Need Oil Help - New Member

[rebelrick]

Just bought a 154,000 mile 85 Toyota x-tra cab 4x4 pick-up with auto transmission and wanted to do a complete oil change from front to back. What do you recommend ???
1.Front and rear axle chunk
2.Motor oil.. Not using oil now
3.Transmission. Calls for Dexron 2
4. transfer case
5. Any additives to any of the above
Thanks
Rick

 

[river_rat]

Top dollar? Amsoil or Redline all around.
Off the shelf?
1. Valvoline synthetic, Stalube.
2. Valvoline Maxlife synth, Pennzoil Platinum.
3. Not a clue...I don't even own an automatic.
4. I assum your tranfer case uses gear lube like mine? Then the same as the diffies.
5. No additives.
6. Durablend in the zerks. Don't forget the U-joints.

 

[tinmanSC]

Originally Posted By: river_rat
Top dollar? Amsoil or Redline all around.
Off the shelf?
1. Valvoline synthetic, Stalube.
2. Valvoline Maxlife synth, Pennzoil Platinum.
3. Not a clue...I don't even own an automatic.
4. I assum your tranfer case uses gear lube like mine? Then the same as the diffies.
5. No additives.
6. Durablend in the zerks. Don't forget the U-joints.


+1, except I would also recommend the regular non-synthetic fluids. Since you don't live in a cold climate, feel free to use the regular oils. You can certainly use synthetic, if you wish. But at this many miles, the gains will probably be so minimal as to be inconsequential. Dexron-III is available everywhere. Again, Valvoline makes a good one for higher mileage transmission but I have not heard a bad word about any of the other Dexron-III fluids. Dexron-III is the new Dexron-II fluid. It is backward compatible. These fluids have been around for a long time, everyone can make a good one.

 

[lewdwig]

I've had good results with Valvoline Maxlife ATF (and Mobil 1 ATF for more $).

 

[river_rat]

Originally Posted By: tinmanSC
+1, except I would also recommend the regular non-synthetic fluids.

Yeah, you can also feel good about non-synth. I use only synthetics everywhere (except a VW Bus where it leaks out) so I never think to recommend anything else. For conventional motor oil it's hard to beat Pennzoil in the yellow bottle (PYB on this forum)

Stalube I use comes in both. I used the CRC Stalube non-syn GL-4 (NAPA) in the above vehicle and it was the best shifing gear lube I ever used for that particular high mileage manual gearbox. I assume it would be excellent for your diffs too.

 

[blackdiamond]

I previously owned an 85 Toyota truck and now drive an 89 4Runner and here's what I would run.

5w30 Valvoline Maxlife in the engine. I've run several things and this is what I settled on. It's affordable and a good oil.

Factory recommended weight of synthetic blend gear oil in everything else. It's nearly the same price as conventional and should be just a bit better product.

Running synthetics is a complete waste since they would almost run without oil at all. I'd just run the same type of gear oil in everything you can to keep it simple for changing in the future.