Castrol transmax HM vs maxlife

[Yourhomiematt]

Long time user of max life in all of my autos including a built 47RH, and our durangos 845RE. Looking to do a pan drop and filter change on my newly acquired 84 chevy c10 with a TH350, along with subsequent drain and fills to get all old fluid out. I love maxlife and it has been great(originally recommended by my Trans builder for the 47). Question is I'm seeing the Castrol transmax HM for roughly 10$ a gallon cheaper lately. I know it meets spec for the th350, but how does it compare to the maxlife overall?

 

[kschachn]

Where are you buying it that it’s $10 a gallon more for Maxlife? At Walmart here the Maxlife is about $1 more.

 

[Yourhomiematt]

Amazon and Napa. No local Walmart has maxlife in stock. 32ish for max and 20-22 for Castrol

 

[kschachn]

Weird, all of them do around here.

Well anyway the Transmax will work fine. Both are all “recommended for” but the Maxlife says it’s synthetic. Probably comes down to how often you change it out.

I like Maxlife I won’t lie. I use it in everything for which it’s recommended. If it were me I’d get it delivered from Walmart.com.

 

[RooflessVW]

I like Maxlife I won’t lie. I use it in everything for which it’s recommended. If it were me I’d get it delivered from Walmart.com.

Same.

But I did use the Castrol HM in my Trooper's PS. It was on the "cheap but not clearance" shelf at my local AZ.

 

[Slick3914]

The Castro is much thicker than Maxlife

 

[RooflessVW]

The Castro is much thicker than Maxlife

Dex III / T-IV vs Dex VI / T-WS

 

[kschachn]

The Castro is much thicker than Maxlife

What is the viscosity retention over time? Starting viscosity of an ATF is not meaningful without knowing how it is retained.

 

[kschachn]

Dex III / T-IV vs Dex VI / T-WS

Yes but DEXRON VI has better viscosity retention built into the license requirement.

 

[RooflessVW]

Yes but DEXRON VI has better viscosity retention built into the license requirement.

No doubt. I was just explaining the "why."

 

[Hall]

The Castro is much thicker than Maxlife

It smells a lot better though (not that Castrol is "pleasant" to smell !!).

 

[nthach]

MaxLife is an LV “universal” fluid using GIII base stocks. Castrol’s still using GII for Transmax HM/IMV, so it starts off as a high-viscosity fluid but it will shear down. MaxLife is more shear-stable. IMO, I like the shift feel of the Castrol mineral fluids better than MaxLife for T-IV. Toyota hasn’t back-speced WS for their T-IV/DIII applications, Ford hasn’t said Mercon-LV can be used as a drop-in replacement for Mercon-V. GM, Honda and Nissan all say their current “thin” fluids(Dex-VI, ATF DW-1, and Matic-S) can be used in their legacy units.

MaxLife is a fine choice for that TH350. Personally, if it’s gonna see abuse, I’d run Red Line, HPL or Allison TranSynd.