hehe yeah an autocross car would be nice
Not that a week is going to make a difference at this stage of the game, but gear oil with that "regular gear oil smell" is the type of gear oil that you definitely DO NOT want to use in the trans.
The original spec from way back when was GL-1 gear oil, which was a basic oil with no additives harmful to various metals in the trans. It's too caveman so you don't find that on the shelf at you average chain auto parts store anymore. You will find it at NAPAs and the farm-oriented stores in the burbs and out in the country because I gather a lot of farm equipment still uses it.
Most folks on the forum would recommend that you use a modern synthetic non-GL5 gear oil. The favorite around here is Red Line...use MT-90 in hot climates or for heavy duty use like an autocross car; use MTL for all others. It ain't cheap, mail order is $12-15 per.
Ah, aha.
I think you have managed to describe the area I live in quite nicely.
I'm right in the middle of the USA in a very small town that is surrounded by farms.
It's such a small farm town that we don't even have a good farm supply store. Gotta drive about 12 miles just to find one of those. lol
Also, I think the Caveman you speak of is me, because I've spent the last 10 or 12 years almost entirely in my house.
So, since I'm mentally stuck somewhere back around 1996-1998, it's taking me some effort to fully understand what things like GL5 are since it's sort of like they haven't been invented yet.
Heck, when I went to get some brake fluid, I was quite disoriented when there were choices other than DOT3.
Honestly, I've gone outside of my house more times since I got this car than I normally would have in an entire year.
Literally, there have been buildings put up here in town in between the times I would go out.
Of course, that is one of the big reasons I got this car.
Because I *knew* that if I had one, I wouldn't be *able* to stay inside.
I knew it would draw me out, force me out. And in that regard, it has definitely paid off. lol
It has also forced me to become more social with strangers because I have to ask people questions things that I don't fully understand, which was sort of an unexpected bonus side effect
Anyway, I recognize some of the terms you used from some of my previous reading, like GL5 and MTL and MT 90, but I still don't fully understand what to do with them.
It's a bit of a mental block I guess. I can make it far enough to understand that redline is good and highly recommended, then something about ep being bad, and something about gl5 and something about synthetics, but I just can't seem to put it all together enough to really make since out of it. I'm missing some link to tie it all together or something.
I can give a bit of a rundown of what I can comprehend so far.
Castrol 20w50: this was listed on an xweb transmission page as useable and I can understand that it should be safe to use.
I've read many posts where people have said they've used it and had good results, enough that I felt confident that I could safely use it.
The only problem I have with Castrol 20w50 is that it still seems shocking to me that motor oil could cost over $2 a quart, but considering the other crazy prices I saw, it was actually one of the least shocking. lol
Uh yeah, like I said, mentally I don't really comprehend that "time has passed" since 1998 or so.
So for me, going to the grocery store is kind of like in the "Back to the future" series when they went forward in time and it was like $20,000 to buy a coke.
Anyway, probably the reason I can deal with "Castol 20w50" so much more easily is because it is SUCH a specific recommendation. I mean, it's right there on the shelf at walmart and there's no way to mistake it for anything else. It requires no learning and isn't really *new* to me, because as far as I can remember castrol has been around my whole life and 20w50 weight oil isn't anything new either.
Now, if it had just said "20w50 weight motor oil", well that would be a whole different story because that's not specific enough for me to be sure of anything.
Redline: everything I've read makes this sound great, so it's what I would *prefer* to use if I could afford it.
Although, I think I am probably actually missing something there because I've started to get the impression that I couldn't just buy by saying "gimme some redline." So it's like, just the brand name isn't it?
My only pricing reference has been from mentions of it's price in various posts. my impression is that it'd cost somewhere between $40 to $60 to put it in my transmission.
In the "grand scheme of things, that's a pretty darned small price to pay for "transmission insurance", but it's a matter of perspective.
For instance, a PO cut *all* of the brake hoses *and* the emergency brake cables. (all of the calipers were sitting in the passenger floorboard)
It seems the minimum price for those is around $14 each.
So, if you want to drive your car as soon as possible, do you buy brake hoses at $14 each, *or* do you spend around that much per quart of transmission oil?
Considering that filling the entire tranny with the castrol would probably cost around the price of *one* brake hose, and filling the tranny with redline would probably cost as much as the total of *all* of the the brake hoses...
Well, when it's a choice between what I want, and what I *have* to have, I'm having to prioritize things.
"What will get this car on the road soonest?" *has* to be my first priority at this point.
It probably sounds very short sighted, but you have to understand, that both money *and* tolerance are limited on this project.
In other words, if I don't get this car running as quickly as possible, *without* asking for much more money, then my funding will probably be "cut off".
I will explain my "budget" very quickly, because it's very easy.
When I got this car, "the powers that be" decided that I could start having a $40 "allowance".
$40 *a month* that is.
So like, I exceeded my "first month's allowance" in like, 2 days, just buying a couple of feet of FI rated fuel line and clamps.
and *Everything* I have bought since then has been *over budget*.
