Atf drain interval with redline d4 and amsoil

[Jetmekanic]

I know both of these atf's are well regarded. I would like to know your opinions and experiences with them, but also what drain interval should be used with each one. I am using it in a vehicle requiring dexron 3 and would probably prefer the one I can run the longest, unless there's evidence one protects better, which I doubt anyone has. As far as I can tell Redline says nothing about how long they recommend running the d4, but Amsoil at least says you can double an extreme service interval.

 

[86cutlass307]

I ran Redline D4 when I was driving my Cutlass daily, I lived in Florida and Texas, traveled alot of highway miles, and didn't abuse the drivetrain. If your vehicle has proper cooling, and the transmission is in good shape, there is no reason why you couldn't go 3-4 years before a drain and refill. It really depends on condition of the drivetrain and the daily use.

 

[Krieg]

What does your Owner's Manual state?

 

[Oro_O]

It really depends on condition of the drivetrain and the daily use.

+1.

Also climate matters a lot - average temps and humidity. There is no one-size-fits-all answer.

Between Redline and Amsoil - no difference in interval, they are very similar. I'm getting ready to drop some synthetic RP in a dexIII older gm transmission this week and contemplating the same thing - what is a good interval going forward with that vs. the "regular" dexIII. So I'm not being snarky but just pointing out there's no simple answer.

For a more specific answer, in my case the transmission has 25k on it since a rebuild and clean fill of 9/10 qts fresh DexIII. My plan WAS to drain/fill it with 3/4 qts of DexIII, but now I have gallons of RP and I am thinking I would d/f it with that and let it go 40k before the next d/f. Just a general plan and will change it as i see how it performs.

In all reality, I live in a very mild climate (PNW), and put very few miles on the vehicle annually. I may very well be in my late 70s or 80 before I put 40k more miles on it. In which case I will probably say "whatever" and skip that next ATF change...

 

[Kira]

What car, what year, which transmission?
What criteria did you use to decide to service it now?
"Amsoil at least says you can double an extreme service interval", sounds ridiculously vague and sweeping.

 

[sloinker]

I'm not a long interval person when it comes to transmissions regardless of the brand/type used. Nowadays many transmissions are "lifetime" fluids. That means 50k miles to me. I don't know what car you have but I have heard and witnessed a few multi thousand dollar horror stories and thus actually shortened some intervals. I like Red Line for AT fluid.

 

[Jetmekanic]

What does your Owner's Manual state?

The owner's manual only says to inspect the fluid ever 30k miles. I have been replacing it every 30k miles.

 

[Jetmekanic]

What car, what year, which transmission?
What criteria did you use to decide to service it now?
"Amsoil at least says you can double an extreme service interval", sounds ridiculously vague and sweeping.

It's a mid 2000's subaru with a 4eat. And I agree that the claim by amsoil is vague and sweeping. Though the owners manual for the vehicle is also rather vague. It just says to inspect the atf every 30k miles, so I've chosen to replace it at that interval. I would also consider "severe service" intervals to be half as long, though the owners manual does not go into what it considers to be a "severe service" interval.

 

[Jetmekanic]

I'm not a long interval person when it comes to transmissions regardless of the brand/type used. Nowadays many transmissions are "lifetime" fluids. That means 50k miles to me. I don't know what car you have but I have heard and witnessed a few multi thousand dollar horror stories and thus actually shortened some intervals. I like Red Line for AT fluid.

I am not a long interval person for any fluids, though I would like to know what intervals they should be capable of. I think it's obvious that changing a fluid early isn't going to hurt, it could only help by not taking a chance of running it longer than it should have been l.

 

[SoNic67]

I am using it in a vehicle requiring dexron 3

Redline D4 is great.
AMSOIL has normal viscosity fluids, but you didn't say which one you selected, careful not to use the LV one.
The oil changing interval should remain the same. IMO you don't use those fluids to extend the intervals, but to protect better the transmission in that interval.
Since not all of the oil gets drained during a drain/refill, I usually do three back-to-back (100-200 miles between them), to flush as much as possible of the old fluid.

 

[ofelas]

Redline D4 is great.
AMSOIL has normal viscosity fluids, but you didn't say which one you selected, careful not to use the LV one.

Dex3 tends to shear down quite easily in short order.

Dex6/modern LV fluids seem to stay in grade far better.

As far as Amsoil goes, I played around briefly with their SS LV fluid (ATL), while fine tuning one of my converter's stall speed requirements.

Hot line pressure at WOT, was practically identical to the regular visc Amsoil SS ATF, which is what I generally use.

I did try Redline C+ a couple years back on a different vehicle, and though the specs seem to indicate better cold weather performance, I find Amsoil SS ATF (regular visc) & Mopar ATF+4 both allow OD operation a fair bit earlier.

 

[SoNic67]

Dex6/modern LV fluids seem to stay in grade far better.

