I changed the oil to RedLine MT90 last month since gear changes were getting notchy. Smooth once again at 150,000 km and nothing to report on the drain plug regarding scary debris.

 

I didn't like MT-90 at all in the S2 trans I have on the other car. It my least favorite in fact. Surprised you went with that much vis. change, esp living in the Great White North.

 

I figured since others have experimented I might as well learn something personally through experience instead of complete reliance on others. Pretty benign switch/test easily rectified in an afternoon for well under $100.

 

Went to 45+k approx. on this fill, was getting notchy near the end. A lot longer than I would use any MT oil, I usually dump at 30k or less. This is the stuff I drained for the picture of the magnet above.

Fresh MT-LV brought back the same smoothness as before. It's thin, but man, it works.

 

thanks for the update, I was resistant initially myself but the results over time are hard to argue against
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My foray into the use of Redline MT90 has been a failure. Smooth shifts lasted about two months. I bought some Amsoil gear oil to try next since it was time to buy a case of Saber premix and it was easy to add into the order. Someone here recommended it. I’ll let yous all know how the experiment goes.

 

Suggest you stop messing about and try the oil that is the subject of this thread next.

 

Nah, where’s the fun in that eh? It’s better to annoy the OCD crowd. Besides, there’s been some people offering up alternatives so I figured I’d volunteer to sample a few then offer my most esteemed opinion.

 

Hello again people.
My little experiment with the Amsoil was less than satisfactory. I switched over to the Redline MTLV on Monday having proved to myself it’s the most bestest gear oil. The Amsoil was slow to shift when the oil was cool. The MTLV was smooth even this morning from start up with temperature at -12° C (10°F for those stuck in the Middle Ages).

I’ll stop messing about now.

 

Interesting to hear that. Never tried Amsoil's manual trans fluid in Mazda's before, but I had tried their trans fluid before and had good results.

I have Redline MTL in my Speed3 right now. Occasionally I would have a little bit of an issue getting into 1st, but otherwise, I don't have any complaints. It is an FWD car though, so that's going to be different compared to RWD cars.

 

Amsoil works fine for my 2011 tacoma in 4 deg F weather. The only reason people are finding MTLV smooth at lower temps because it is specifically designed for that, it's objectively worse for a performance transmission when you use the car as intended. If you daily drive your car, sure use MTLV, just swap it out before you do any summer performance driving. I prefer the amsoil for my tacoma because the pour bag is significantly easier to use over the traditional plastic jug and pump. Currently have the ford motorcraft in the 8, best transmission oil I have found for this car, have not tried the amsoil in the 8 yet.

 

here we go again …
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What have you found with the lower viscosity oil at higher ambient temperatures? Does shifting/synchos work differently (grinding or slow shifting)? For me the Motorcraft was great during the summer months then not so much. As always I worry about damaging a now 14 year old car. With every time drained there has been no metallic debris in the oil. And I’ve gone through a lot of gear oil the past year in my experiments.

 

I've never tried the MTLV, it didn't exist when I had my first 8, and all the options back then were kind of meh, redline mt90 back then was touted as the one to get, but never felt great since I daily drove that car even in the winter. My current 8 is only summer driven now, and spends the majority of its life at autox or track. If I were to daily drive mine year round I would try the MTLV, and next service interval I am going to try the MTLV in my tacoma since I kept one of the amsoil bags so I can fill it up with whatever I want. The worse part about the motorcraft is the cost, the amsoil is even significantly cheaper which is bizarre given the brand reputation between the two product lines.

My autox events do back to back runs, typically 8 in the morning and 8 in the evening, it's not uncommon to do 18 runs between 8am-3pm at my events, and the participants are capped out at 60, so your car has little chance to cool down once you are actually doing your runs. Mass tuning trackdays also like to do 30minute run sessions which is likely pretty taxing for most vehicles.

It's pretty clear from the datasheets where these oils work best.

https://www.thebestoil.com/wp-conten...G2077-1-19.pdf

https://www.redlineoil.com/Content/f..._INFO_2023.pdf

 

Hmm, so the MTLV is like a straight 75 viscosity grade gear oil? That might be something to consider in the summer months.

BTW, your AutoX is way more intense than the ones I participated in before. Those ran for 7 sessions a day if we were lucky, and we didn't normally get 60 cars in.

 

MTLV in the summer works fantastically. In Arizona, the last 2 summers daily driving 120 plus temps. Shift quality better hot than cold even in those temps. It’s not designed as a cold weather fluid.
In fact my view has changed after using it for almost 100k miles in 2 different cars, and getting a uoa done: If I was a racer, I would give it a try.
If not that then Gear 300v.

 

SparklingFresca - thanks for the links and getting my brain started again.

Kevink0000 - appreciate you sharing the 2 years experience in hot weather reducing my concern about summer time usage.

 

Update : just remembered I have this oil in Bluey since beginning of this thread and have taken it to two drag racing events recently. Didn't even remember that I used to have a problem as gearchanges were faultless.

 

Update again: Getting close to 30k miles on this fill of MTLV in an S1 box with 253k miles on it. Going to change at 30k and see if any degradation. Feels like new at this mileage. Even in AZ summer daily driving.

 

Kevin, whats your thoughts on using this mix in Louisiana? MT-90 doing good but always looking to improve.

 

In my area, we have almost 100 degree temperature swings from winter to summer. I was driving yesterday in 117 degree temps, and the car sits outside in mid 20s temps in the winter. For anyone in North America, who is not road racing, MTLV is a great choice. For racing maybe something more robust.I don’t like mixing. There are plenty of oils to try if you are targeting viscosity.

 

Ther has been mentionings of various gearbox oils in this post making 'hypoy' or gearbox oil smells in the cabin of the car whilst driving. I recently put some highly regarded (in the UK) Millers Oils 'Motosport gear oil CRX 75W90 NT+' in my RX-8 gearbox and the fumes it gave off got to the point of worrying 'WTF is going on, is my gearbox going to fail'

It is an API GL-4 and GL-5 rated.

I soon removed it and put back in it what I took out (Unknown oil put in by previous owner) and the smell has gone.

My question is does Red Line MT-LV produce fumes that are smellable in the cabin of the car?

I can deduce from this post that is a good oil for lubrication purposes, but I cannot do with having to smell putrid hypoy oil smells every time I drive the car - and it is my daily drive...

 

Nothing should smell regardless of oil choice, the gearbox is sealed. If it smells, there's oil somewhere outside the gearbox. Did you fill it through the side holes as designed or through the shifter hole?

 

did you fill it through the shifter of the trans? possible you spilled some?

i used what brh used to sell but dont remember the exact name and its no longer on their site

 

No, I removed both plugs in the side of the gearbox, drained the 'old' oil out into a clean drain tray and luckily kept it. Put the lower drain plug back in, done it up tight and refiled the gearbox through the top 'filler hole' using a syringe with the correct amount of oil specified in the manual and refitted the upper fill plug.
Note: the only thing that I may have done wrong was just put the specified amount of oil in it and not put oil into it until it trickles out of the fill hole indicating the gearbox would have it's 'correct' amount of oil in.

Do certain oils 'vent' fumes when under load or in use in transmissions?

Anyway, will Red Line MT-LV when used give out a 'aroma'?