98LSfromNJ

Read an interesting article that was of the opinion that if you change your entire drivetrain to synthetic fluids i.e. (oil, tranny, differential) your engine could potentially run forever......obviously exaggerated.

Thoughts and opinions? Anyone have this done already?

thanks
tkh

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

all lubricants, synthetic included, will degrade, you might end up going a LOOOONG time between service intervals, but you will eventually have to replace them. all of them. no exceptions.

using high end synthetics is a valid option provided you choose the right ones for your purposes but again, they will maybe reduce friction to a degree and last longer than conventional lubricants, but by no means are tehy going to work properly until the end of time.

gmacrae

Is the toyota T-IV trans fluid synthetic or mineral? I've never looked, but i guess if its mineral, and you found a completely compatible synthetic trans fluid you could prolong the life of the trans a bit... Anyone know of a trans fluid that would be an improvement to the toyota stuff?

skperformance

iTrader: (6)

Fluids are not equal by any means.
Do not get fooled by the term synthetic , they are no where created equal.
The off the shelf stuff is for marketing and profit margins , they will decrease ingredients instead of increasing retail prices to control costs. Higher end fluids increase price to maintain their niche following of die hards such as myself.
I use a french oil called Motul , it is hands down the best of any oil i have tried in 20 years.
It is in my engines and diffs , I keep the reguluar toyota tranny fluid as each manufacture uses different organic and metal compounds in a tranny which no universal can properly protect as well as a designate , or atleat least can or has been proven to me.

nthach

T-IV is mineral. A few people have used Valvoline MaxLife Dexron III or Castrol Import Universal with success, the Valvoline is Group III basestock while Castrol is unknown. Group III basestock is basically a highly refined, dewaxed and heavily hydrocracked petroleum oil that behaves like a real synthetic, save for polyolefin esters.

I refuse to run universal fluids in specialized applications like Toyota, Honda and Nissan trannies that call for non-Dexron fluids. Toyota T-IV and ATF-WS is the frictional standard for ECT-i and the lockup function for the torque converter to operate properly, while Honda ATF-Z1 has a ton of ZDDP to protect a shoddy tranny design. WS was used initially in the 2004 LS430 and Prius and is now in all new Toyota/Aisin trannies.

thomashill

I use Scheaffer oil with great results, used Sea Foam first in the trans, then flushed, recomend doing the same in crank case. Hard to find, do a search for it.

gmacrae

Great info - Cheers

I figured as much about the toyota fluid tho - highly specialized. I've always used it and cant complain. Funny you mention the honda stuff... my GF just picked up a 97 civic runabout. It needed a BIG service so i flushed/changed the fluid to castrol TQ DIII (aparently honda compatible) and it has made the trans behave quite nicely (was quite harsh beforehand)... The castrol website recommends Transmax E for the 90-97 LS400. Would be interesting to see a technical comparison between that and the T-IV stuff.