Product Review: Red Line Synthetic Heavy ShockProof Gear Oil

[TurDz]

98 240sx
57k miles
well maintained
C's Shifter


I took the advice of some members here and changed my tranny oil to try to help the symptoms of wearing synchros (3rd gear). I decided to use Heavy ShockProof by Redline. I was convinced to use this by a member of FreshAlloy who posted how much it made a difference. I know many people use MT-90, but I wanted to give this a try.

ShockProof Gear oil is offered in three flavors: SuperLight, LightWeight, and Heavy. This is what Red Line claims about their heavy version:

"The Heavy can be rated as a 75-250 Gear Oil, but has lower internal fluid friction of an SAE 75W90 (btw, this is the viscosity of the MT-90 iirc)."

Lightweight: can be rated as a 75W140 oil, but has a lower internal fluid friction of an SAE 30 motor oil.

SuperLight: can be rated as a 75W90 oil, but has the lower internal fluid friction of an ATF.

I chose Heavy because I didn't like the characteristic viscosities of the lightweight and superlight at its extreme. I'm sure those would work out very well but I know I couldn't really go wrong with trying Heavy.

Observations
Consistency is very thick. Reminds me of condensed milk but in a bright/deep red color. This stuff really likes to slide off of a surface despite it's thickness.

Just by the feel and how it pours, I could already tell this was much thicker than any tarnny oil I've seen. It's really unique; very thick but when you rub it between your fingers, it's feels as if it was new 5w30 synthetic motor oil.

Installation
I used 2.4L or 5 1/8 pint. I didn't have the access to get the fill hole open. I just did my best to let all of the old oil drain (about 30min on an angled tilt since I had two jack stands on, then 30 min flat).

I used the shifter method to fill. Since I have a C's, removal is accomplished in about 5 minutes. Just four screws and four 5mm hex bolts and it's off. I poured less than 1/8 of a bottle to test how it poured and to clear out any gunk that might still be lingering along the drain hole.

After that, I made sure the drain plug was clean and reinstalled it to moderate hand tightness. I added ~2.4L of the Heavy ShockProof.

Test Drive

Before every test, I try to be as fair as possible. I try my best to put all of my preassumtions and hear-says aside. So I drive. First thing I notice, much less noise going from gear to gear. I always had a distinct sound whenever I shifted, but now it was nearly silent. This might sound like an exaggeration, but it was probably due to the fact that shifting from 1->2 and expecially 2->3 was noticably smoother. Reminded me of the stock shifter. I thought I could never get that feeling back, but stock shifts was the only thing that came to mind. Almost made me think I had longer throws again...

I keep driving. It seems that I was still breaking in the fluid (getting it into every possible crevice). It may be my imagination, but I felt that the shifts were continuing to improve in smoothness, but it's not a 100% good thing, since I noticed a loss of some mechanical feel. On the other hand, another plus though was the lesser amount of effort I needed to change gears. Compared to my old tranny oil....pretty drastic change. I made sure that these comparisions were as accurate as possibly by driving to warm the fluid and conciously observing how shifts felt with the old tranny oil.


Conclusion (Cliff Notes, haha)

[b]editlease read the long-term post review at the end of this thread...overall, this is not a good daily driver tranny fluid. It takes a certain amount of time for the fluid to heat up. If it is cold, it will cause some grinding or difficult shifting.[b]

I don't know the long-term effects of this fluid, but if you're planning on changing tranny oils, GET THIS oil. This stuff overall is amazing, and it's a great bang-for-the-buck maintainence job. Shifting is definately smoother. I've lost some of the original mechanical feel that I had with the C's short stroke shifter but it's a great tradeoff since it takes less effort going into each gear now. Almost makes it feel soft when I hit the end of a shift... very cushiony. That is not an exaggeration, going into each gear seems much more comforting in my eyes and gives me the feeling that I'm not doing any harm to my tranny. 3rd to 4th gear in particular is the one that has noticably gone softer.

I really hope this will fix my 3rd gear synchro problem. The problem usually happens when the car has been running long/hard for a while, so I will definately give an update with this stuff in the car. One reason why this oil may feel so great is my oil could have possibly been really messed up, or underfilled, or just old. The shavings that were on the magnet resembed an ice cave with those spikey icicles hanging down from the ceiling. Seemed pretty bad, but at the same time I felt that the old tranny oil really should have been replaced earlier.

for now... time to go drive again

[nightwalker]

70-250...yikes! how the hell is oil suppose to flow through the tranny?

