RobY Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 (edited) After reading that wally world actually sources thier store brand stuff from some very reputible suppliers I have decided to give their gear oil a shot. Basicly Wally world motor oil is made by mobil and it is thier GRIII synthetic. Supertech Oil fileters are made by champion labs and are basicly identical to Mobil 1 and K&N filters at a fraction of the cost. Ect... The subaru extra-s that came with the car was pretty good but got stiff in colder weather. It was sometimes difficult to shift into 1st gear. But overall a very good oil. My tranny was dropped recently (not too long ago) for a clutch change at a subaru dealership and they put in some new oil so the oil wasent too old when I switched over providing a better basis for comparison. Im using Wally World brand 75w-90 GL5 Supertech Semi Synthetic Gear oil now. Walmart's source is actually Warren Distribution the manufacturers of MAG1 synthetic lubricants. The Spec is GL-5 and is also recommended for MT-1; MACK GO-J and SAE J2360 specifications. The most telling is the MACK GO-J specification as it is the only specification that qualifies a mack truck transmission to qualify for an extended drain intervals. A mack GO-J specified oil is tested to exceed a baseline of antispalling, anticorrosion, and antiwear characteristics in a Mack T-200 series transmission with engine loads exceeding 1500ft/lbs of torque in heavy haul conditions. This is a difficult specification to meet and MACK keeps a VERY short list (4 pages) of approved GO-J approved lubricants. Surprisingly NONE of the deemed "high performance 15 dollar a bottle, 5 percent increase in horsepower!, passed our own arbitrary test, some guy online said it was the bomb! oils" are on it. Here are some of the criteria. Mack Power Divider Snap Procedure Specifications: This procedure covers the Mack GO-J. Objective The objective is to evaluate the wear protection of a gear lubricant. Procedure fixture Mack truck tractor and trailer loaded to 98,000 lbs. are required to perform this procedure. Procedure parameters The Mack truck tractor and trailer are driven in a 100-foot diameter circle for 500 laps. Abnormal noise ("snapping", "popping", etc.) is noted and cams and wedges of power divider are rated for wear and distress. Procedure parts evaluated The cams and wedges are evaluated. Pass/fail criteria No "significant" distress present on parts and no "abnormal" noise during testing are the pass/fail criteria. High-Temperature Cyclic Durability Procedure (ASTM D5579) Specifications This procedure covers Mack GO-G, GO-H, GO-J, Objective The objective is to evaluate the thermal stability of gear oils by determining number of cycles to unsynchronized shift. Procedure fixture Mack synchronizer with new friction and reaction disks, oil heater, Mack T-2180 transmission, and electric motor are required to perform this procedure. Procedure parameters The high-low range synchronizer of a Mack T-2180 18-speed transmission is shifted through a 12-second cycle (6 seconds in low range, 6 seconds in high range) until an unsynchronized shift occurs. The shift pressure is held at 90 psi, the procedure lubricant temperature is controlled at 250°F, and the tail shaft speed is held at 750 rpm throughout the procedure. The countershafts speed ranges from 459 rpm to 1756 rpm during the shift. Procedure parts evaluated The clutch disks, shifter fork, and synchronizer ring are evaluated. Pass/fail criteria Number of cycles to failure greater than the average of the last five passing reference oil results is the pass/fail criterion. So far so good. It actually felt better than the factory fill. Its pretty cheap too. If you don't like it you can always drain it out 4 qts cost me under 20 bucks. Shifts are smooth. Actually a bit smoother than the extra-s. First gear is now slightly easier to shift into. There is less syncro "noise" (sometimes you can hear the syncros wind up when shifting from gear to gear). And overall shift effort has improved. I will keep you up to date as to the longetivity of the oil. Its had limited use on NASIOC but those that have tried it love it. Could be an un-found diamond in the rough and a viable alternative. Edited May 21, 2008 by RobY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impulse Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 hrmmm interesting... stuff that the dealer put in after replacing the synchro on 5th really sucks on the 1-2 shift, this stuff good during the first few cold shifts too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rao Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 The brand isn't nearly fancy enough to work in a Legacy I mean, can you even BUY it in Japan??? Rob IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR CAR YOU SHOULD NEVER DRIVE IT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
franklin Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Do they have it in the handy 5 gallon buckets like Subaru oil? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobY Posted May 21, 2008 Author Share Posted May 21, 2008 Unfortunately they only sell it in inconvenient 1 quart and 5 quart containers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobY Posted May 21, 2008 Author Share Posted May 21, 2008 hrmmm interesting... stuff that the dealer put in after replacing the synchro on 5th really sucks on the 1-2 shift, this stuff good during the first few cold shifts too? Not sure about cold shifts it hasent been too cold here in the last 3 weeks. But in the morning around 50 degrees F without any warmup, all my gears go in like butter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tubasteve Posted May 31, 2008 Share Posted May 31, 2008 still doing good with el cheapo? gotta change mine soon and I don't necessarily want 16qts extra lying around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mccorry Posted May 31, 2008 Share Posted May 31, 2008 Good post, RobY... looking