Okay, I'l take the most stupid question award. I am getting conflicting answers on this one. Is there seperate fluid for a 5 speed manual tranny or does it use the crankcase oil? I am getting ready to go to all synthetic fluids with the exception of the motor oil, it's just to expensive for as often as it gets changed out.

 

Yes your crank is seperate, it should hold around 3 gallons of DIESEL rated oil only and I belive your trans should take 2-3 quarts of 10-30 oil. Check the type first, im working off first gen requirements. But yes, its seperate definately.

 

An NV4500 in the '99 does not take motor oil. If you use the stock stuff, the Dodge required, you can get it from GM much cheaper, they also use the NV4500. I would check with some who are more into the oil sources on the board, but don't put motor oil in it.

 

Thanks for the quick replies. At this point I am way out a warranty and I don't want nothin with the dodge name on it. I have made it a point to as something wears out replace with the best after-market I can find. I look at Dodge the same as I do our Gov't, I'm in the military and love this country, but sometimes not so fond of the government. I love this truck but sometimes not so fond of Dodge. Tryin to be close to politicly correct here.

 

Here is some info that might help.


http://www.dodgeram.org/tech/transmi...v4500_spec.htm

Other Lube Oils for the NV4500

Joe Donnelly tested several brands of oil for the NV4500 and reported the results in TDR issue #??. He also posted tothe TDR Roundtable "The Castrol was best, flat out. Torco RTF was very close, and has the GL6 additive rating for those worried about gear wear. If the lube doesn't get hot, it is easier on the brass synchros. The Castrol and Torco were slow to heat up. It took several full power passes on the dyno to get them to 140 deg. Another popular lube came up to temperature with just one pass. That suggests to me that friction was higher with it, and its higher drag figures (taken in neutral gear, coasting down from 110 mph) supported that guess. However, to get another kind of answer I asked the possibly most learned pertroleum/lubricant engineer (degrees, certifications, etc.), Kevin Dinwiddie. He told me to use Castrol. He sells LE and could have recommended their LE607 (90 wt) or LE606 (80 wt?). Since he took his company out of the controversy, and therefore "doesn't have a dog in this fight" I felt his advice was well meant, and not self serving in any way."

The NV-4500 calls for an GL-4 oil. A GL-4 oil has about 1/2 the sulfur/phoshphorus anti wear additive as a GL-5 does. The LE 607 is a GL-5. NV Gear is asking for a lesser amount of sulfur/phoshphorus becasue of the possibility of the sulfur attacking the light metals in the transmission. Because yellow metals are primarily attacked at high temperatures, systhetic GL-5 oils may not pose a problem due to their lower operating temperatures. Many are using synthetic alternatives to the recommended Castrol oil, whether or not you should is a decision that you should based on your own research.

RedLine MT-90 GL-4 75-90 - recommended by some TDR members who claim it works well.

LE 607 SAE 90 has been used in this application for many years with no problems at all because of the buffer package that they use in the 607 product. It basicly keeps the sulfer in check and does not have an effect on the light metals. This is a quote from the back of the Technical Data Bulletin of the 607 "Use in differentials and transmissons (except those requiring non-ep pur mineral oil) in over-the-road and stop-n-go fleets and off highway equipment. Use in all heavily-loaded industrial enclosed gears. Especially appropriate for heavy donstruction equipment and farm machinery where service is severe. Should be used where drain periods may be longer than normal due to equipment being away from home terminals or difficult access. For use in worm gearboxes and in gearboxes that have bronze gears and thrust washers which require extreme pressure gear oil. Especially appropriate for bowl mills, pellet mills, rock and coal crushers, machine tool gearboxes, gear heads, soy bean oil extractors and other industrial applications.

Amsoil Series 2000 75W-90 - Many have reported success with with this oil. A few have reported that shifting was more difficult, most report improvements in the shifting.

 

The book says it holds (nominally) 8.0 pints - (4 quarts). I'd buy 4 qts.

Again, according to this DRM here, any good and readily available syn 75W-90 GL4 lube would work fine - Mobil1, Redline, Amsoil.

The 6 speeds call for lighter weight oil.

 

I am going through this now. I could not find castrol syntorque 75w-90 which I tried to find because DC wanted $21.75 a quart for OEM fluid. I could not find syntorque anywhere even finding 4 of the same kind of synthetic 75w-90 gear oil. so I ended up going to DC and spending $100 for nv4500 fluid, I may take it back if I end up finding castrol syntorque today before I fix my 5th gear. also transfer case is about a gallon or so of dexronII or dexron III automatic transmission fluid.

 

Penzoil Synchromesh is the same as the OEM fluid and is available at most Autozone stores. I just switched over to Redline MT-90, I am actually waiting for the trans to finish draining while I have lunch and then the MT-90 is going in.

John

 

Next time you can go to a GM dealer and get the same stuff cheaper.

 

I took back DC lube oil and bought amsoil 75-90w 100% synthectic $9 or so a bottle

 

i know that the 5speed in my 97 was factory filled with castrol syntorq ( it says it on the plastic tag on the fill plug)-NOT syntech-thats a motor oil. after researching recommendations and prices, i found out that my 97 HAS TO have a gl4 rated oil - even though gl5 is now the newer spec. it has something to do with the gl5 attacking the synchros and making them wear out prematurely. im not sure if you need a gl4 or gl5 but i'd recommend looking into it. either way, i run redline mt90 in my 5 speed (which is gl4) that i bought through a distributor that i found in pgh pa on the internet (website is www.myoilshop.com ) - i bought a case of it which is almost enough for like 3 changes for less money than i would have spent on the syntorq for 1 change. its been it for about 7- 10kmi and no probs so far.

 

FYI, www.standardtransmission.com sells Castrol Syntorq LT for $54 a gallon, plus shipping. It is my understanding, that this fluid is actually a 75W-85 GL-4 synthetic lube.

Redline Oil actually recommends using a 50/50 mix of their MT-90/MTL synthetic GL-4 manual transmission lube to get the desired viscosity, which I found works the best for me. I had Amsoil S2K in there, and it shifted terrible. If you read above what Barney posted about the differences in GL-4 lubes, additionally, a GL-4 also needs a certain coefficient of friction to operate the synchros properly, which the Redline has.

Mobil 1's 75W-90 GL-5 gear lube bottles specifically say on them NOT to use the stuff in manual transmissions. GL-5 lubes are designed for hypoid differential gears.

 

I think I'm going with royal purple all the way around just to make it easy. Can anybody tell if the weights are equivalent to these other brands listed.