OK....I recently bought a Quaife from a private party & installed it
but it did not have any paperwork with it. It is new for my solo car.
Do I use gear oil 80w-90w or conventional 10w-40w? I know you
folks will know......Thanks!

 

The quaife doesn't require any special oil - so whatever you normally run in the transmission.

 

Use OEM Honda MTF

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Punkinterviews &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Use OEM Honda MTF</TD></TR></TABLE>



For track use absolutely do NOT use this stuff.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

For track use absolutely do NOT use this stuff.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Why do you say this?

 

I use 10-30 castrol GTX in mine. Works great.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Reid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Why do you say this?</TD></TR></TABLE>

It is well suited for street use. It is not well suited for high temp track (ab)use. It breaks down and shears very easily at elevated temperatures - best thing to do for your gearbox is use a good synthetic gear oil - mobil 1, castrol sytorq, synchromesh (not the cheap variety), motul (my choice), Neo, etc, etc. There are plenty of good options out there. If i were motivated, I'd even run a cooler on it. But I'm not, and changing it every 4-6 weekends seems good enough.

 

Jinx, strikes me this or a close related discussion comes up every few months on IT.com and the results are always a handful of guys that will never run anything BUT Honda MTF, a handful that will never run an engine oil, a handful that will never run a ATF, a handful that say you need to have x or y additive but mostly, its a bunch of people saying what a bunch of other people are successful with will destroy anyone elses transmission ;-)

I figured I'd play it safe (and this in not Quaife oriented but expensive transmission oriented) and just change what I run (happens to be Redline MTL) after every race weekend. Might sound rediculous but if I can help it, I'd prefer to never run a $505 per LAP race again :D Who knows, maybe I'll relax and start changing every other race weekend.

You might want to search/post on IT.com in the Honda forum too. IIRC, strikes me that a LOT of folks run the Honda MTF, Redline MTL and Motul Synthetic for racing purposes. I recall a few years ago when guys were specifically saying to run Honda MTF because Redline was the cause of broken shift forks .... (don't ask me, just bringing the message not authoring it).

 

I have always used Honda MTF in my racecar and street car. Never had a problem....

then, the one time I use Redline MTL in my j1 transmission, it blew up.

I just use honda MTF now.....

 

I have heard many rumors of Redline trashing synchros in honda transmissions, however I think this is just your usual internet bandwagoning. I am sure there are some gear oils out there (specifically those of the newer GL-5 variety) that do not play well with the brass synchro hubs, I just have not see any documented failures due to it.

Also, a lot of guys will try stuff like Redline MT-90 on the street, and complain that it is no good - its been my experience that MT-90 and some others just do not work well when cold and require some driving before the synchros are happy and the shifts are smooth. For street use, in my street-only driven hondas I've used nothing but the Honda MTF.

In my ITR last year I had some serious problems with the MTF - it would work great for 1 weekend, and thats it. By weekend 2 the trans would start to crunch and grind 15 minutes into a session. Not wanting to trash an expensive gearbox, I switched to Motul Gear 300 and had zero problems after that - I would go 5 or 6 weekends on the the fluid change and it was fine - I have a sample of new vs. 5 weekend old fluid sitting on my garage shelf waiting to be sent to blackstone labs for analysis. I'll get around to it eventually.

I would rather run a good 10w40 motor oil than the Honda MTF. The Honda stuff specs out as a 75w80 gear oil - its basically a 10w30 motor oil with some anti-wear additives mixed in - nothing special. It just doesnt take heat very well for track use. I'm not sure if it is perfectly acceptable for a lower powered or lower-revving car than an ITR - maybe repeated trips to 8800 rpm on track induce more wear/shear on the fluid? Or maybe its the torsen LSD that does it. Who knows.

 

jinx, give chang a call. he's got a quaife in his EF and i'm pretty sure he's using the redline MTL. 978-897-6649 chang also stocks all the redline fluids, so he can get you whatever you need.

nate

 

I would have to agree with RJ, I also run a quaife in my RR integra and i only use motul 300. You have to remember that Honda MTF is best used on street app. and not for track. If you don't want to replace your tranny and diff every month, do the research or call up the company whose diff you have and ask questions there too. Techs are there to help us race and stay on the track.

 

Currently I'm using Redline MTL in my GSR tranny (no LSD). Do you guys recommend switching to Motul 300 next time I need a change?