Rabbitman

I'm getting a new MGW shifter for my 2003 and will be doing the washer mod and oil change when the shifter gets here.
After reading up here about the different oils people are using I still haven't quite decided on which one yet, especialy since it is an Automatic trans fluid which seems strange to me but I know It's been used for years with manuals. Isn't the real reason for this just supposed to be for fuel mileage? What happens if a person would use something like Amsoil's MGL {manual gear lube} or the equivelant from other manufacturers in these newer vehicles? I've used MGL before in vehicles from the 80's with manuals and it really helped.
Then the main draw back then was that since it was a lot thinner viscosity it would sometimes leak when putting it in a high mileage vehicle with old seals. Now it looks like it's thicker than the fluids recomended for todays manuals.
I'm not going to take a chance on something like the Vette and will use what is recomended but it's hard for me to get my head wrapped around these thin fluids being adequate for manuals.
I know there a lot of people here that have been driving these things for a long time with all kinds of mods and race them and know from experience what works and what doesn't and of course GM says that's what to use.
I guess what I'm getting to is if somebody back in the 60's said that they were going to use Trans Fluid in their Muncie 4 spd people would have said {why not just put 3 in one oil in it if you want something thin}.
I've never had one of these 6 speeds apart and probably never will but I can't believe there is really anything drasticly that much different in them compared to older vehicles other than more gears and of course some newer materials they might be made from. I'd just like to know how we can use something this thin now and would have been ridiculed if it was tried back then.
But you can be sure I am not going to try to second guess GM's engineers. We did enough of that along time ago in our {BUBBLE GUM} era didn't we?

Bill Curlee

LOL!! The T-56 was designed to use ATF. Plain and simple. If you run a thick gear lube oil, your SYNCHROS and BLOCKER RINGS would most likely not function properly.

I've found the best fluid (IMHO) is the AMSOIL Products. They have something called TORQUE DRIVE and it is compatible with ALL C5 T-56 gear boxes.

http://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-produc...?code=ATD1G-EA

Bill Curlee

Here is a great post on what's inside your T-56!! ENJOY!

- C5 ragtopws6, T-56 Build (what's in my tranny?) :

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/nort...-smoother.html

nsogiba

@Bill Curlee, thanks for all your helpful driveline posts the last couple days.

Rabbitman

I ordered the Amsoil torque drive last night. I really like Amsoil products, I just wish they were more readily available in this area but their stuff has always amazed me.
We use their 100-1 2 stroke oil for our 2 strokes here in the Park Service and when they told me they run 100-1 mix I thought {Man that isn't near enough oil} but those weed-whackers run all day long wide open in the Summer and we have NEVER in the 13 years I've been there had an engine problem, and that goes for the Stihl chain saws too.
I always brag their stuff up when I can because I do believe it's the best and really isn't that much more expensive if any.
I guess one of the reasons we can use such thinner oils today is because lubricants are so much better now than they used to be, I guess I just answered one of my own questions.
It's just hard for some of us older types to accept some of these new changes with products when all of a sudden they are totaly different from something that has been accepted or required for so long.
I'm 68 and would love to be able to tell my deceased Uncle that you use Automatic trans fluid in Manuals now when in the old days you had to use something so thick it was almost impossible to get it out of the bottle. And to top it off, you don't see things leak much if any at all either. Another testament to better seal material now.