Bill, I was thinking about tranny oils too, so it was timely. I keep hearing
from people who run motor oil in the gearbox, since the manual called for
that on the later cars. I replaced the tranny for this year's event, and I
tried Mobil 1 in the gearbox, mixed with Lucas oil stabilizer. I ran the
trans on Herman's dyno to assure it was working well before mounting it. The
1-2 shift started to get tight with heat, at least that's how it acted. I
chickened out and switched to 80W-140 Positraction rated gear oil, and that
seems to have fixed it (I had it around for our E-type).
Scrappy has a lip seal kit on the rear main, and it leaks at high rpm or
after shutting it off, like the scroll did. I first thought it was crankcase
pressure, but I have that pretty open now. Could it be the Mobil 1 is the
culprit? The exhaust is wrapped in header tape, so it makes a nice wick for
smoke effects.
So far the Mobil 1 15W-50 has been through some pretty rough conditions. Last
year we did a lot of desert runs on GR, and we ran a sustained 210-215f at 35
mph for over an hour (ambient was like 115). I tore it down afterwards and
there was no serious wear, although I did replace the rod bearings.
Steve & Janet Hedke
"Team Scrappy"
Great Race #45, 1957 Triumph TR3
britpac@aol.com
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