New Owner - Few Questions

[Guest SDKFZ111]

Try emailing  < info@redlineoil.co.uk >  for local stockists.

 

KB

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[Alex-Corsa]

Stick to the manual. Good quality plain gear oil in the tranny, and gear oil plus moly in the bevel drive.

 

 

Yep that's what my manual says, to add 20grams of Moly type A additive.

HPLS is also a specially designed addittive from Motorex for this job.

[Guest Nogbad]

With regard to shockproof heavy, this isn't an oil available in the UK and I am not familiar with it, but beware of very high EP ratings. EP properties are to prevent oil film rupture at slow speeds and heavy shear loads.

 

If you imagine a fast moving bearing ball rolling around its track, the oil has to be mobile enough to be readily displaced by the ball. If it isn't, the balls tend to skid, instead of rolling, which is NOT what you want to avoid wear. Another consideration is that a thinner more mobile oil gives better removal of heat and less generation of heat.

 

There is a lot of talk on here of looking for power increases of 2+ bhp. Thick oil absorbs more power and you lose it as heat in the tranny. Hence, there could be a very good design reason for using a thinner bevel box oil and beefing up the gear tooth protection with moly.

 

Gearboxes tend to fail because the bearings fail, and ball bearings like thin oil. Any kind of rolling element bearing prefers thin oil and the higher the shaft speed, the thinner the oil needs to be to keep the bearing working properly with minimal slip between the track speed and the ball speed.

 

Motto: The right oil - not snake oil!

 

Also in the case of the V11 6 speed tranny the gears are all straight cut, and straight cut gears have lower shear forces than spiral cut gears and are not so oil sensitive.

[Baldini]

... shockproof heavy, this isn't an oil available in the UK and I am not familiar with it, but beware of very high EP ratings.....

 

It's available sure enough - I just put it in gearbox & bevel box. Red Line say it's fine for Guzzi but then I guess they would. I know nothing about workings of oil so all I see is there's two viewpoints here - some say it works great. I read the threads on this last year - I thought I'd give it a go. But hell it sure is thick from the bottle ...I don't want to upset any of me bearings .... Red Line say "...can be rated as a 75W250 Gear oil but has the lower internal fluid friction of an SAE75W90"...so does low internal fluid friction = low viscosity = no ball bearing skidding? Or should I best not concern myself with these things (after all, I failed my physics O level twice) ... & just drain the lot out & replace with what the book says?

 

KB

[Guest ratchethack]

Keith, this is just my opinion (based on my own focused research on trans lube and over 20 years of continuous personal experience with Redline products in a variety of vehicles), but may I humbly suggest: Don't give your transmision or bevel drive lube another thought for at least a few years or 50K, whichever comes first. Then simply consider whether or not changing out your lube could be an option that might be worth your effort - if for no other justifiable reason than peace of mind. Better living through chemistry. Ride. Smile. Ride more. Smile more.

 

FWIW, I claim no deep level of expertise on oils. I'm not an engineer, and I happily defer to the expertise of all those on the Forum who have either direct experience with synthetic lubricant formulation and/or advanced degrees in Engineering and/or Chemical Engineering. I did, however, pass College Physics with good grades on my way to a degree in Biochemistry. Physics was actually my favorite of all science disciplines.

[Guest Ken Bruce]

Keith, this is just my opinion (based on my own focused research on trans lube and over 20 years of continuous personal experience with Redline products in a variety of vehicles), but may I humbly suggest:  Don't give your transmision or bevel drive lube another thought for at least a few years or 50K, whichever comes first.  Then simply consider whether or not changing out your lube could be an option that might be worth your effort - if for no other justifiable reason than peace of mind.  Better living through chemistry.  Ride.  Smile.   Ride more.  Smile more.    

 

FWIW, I claim no deep level of expertise on oils.  I'm not an engineer, and I happily defer to the expertise of all those on the Forum who have either direct experience with synthetic lubricant formulation and/or advanced degrees in Engineering and/or Chemical Engineering.  I did, however, pass College Physics with good grades on my way to a degree in Biochemistry.   Physics was actually my favorite of all science disciplines.

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This is a tough subject and i state my bias in advance - working for an oil major... our friend (Nogbad?) has it right from my understanding... high speed \ medium load - you need something that flows easily throughout the temp range so it covers the vital surfaces constantly - as you'll all know split grades like 75w80 mean it ACTS thin when its cold and thick when its hot.. you need a strong oil surface film i.e. it sticks without breakthrough under friction and pressure... and film strentgh and load handling are a balancing act - and very importantly it must dissapates heat etc. hot casings tell you it working well getting the heat away.. heat effects the life of the base oil and additive packs. On colour - colour change is good. its doing its job keeping rubbish in suspension not letting it drop out.. ....adding additives not expected to be added by the chemist who made up the formulation is (only in my humble opinion) courting outcomes not forseen by the products creators..?

gear oils go through an amazing battery of tests in the labs to get approvals.

heavy gear oils don't sound like a logical solution to a bike diff? high speed \ medium load - low speed high load..? quite different tasks

gear oils are well known technology - there's no magic here. the industries big brand additive packs are well formulated. Lets get this in balance - its a high speed gearbox and diff not a MACK truck transmission... that's high load - different environments.

one other thought... very long life products are really designed around very heavy plant and labour intensive machinery when downtime costs serious money. They're not optimised for lightweight uses like bikes...

and as with all things.. accept or reject but its great conversation... well that was a rant wasn't it!

[big J]

Justa couple of questions on some of the points you made.The oil should get warm in a transmission,agreed,but if it gets too hot does it not start to break down,causing more friction/heat?If the Redline mentioned before keeps temperature down,presumably by reducing friction,isnt it working better? If particles are held in suspension,doesnt that mean that they are being transported through the gears and bearings continuously,causing more wear? Wouldnt it be better if they dropped out of suspension? The gears in my 38 ton off road truck box arent that much bigger than the pinion in my V11 diff, they are small to rotate at relatively high speed to minimise torque loadings. I'm no oil expert, just my