[TurDz]

Originally Posted by nightwalker

70-250...yikes! how the hell is oil suppose to flow through the tranny?

quote of their claims:

"These ShockProof lubricants provide much greater viscosity in the thin layers between gear teeth, but have a very low internal fluid friction which means very little power loss from the protection achieved. ShockProof Gear Oil has a 40% lower coefficient of friction and 250% the load-carrying capactiy compared to conventional gear oils, which means that metal to metal contact is greatly reduced."

After test driving it a 2nd time tonight, I don't back off on any of my observations. None of them were overstatements, and I can confirm that they were correct.

Again...maybe my old tranny oil was just messed up, but who cares!

[ryan hagen]

i used light wieght, it fixed my 1-2 and 2-3 grinding, and the synchro seem to work better, at first with my b&m it ground every thing, now i just get a occasionaly 1-2 only. but now my bearing noise is coming back, i think i just need to change it again cause my tranney fluid had alot of shit in it when i changed, looked like it had never been done 155k, i bought the car at 152k. there was a huge chunk of shit on the magnet. i think i ll try the heavy weight this time

[TurDz]

so far so good. I've run it through various weather and conditions, auto-x, etc, and the fluid seems to be really helping. Getting into first seems to bit a bit more stiff (not as round when making that "L" shape) but going into third is much smoother and I haven't had one grind that I usually had before. I've tried to shift very fast and everything is still a-ok. Another update in about a month.

[ZK]

I think I may need to pick some of this stuff up... My gears have been grinding a bit. Thanks Chris.

[thx247]

I would like to hear how it works from the track. I'm always grinding 2nd to 3rd once the fluid gets hot. So far I've tried redline and M1. No joy.

[B96v6]

Is this the oil that looks like Pepto-Bismol? We run one version of the Redline Shockproof oil in our Riley & Scott Mk 3 LMP675 car at work, though i'm not sure which viscosity. I pulled the tranny apart last week to regear it for a race at Carolina Motorsports Park this coming weekend. The oil looked just like Pepto-Bismol (without the stink of regular gear oil). But this stuff is amazing. It adhears to every surface of the gears and dog rings. Whereas regular gear oil would come of like nothing in the parts washer, I had to scrub this oil off the tranny internals. Another cool characteristic of this oil is that when it gots hot, it breaks down and deposit sulfites onto the hot part. So, especially for you racers, you can inspect your transmission and see the "hot spots" since they will have a yellow goo deposited on them. But, this only happens at very high temperatures that a street tranny will probably never see.

Overall, I would certainly recommend Redline oils. I know they'll certainly be going in my tranny and differential as soon as I get them in my 240. :-)

B96v6

[andrave]

I use it too

[stinky_180]

Redline MT-90 helped my 260k mile tranny a lot

[TurDz]

I went to a certain extreme to try this stuff out and I'm pretty happy with it. I know it's a really thick fluid to begin with (pepto-bismo likel, but more red)I haven't been to the track yet but I'm really excited to try it out when I can. btw...haven't grinded from 2 to 3 yet...so far so good.

as you can tell I'm telling you all facts...no claims or anything. it may not help your car but has definately helped mine.

[evilimport]

I need to get some of that in my SR tranny, thanks for the write-up!

[B96v6]

Just checked what we use at work. It's the Shockproof Heavy fluid.

B96v6

[OptionZero]

save me some, i might need it in a few weeks

[Wei240]

when you shift from 2-3, did you shift at different rpms (hopefully it's safe driving/track for higher ones if you do), because that's what grinds on mine, lower rpm shifts are fine, it's the higher ones that goes crunch...

[thx247]

High rpm = 6000rpm+ on the track = grinds 2nd to 3rd.

[andrave]

its worth noting you actually will lose 5-10 hp on a dyno with the heavy shockproof. yeah, its that thick. but the extra protection is prolly worth it.

[TurDz]

Originally Posted by andrave

its worth noting you actually will lose 5-10 hp on a dyno with the heavy shockproof. yeah, its that thick. but the extra protection is prolly worth it.

don't really care about hp..

anyway, i've tried various RPMs...from 3k to redline..still good.

[Ritz S14]

Mod: C's Short shifter

I went to Vic Hubbards bought three quarts.. Lifted the car, drained the trans, refilled it. Drove it to Target.. I noticed it was a bit smoother and quieter, but it feelt felt slightly sluggish during hard acceleration. Next, I took it on the freeway, same observation.. smooth/quiet/a bit more sluggish. At 150K miles, the MTF looked pretty dirty/brown, with all kinds of shat on the magnetic drain plug.At least I know it has fresh MTF now, since I just bought the car a month ago.

