hot climates. If you use MTG, then you will not have as smooth of shifting as opposed to using MTL in the winter. I’m sure MTG will be very smooth when it starts warming up again. As far as the TSB that Ford put out for the QDC fluid, well, that stuff is thinner than most automatic transmission fluids; so run that stuff at your own risk.

I’m still concerned with metallic stuff in my MTL oil when I drained it. I still have no whine or grinding.
 
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JAJ

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Well done. The relentless and somewhat mindless promotion of Amsoil MTG has been fun to watch, but it never made any sense to me.

I'm trying a variety of different gear lubes. Current candidate is something nobody is even talking about, and so far it's the best I've tried. But I've only got about 200 miles, so don't get all in a lather about it. I tried MTL and drained it after 600 miles for excess noise and hard shifting.
 

techcargt

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Well done. The relentless and somewhat mindless promotion of Amsoil MTG has been fun to watch, but it never made any sense to me.

I'm trying a variety of different gear lubes. Current candidate is something nobody is even talking about, and so far it's the best I've tried. But I've only got about 200 miles, so don't get all in a lather about it. I tried MTL and drained it after 600 miles for excess noise and hard shifting.


That current candidate wouldn't happen to be Cat T0-4 Trans oil would it ?
 

coyote5o-cnj

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has anyone tried Redline MT-85, on my old car, an Evo X, the tranny was stupid knotchy and a Redline cocktail(2xRedline MTL and 1xMT-80) was the fix, it made it far less knotchy and way smoother
 

Rob72

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Sounds like if you had the time the best bet would be to run mtl in the winter and mtg in the summer if you have drastic weather shifts.
 

Kingcrabb

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By MTG I assume you mean
Synthetic Manual Transmission and Transaxle
Gear Lube 75W-90 API GL-4 (MTG)

If so I also switched my factory fluid out for this. I didn't really notice much difference at all. Shortly after I took the car in for the tsb and they changed the fluid again and the trans still felt the same.
 

jeffk24

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Well done. The relentless and somewhat mindless promotion of Amsoil MTG has been fun to watch, but it never made any sense to me.

I'm trying a variety of different gear lubes. Current candidate is something nobody is even talking about, and so far it's the best I've tried. But I've only got about 200 miles, so don't get all in a lather about it. I tried MTL and drained it after 600 miles for excess noise and hard shifting.

So what is it? Noticed there is not much talk about Royal Purple.
 

UnleashedBeast

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MT-82 = Chinese built junk. There seems to be no all weather perfect solution for this transmission, and you always have to accept trade offs depending on which fluid is selected.

MTL - showed metal particles while draining (may not be due to fluid) - cold weather 1-2 crunch - Warm maybe OK???
MTG - cold weather shifting issues - warm OK (works perfect in Florida)
OEM - just bad, period
TSB - so thin, gear roll over noise is experienced

Synchromesh, it's worth testing as some have had good results in their Getrag.

Fake, unless you have the ability to filter the drained MTL, discard it. Do not put those metal particles back in your transmission. It may only be initial wear metals, and nothing serious.
 
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JEWC_Motorsports

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Cat TO4 trans oil is a full synthetic 30w, why would you run that in our transmissions?
 

UnleashedBeast

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Cat TO4 trans oil is a full synthetic 30w, why would you run that in our transmissions?

Red Line MTL is in the SAE 30 grade viscosity range.

Amsoil MTG is in the SAE 40 grade viscosity range.

Synchromesh is also in the SAE 30 grade viscosity range.
 

UnleashedBeast

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One more thing we need to consider. When fluid heats up, so does the aluminum transmission case. Tolerances can change slightly to improve shifting and lubricant flow.

The cars here (Florida) with Amsoil MTG are notchy in colder weather the first few minutes, but after warm up...no more issues. At WOT with a warm transmission, it shifts smooth, fast, and like cutting warm butter.
 
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ZXMustang

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Just leave the fucking transmission alone. Fuk people. Drive it until it breaks, then take it to the dealer and let them deal with it. Case closed. So sick of this shit.
 

UnleashedBeast

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Just leave the fucking transmission alone. Fuk people. Drive it until it breaks, then take it to the dealer and let them deal with it. Case closed. So sick of this shit.

u_mad_bro1.gif
 

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