anyone know what gearbox oil, you put in the gearbox of your v6 sure i seen somewhere it is a special grade due to a brass part in the box and the sulphur attacking it??
anyone know
Cheers in advance

I take it you mean for the manual gearbox, in the owners manual it recommends SAE 75W - 90, hope this helps.

cheers tiswas,
but can anyone confirm or deny the bit about the brass and the sulphur?

Gear oil with sulphur in it will attack the bronze synchro rings in the gearbag. It's probably easier to shove a pound of butter up a porcupines hole with a red hot knitting needle than find out which gear oils have or haven't got sulphur in them. Don't use API GL-5 gear oil, it's meant for differentials and almost certainly has sulphur in it. I'll try and find something suitable and report back.

Ed

[quote="ed"]It's probably easier to shove a pound of butter up a porcupines hole with a red hot knitting needle[/quote]

rofl

You need the specification GL-4 75w90, as ed says, don't use GL-5 as it'll mess your gearbox up by eating the brass/bronze components.

Had a look at Redlines' fully synthetic MT90 GL-4 75w90, and its £18 per litre, (approx, its measured in US quart -946ml)though it looks to be the best stuff.

Sure there's other stuff available, but I intend to keep my 323 for at least 5years (more like 10) so if I get top quality stuff now, it should pay dividends later on in life.

My owners manual (8G08-EE-94E) states API Service GL-4 or GL-5 (SAE 75W90)

Now, hopefully a bit more detail.

A lot of sulphur containing compounds will decompose under stressful conditions to form hydrogen sulphide (stink bomb smell) and a few other nasties. These will corrode copper and many copper containing compounds known as "yellow metals". This means your synchro rings are vulnerable as they're coated with/made from bronze.

Many sulphur containing compounds won't break down that easily so they would be relatively safe to use in gear oil. Extreme Pressure (EP) Gear oils are usually full of sulphur/phosphorous EP additives and should probably be avoided.

Ordinary dino juice (mineral oil) is full of sulphur so a proper synthetic gear oil is probably the best choice. Try and find an oil which specifically says it will prolong or extend synchroniser life.

After a quick look on the net I found Millers Motorsport CRX 75W90 Fully Synthetic and Esso Gear Oil TDL 75W-90 Fully Synthetic. I'm sure Mobil would do an all singing and dancing one aswell if you can find it.

This is probably only the tip of the iceberg for this issue. I'll follow this up with whatever I can find out.

Now, where's that porcupine...

Ed

What I should have also said, is that GL-5 can be used, but it must not contain sulphur, and looking at the Julian Bradbury site, only one GL-5 oil in this country does [i]not[/i] contain sulphur, which one that is, I don't know, it just seems simpler and safer to look for GL-4 rather than GL-5

[quote="Steve Zodiac & Robbie"]

Had a look at Redlines' fully synthetic MT90 GL-4 75w90, and its £18 per litre, (approx, its measured in US quart -946ml)though it looks to be the best stuff.
[/quote]

Yep, Redline looks good if you can get it.

Have a look at http://www.vtr.org/maintain/lubricants-redline.html and click on Gear Oil

Ed

[quote] ed
Yep, Redline looks good if you can get it.

Have a look at http://www.vtr.org/maintain/lubricants-redline.html and click on Gear Oil[/quote]

Ed
Top stuff there way above my head of course I just worry with how much is it and where can I get it

Here's where I found MT90, and how much it costs, no idea if you can get Redline from any shops?

[url]http://www.redlineoil.co.uk/first.htm[/url]

You can get Redline MT90 from MT Motorsport or Fluke Motorsport, and there must be others in the UK (Redline are American).