[jy116]

my s14 [70k] tranny [on an auto s13] is grinding so bad it hurts me. I had it put onto my automatic s13 a few months ago. Only ~700 miles on the Valvoline Syntec 75w90 gear oil. I bled the clutch, checked trans oil level, and have been adjusting the MC piston length 'lock nut' on the clutch pedal [only helps a bit]. Grinds on hard accel [4k+ rpm] shifting into 2 and 3, and [here's the kicker] when Im in NEUTRAL, I clutch in and blip the gas and it grinds!? I noticed this when rev matching/downshifting then just tried it in NETUTRAL and it happened... >;(

Im considering your advice, but I hesitate because my oil is stil NEW... any ideas?

The only other thing I can imagine is that the pilot bearing is causing it somehow because the person who installed it said the s13 bearing from my s13 Nissan OEM clutch kit was not a perfect fit for the s14 tranny. It fit after grinding it... is it time for trans rebuild...!? Info/suggestions appreciated.

[sykikchimp]

Originally Posted by jy116

my s14 [70k] tranny [on an auto s13] is grinding so bad it hurts me. I had it put onto my automatic s13 a few months ago. Only ~700 miles on the Valvoline Syntec 75w90 gear oil. I bled the clutch, checked trans oil level, and have been adjusting the MC piston length 'lock nut' on the clutch pedal [only helps a bit]. Grinds on hard accel [4k+ rpm] shifting into 2 and 3, and [here's the kicker] when Im in NEUTRAL, I clutch in and blip the gas and it grinds!? I noticed this when rev matching/downshifting then just tried it in NETUTRAL and it happened... >;(

Im considering your advice, but I hesitate because my oil is stil NEW... any ideas?

The only other thing I can imagine is that the pilot bearing is causing it somehow because the person who installed it said the s13 bearing from my s13 Nissan OEM clutch kit was not a perfect fit for the s14 tranny. It fit after grinding it... is it time for trans rebuild...!? Info/suggestions appreciated.

S14 and s13 pilot bearings are definately different. Probably not the most intelligent thing to just grind down the s13 unit, and cram it in the s14 tranny....

[nrg]

SR20 tranny with c-shifter (knockoff)
I bought 3 bottles of mt90 from SP Engineering. Put 2.5L into my tranny. Drove the car around and the shifting feels the same. The oil I drained looked new too. Atleast I now know i have new oil in there.
I was trying to get rid of the bearing noise in 3rd and/or 4th gear. Or maybe that's normal?? O_O

[Ritz S14]

This may be OT. But for some reason when I do high rev shifts, I hear a "clunk" or a "dounk" sound when I release clutch and hit the gas... any ideas what this could be?

[TurDz]

I agree...if something has to be grinded to fit, especially in a precision fit unit such as a transmission...you're going to have problems. I really doubt changing your tranny oil will help at all if you're griding in neutral.

BTW, more updates on the new oil. It seems when the car is cold (before water temp gauge is halfway between hot and cold) shifting into first gear is harder than before. It's just a bit more stiff. Once I've been in the car for a few minutes, I have no problems.

The important thing is, 2nd->3rd shift is still very smooth...feels very soft and cushioned if the shift is done correctly. I've gone WOT a few minutes already and I seem to have no problems. I'll update again any problems arise.

[nrg]

TurDz. I have the same problem on my tranny. Hard shifts in the morning. I had this problem before the mt90 oil change. Maybe it's normal.

[TurDz]

I've had a problem with this tranny fluid in the last 3 weeks. If I'm not careful after a cold start (or a relatively cold start), 1st to 2nd will grind if you're not sure to be careful to shift. What I have to do to prevent grinding is clutch in, let the revs just drop, slowly shift into 2nd, and then clutch out w/ gas.

After about 5-10 minutes of city driving, there are no problems whatsoever. I believe this tranny fluid is thicker appropriate and I may change to just MT-90. I recommend this fluid for people who do a lot of heavy revving and work up the transmission to a hotter temeperature. Once the car has been running a while shifts are VERY smooth.

[Mr. Badlose]

Isn't the Heavy Shockproof GL5 based (meaning it eats brass syncros)

I heard something like that a while back so I use MT90.

[9524tee]

70-250...yikes! how the hell is oil suppose to flow through the tranny?
__________________
... it is thick yes , but it gets thinner when it heats up , unlike regular fluids , i run the shock proof also , its way thicker , but for some reason when it heats up it flows very well , actually better than thinner conventional fluid .

[Ritz S14]

^ it kinda doesn't.. gotta wait for it to warm up so it wont grind.

[TurDz]

Yeah, I have to agree that the fluid has to warm up for it to flow in the tranny. It only takes a few minutes but I have to make my final statement and say this gear oil is intended for very heavy racing.

thanks for all of those who have followed this thread and have given some input. I'm probably just gonna go good ol' MT-90 now.