Transmission oil (again)

[John Cecil <jcecil@domain.elided>]

Hi all of you in the neverending quest for the perfect gear oil -
In the past I have been an advocate of RedLine 75W90NS synthetic in my '69
Spider, but in the interest of science I changed to dino oil - actually
EXXON 80W90. I had planned to change to Shell Spirax, but as I finished
tightening the filler plug in after the Spirax had been pumped in, I noticed
my copper crush gasket on the floor of the shop rather than where it should
have been. I then attempted to unscrew the drain plug and deftly plug up the
hole with a shop rag whilst slipping the washer on the drain plug and
rescrewing it back in. Didn't work too well as the plug slipped from my
fingers, fell into the oil drain receptacle and 2 qts. of extra virgin Shell
Spirax went down the drain. Fortunately I had the EXXON, which has identical
specs. to the Spirax and I repeated the process, this time without incident.
The results: Shifting is better than with the RedLine, no crunches at all
from 1-2 or 2-3 or anywhere else for that matter. The cost is $2.00 per qt.
rather than $7.00 - that alone is worth it if the shifts were only
equivalent. There's more, tho. I had convinced myself that even if shifting
was slightly inferior using RedLine, the were would be far less wear and
that alone would justify the cost. I don't even believe that to be true
either, as there was a fairly typical accumulation of iron particles on the
drain plug magnet. This in a transmission that was rebuilt completely less
than 10,000 miles ago.
The moral is: Just because it costs a whole lot more, a product may not only
be no better, it might actually be inferior.
Regards,
--John Cecil
<jcecil@domain.elided>

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