For what it's worth, I dropped my oil pan last winter to check the
bearings after a full year of running Redline in Peyote. I was amazed at
how few wear marks there were. Of course there was the usual junk on the
bearings, but no smears and no wear. I checked all the clearances and
stuck my new bearing set back on the shelf. I looked at the trust bearings
too and they were fine. I attribute part of this to my new discipline of
always selecting neutral and letting out the clutch whenever the car is
running and standing, rather than ever holding the clutch in for
protracted times.
Part of it might also be the bearings--I got some good lead-based ones
from a friend. But part of it is probably the oil. As with any synthetic,
I'm always glad to see the condition of the oil when I change it--it looks
like you could stick it back in, and you probably could.
I'm also running a new Cambridge Motorsports dog box transmission with
Redline oil in the case. Slick ain't the half of it. I'm playing with
leaving the clutch alone on upshifts, just a little lift. Especially cool
for third to fourth.
The lip seal kits seem to leak a bit no matter what. I think next time I
assemble the engine I'll try a tighter spring pressure. It would also be
nice to have an uncut seal.
-----Original Message-----
From: BRITPAC@aol.com [mailto:BRITPAC@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2003 8:52 AM
To: Bill Babcock
Cc: fot@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Oils
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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