'93 2600i 4x4 Resto/mild project

That MT-90 is awesomely smooth stuff. Great choices for both oils!!

But I can tell you...I've been using cheapo junk GL-5 on my GL-4 spec Mazda tranny...and its been doing fine. the synchros don't want to work for the first few miles when its really, really cold. But its fine other than that. But I also don't care about either of my Mazda transmissions. Hell, I think one of them is still full of water, leaves and bugs from sitting outside for years. I just dumped the water out, filled it with GL-5 and drove it. Drained the oil after a while and It was pretty gnarly. I think I even wrote home about it. Still works. (NOT daily driven)

I've heard that GL-5 is pretty "yellow metal safe" anymore. It was a huge issue back in the 90's.

I had a bad experience with mobil 1 75w-90 in a toyota tranny. It had a bearing whine that went away after the fluid change, and within 100 miles it went boom. That transaxle was on its last legs, not blaming the fluid, but it probably accelerated its death. Mobil states on their site that their gl-5 fluid isn't safe for yellow metals. Others may be different, I just decided to play it safe - because if I didn't I would worry about it every time I drove the truck. That, and I run mt-90 in the new transaxle in my corolla and I've been really happy with it.

Good to know these trannys are built tough though!

wow i might have to get some of the redline oil for my gearbox sounds like good stuff. when mine is cold it grinds a little but it works great when warm. everything on mine could stand replacing lol

Some of the better brands of synthetic GL-5 oils are also GL-5/MT-1 certified. Which are designed for non synchronized transmissions.

The cheaper GL-5 oils have ungodly amounts of corrosion modifiers and inhibitors to keep the additives of the GL-5 from eroding the bronze. I'm sure if the oil is used past its shortened life-cycle..The additives to counteract the other additives will all break down and make your transmission explode and bletch nasty, smelly oil vomit. And I'm perfectly fine with that.

So is this thing running/driving?

This truck is currently my daily driver. When it comes time to put it out of commission to work on it, I have a couple other vehicles...I just like this one a lot. It is notchy going into 2nd and 3rd gear, like if you try to shift quickly it will hang up or grind, but if you wait it will go in without much hassle. It's about 2 or 3 seconds before it will want to go into gear, going from 1 to 2 or 2 to 3. I have had good experiences with mt-90 so it was worth it to me to spend the extra $$$.

Quick update, from looking around it seems like this is the most raggedy truck around here, lots of cool stuff being done by other members!

MT-90 in the transmission and synthetic 75-90w in the rear differential has made a clear difference in shift smoothness and driveability, especially in cold weather. I took the visor off the truck, it is much quieter now at 50+. That thing made a huge amount of wind noise. If anyone is looking for one I'd part with it. Lund pn 12088. The newest addition to safety and driving confidence is the pair of 55w driving lights I added. $10 harbor freight special is the same light as Hella's economy line. I'll probably grab a couple 100w bulbs for better output but I like that they are street legal now. I made a couple quick brackets out of 2"x10"x1/8" steel, they are secured with one bolt thru the bottom of the bumper, valence, and bumper mount. The switch gets 12v from the cigarette lighter, which it uses to close a relay that feeds the lights straight from the battery.

A couple snaps








I also have a set of 4 Monroe OESpectrum light truck shocks on the way, I did some research and the oespectrum line is a new design and is backed by a lifetime warranty. Right now the back end wants to wander around on rough roads.

Cool, man! Looking good! Wish I had a 4X4. Could have used it the other day.

I remember the days when my fog/driving lights were brighter and better than my headlights...Bi-Xenon fixed that. Took my accessory lights off!

Far from the most raggedy truck on here man! .. lol... a lot of us don't show our daily beaters..I'll throw up some pics of my 4x4 and a 4x4 beater we built for a customer if you wanna see raggedy..lol.. btw.. its coming out nice man.. the 4x's are awesome for reliability..

Glad to know I'm not the only one trying to keep cool machines out of the crusher.

The shocks that arrived were monroe's sensa-tracs and judging by the boxes they'd been kicking around for a while. From what I've read they started calling their sensa-tracs OEspectrum, basically just a marketing relaunch. The old ones came out without argument. A couple still had some rebound dampening but the bump resistance was gone on all four. I also found the mystery once in a while clunk noise in the left front. The head had broken off the sway bar link bolt. The spacer was still there so it wasn't obvious until I looked carefully. I picked up a $2 3/8-16 6" bolt and used some bushings and cup washers my grandpa had on hand and was back in business.

It still rides like a truck but now is more comfortable, handles better, and is safer. If you guys are like me, you put off replacing shocks because you don't want to spend the money and time. These only cost me about $100 and two hours to replace, and I wasn't trying to go fast. Very happy with the improvement. I considered the KYB's but they were twice the price, and I wouldn't use the extra performance.

I scored a great deal on this fiberglass cap today.






I also got the lights painted, they were already starting to rust. I like them black better anyways. The cap just needs some weatherstrip. It has a top brake light and inside accessory light, which I'll wire up tomorrow. I've got three dogs and now they can ride in the truck. I do want to make some sort of dog riding area for the bed.