So they stay at the level of "already sheared" since new. That's nice...
I had used good normal viscosity fluids (like Castrol), with 30-50k miles intervals, and they don't "shear" between changes.

Hot line pressure at WOT, was practically identical to regular visc Amsoil SS ATF.

You are lucky that the transmission pump still makes enough pressure. The integral pressure regulator might keep that pressure nominal for now. But it doesn't tell the story of how much reserve you have with LV versus the normal viscosity. Older vehicles might not be that great and IMO you don't want to make their life harder.

 

[ofelas]

So they stay at the level of "already sheared" since new. That's nice...
I had used good normal viscosity fluids (like Castrol), with 30-50k miles intervals, and they don't "shear" between changes.

You are lucky that the transmission pump still makes enough pressure. The integral pressure regulator might keep that pressure nominal for now. But it doesn't tell the story of how much reserve you have with LV versus the normal viscosity. Older vehicles might not be that great and IMO you don't want to make their life harder.

You’re missing my point.

I’ve sheared Dex 3 down to around 5cst with rowdy gasser engines in about 3000 miles.

And down to around 4cst feeding 2000+ lb-ft through diesel trans in a couple pulls.

The “pre-sheared” LV SS ATL stayed in grade (about 6cst or so if I recall) on the same puller.

I’m merely comparing Dex-3 to a modern LV fluid, without going into the merits of a well formulated high quality fluid of regular visc.

My blueprinted and purpose built transmission pumps are beyond the scope of this discussion ;-)

 

[SoNic67]

I understand that, but why don't you compare with a modern non-LV fluid, as specified by transmission?
Like Redline D4, or AMSOIL that is not labeled "energy-efficient".
Why keep suggesting LVs like they are the only synthetic alternative?

Also, if your transmission is used for track pulls, doesn't mean that the rest of transmissions will destroy the conventional fluid like that. I am talking about normal cars here. I had Ford Explorer, Mercury Sable that were OK with their transmission fluids when used as commuter cars. The Explorer had a factory additional transm cooler.

 

[ofelas]

I understand that, but why don't you compare with a modern non-LV fluid, as specified by transmission?
Like Redline D4, or AMSOIL that is not labeled "energy-efficient".
Why keep suggesting LVs like they are the only synthetic alternative?

Also, if your transmission is used for track pulls, doesn't mean that the rest of transmissions will destroy the conventional fluid like that. I am talking about normal cars here. I had Ford Explorer, Mercury Sable that were OK with their transmission fluids when used as commuter cars. The Explorer had a factory additional transm cooler.

Again, you're missing the point; I'm neither suggesting nor knocking LV fluids.

I merely responded to your earlier blanket statement "those Low Viscosity fluids are the wrong kind for your vehicle and might accelerate de demise of your transmission."

If the OP went by transmission specifications - Dex3 has been superseded by the backwards compatible Dex6 - which, despite being a LV fluid, seems to maintain a higher grade than Dex3 over time, even in stock transmissions used for light duty.

Just so you realize we may even be on the same page, I'm a "normal viscosity" syn thickie ;-)

Jetmekanic - I've used Amsoil SS ATF & Schaeffer's SAT ATF for 50k mile fills on street vehicles (after an initial pan drop/filter change at 3-5k miles to get rid of fresh rebuilds' clutch fuzzies.)

 

[khittner1]

No science to my reply to OP, but I go 50K miles between ATF D&Fs using Amsoil SS fluid. I may be wasting money on unneeded changes, or I could be prematurely destroying my transmissions---dunno. But my Toyotas' transmissions haven't been opened for anything, other than filter/"screen" replacements, in 180K and 305K miles, and they perform as new.

 

[blufeb95]

From what I've been able to ascertain Redline D4 should be mostly PAO even more so that Allison TES-295 approved transmission fluids that are more like 50/50 PAO and hydrotreated crude, it should be much more stable than cheap group II dex/merc.

 

[Jetmekanic]

So I emailed Redline and they was able to get a response after a few days. They recommended 40-50k miles for a drain interval. I have some of the d4 so I will use this for my fluid change coming up and will likely run it for 30k like usual, though I am comfortable knowing that it is capable of going quite a bit longer. I may use the amsoil ss multi vehicle fluid in the future.
The reason I'm using these fluids is to see if they give any little improvements to the shifting of my old transmission (which was likely abused by previous owner). Also I trust both of these companies to make a quality fluid to provide better than average protection.
Thanks for your replies, I'm always interested in the opinions of people here on bitog.

 

[RobPaul]

Is it worse to use a thinner viscosity atf if your fluid pump is putting out less pressure or should I stick with a fluid with similar viscosity to dex 3 I have a 2001 silverado with the 4l60e 126000 miles?

 

[Marcozi]

Stick with the Redline lube. It makes the the best lubes IMHO.