forward to your findings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobY Posted May 31, 2008 Author Share Posted May 31, 2008 (edited) So far I'm finding that this stuff is excellent. Quite possibly significantly better than the factory fill. 1000 miles into it. No signs of degradation in shift quality. Gears go in like butter even REVERSE Will change the rear diff oil in future if all goes well possibly with 75w-140 full synthetic. Edited May 31, 2008 by RobY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOE_1985 Posted May 31, 2008 Share Posted May 31, 2008 i run that stuff in my 307,000 mile celica w58 trans, works a shit ton better than the coastal that was drained out of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobY Posted June 10, 2008 Author Share Posted June 10, 2008 UPDATE: Works GREAT when it is 100 degrees out. Shifts are very consistent. Little to no degradation in performance even with extended mixed driving. At the 2k mile mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrad Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 I was looking at this oil last night. Which color bottle were you using? There are 2 different ones in the grey bottle. One is synthetic and the other one is a blend. Then there was stuff in a blue bottle. I don think I saw anything that said NS on the bottle. I figured it was the stuff in the grey bottle, but didn't know which to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobY Posted June 10, 2008 Author Share Posted June 10, 2008 Grey Bottle 75w-90 Semi syn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
franklin Posted June 24, 2008 Share Posted June 24, 2008 Anyone try the full synthetic ? My hope would be for an easier time getting into reverse. If the Semi syn works , and rates this well , I figure the full syn would be even better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrad Posted June 24, 2008 Share Posted June 24, 2008 I put the blend in last week, front and rear. It goes into reverse better than the stock oil. I only have a little trouble about 20% of the time getting into reverse. I just put a perrin SS adapter on so we will see how well it shifts then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobY Posted June 26, 2008 Author Share Posted June 26, 2008 full syn only comes in 75w-140 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
franklin Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 ^^ thanks I found that out last night at Wally World. Then they did not have enough bottles of semi so I bought Castrol fluid at Pep Boys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazybummm Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Well if anyone cares, I picked up 3 quarts of this stuff and put in the front and rear diff of the 5EAT LGT, I figured at 4.50/qt, I might as well try it. The car feels smoother, although it could be just pyschological, I did drain/fill the tranny fluid with bg conditioner so it's shifting a bit smoother as well...I have about 31k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobY Posted July 26, 2008 Author Share Posted July 26, 2008 Good stuff. Still as smooth as ever... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2sexz32 Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 subscribed! very interested in the cold weather performance... i found the stock stuff to suck in freezing and below temps, to the point where i have to shift into 2nd then down to 1st to smooth out the synchros... i had to do that on my 90 z32 all the time cause the 1st gear synchro was pretty warn out... erick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goneskiian Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 The subaru extra-s that came with the car was pretty good but got stiff in colder weather. It was sometimes difficult to shift into 1st gear. But overall a very good oil. Did you buy your car used? Just curious because these cars don't come with the Extra-S from the factory. At least that's what I thought I read in the Extra-S thread. Keep us updated though as this stuff sounds good! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwiener2 Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 DOES NOT come with Extra-S from the factory I switched to Extra-S and I feel all the same benefits as described for the wally world stuff. Shifts 500 times better when COLD than the stock stuff as well. My Mods List (Updated 8/22/17) 2005 Outback FMT Running on Electrons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobY Posted August 24, 2008 Author Share Posted August 24, 2008 So far holding up great... no degradation in performance since change. Probably around 10k on it so far... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark-V Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 Just popping in bumping this thread. Last night I changed my transmission with WalMart Supertech 75w90 Semi Synthetic gear oil and boy did it make a difference in shifting! The overall shifting is smoother, the gears go in smoother and the synchros do their job faster. I really like it now! I don't know where Roby is from, but I'm up in New England so this winter will really show how it does in the cold. Plus at $4.something a quart, I couldn't go wrong! I'll chime in with any issues or status down the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeFromPA Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 Now I'm a little torn about this whole thing....I can go the el-cheapo route and get the stock crap out earlier...and I like Supertech. They make good, middle-range products for very little money. And if I don't like it, $20 to flush the original crap out of the trans and diff is kind of a plus.... But there's also AMSOIL 75w110 (which I don't think any Subaru owners have tried), about the same price as Extra-S. And then there's Extra-S....the tried and true. Hrmmmm... Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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