So yeah, I'm already pushing the tolerance limits of the people who control the money around here
Honestly, I'm at the point of asking on the FS&W forum if anybody like, upgraded their brake hoses and were going to throw away their old ones, because if I could have them for the cost of shipping, even old used hoses would be better than no hoses at all.
I managed to get some caliper rebuild kits for cheap, but I haven't even broken the news to the family yet what it's gonna cost for the hoses.
Anyway, not asking for anyone to feel sorry for me having such a limited budget or anything like that, just trying to explain the perspective that I'm having to approach the project from.
I mean, it's like, if bailing wire and electric tape could be used to fix something *for now* and will save $3, then that's gotta be the first choice because that $3 could be used for something else that's more important.
I know it's a heck of a shortsighted way to approach getting a car on the road, but if I lose funding before I get this sucker drivable, then there isn't going to be a fiat project anymore, and any sort of farsighted planning for the future would be completely wasted.
Or, in other words, thinking about the added benefits of the more expensive break lines with the flexible steel braiding on the outside would actually be counter productive on this project because I can't even afford rubber ones yet.
Nice brake lines, Super tranny oil, a paint job, new panels to replace rusty ones, etc, none of that will do this car any good if it's sent back to the junkyard because I couldn't ever get it on the road.
Anyway, back to my limited tranny oil knowledge.
MTL: to me, this sounds like a "brand name" like STP or something.
MT 90: I was thinking the old stinky gear oil was 90w oil. MT 90 sounds like the same thing in my brain.
EP: something that is bad for these transmissions, but I have no idea what does or doesn't have EP, how to know if something has EP in it, or what EP really even is.
GL1: something old. lol sorry I forgot the rest already. I think it was either the original kind of oil used, or the stinky oil. I don't even remember anything being called GL1 back in the days that I remember. Maybe they didn't call it that until there was a GL2? lol heck, I dunno. Like I said, my brain is having a real problem with this for some reason. I keep forgetting this stuff faster than I can learn it.
I do appreciate the suggestions though, I'm just sorry I can't fully understand them yet.
Oh, you mentioned those things in reference to what situations they worked best in.
Well, I can at least give a bit of a rundown of what/where the car would be used for and such.
Basically, It gets humid and hotter than heck here in the summer, and blistering cold in the winter. And I really do mean extremes of hot and cold. My wife is from Australia which is like, largely desert and half the time is apparently on fire, but she still can't believe how *hot* it gets here. And as far as cold goes, back when I did gas pipeline work, one of the days we were working around christmas the windchill hit -90. Weather here is just crazy.
The car won't be raced, but I must admit that when I used to drive fiats, I sort of always drove like I was in a race. lol
I was younger then though, didn't know I was mortal, etc. I honestly have no idea how I will drive these days because I haven't had like, my own car to drive since back before my brain was damaged over 10 years ago, and I'm not really completely the same person as I was back then, so I don't really have a frame of reference.
My goals are things like, being able to drive with my dog to the park so I can feed ducks and make him chase a ball and stuff. maybe learn how to fish again.
That park is like, 5 blocks from my house, so if the car breaks down before I get there, It's not going to be a big deal. Maybe take the dog to the fairgrounds sometimes, that's maybe 2 or 3 miles. Go to the grocery store and/or walmart, maybe 3 miles.
Really, 90% of what I want to be able to do with this car at the beginning will be within 3 to 5 miles from my house, mostly at 35 mph or less.
I suspect I might want to occasionally hit that 35 MPH far more quickly than I need to.
and
If the car seems reliable/safe enough, I would like to occasionally be able to drive to our neighboring town, which is somewhere between 9 and 12 miles. That's the only time I might want to go at a highway speeds and if the car didn't like going that fast, I could just take the old highway and get there in 24 minutes instead of 12.
So other than the weather extremes and the occasional lead footedness, my goals are pretty undemanding, simple goals.
Oh, also I'd like to be able to drive my wife around some places, instead of the dog. lol.
I just came up with goals based around the dog because he doesn't have any set sort of schedule either, and doesn't care whether it's 3 in the afternoon or 3 at night, if I am in the mood to go somewhere he is up for it as well.
The *ACTUAL* motivation behind the beginning of the project was to be able to go out in the world more often with my wife, but since she works all the time I came up with things I could do with the dog for practice.
Sort of like, start small, low pressure. lol
Anyway, yeah, it doesn't have to stand up to autocross stress, but will eventually need to be able to stand some extremes of hot and cold. right now it's still spring, so we keep bouncing from right around freezing, to up around 80. So the weather is sort of between extremes right now.
Ugh, Sorry I typed so much in response to such a simple post, but I sort of skimmed over *all* of the replies earlier and it's like my brain is trying to reply to everyone's comments at the same time.
Can't seem to seperate it out at the moment. Which just reminded me I was going to take my thyroid pill about 2 hours ago and should have been up to the anti seizure pills by this point.
No wonder I can't think straight. Sheesh.
In the future, I shall try to abbreviate myself more.
