Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Mechanic
Lots of car companies use fluids other than gear lube in trannies. Chrysler used atf in it's manuals in the 1960s. BMW used mineral oil in the 70s, learned that one the hard way. A simple fluid change may give you the most benefit for the least cost.
Try some other fluid like atf, your driving conditions are most extreeme but not on tranny fluid. Is there any risk? Of course, but given your imposed limitations I would try that first.
regards
Mech
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That's a good way to destroy the transmission syncros.
Some transmissions are designed to run ATF, but if the trans is supposed to use 75/90 gear oil going with ATF will destroy the Blocker rings.
I'd go with a good synthetic gear oil and a contact
electrical heater a 12V one that you can just wire into the car's system.
Honestly though I think the transmission's temp is the least of your worries.
getting the motor oil and the engine block up to their operating temps is critical for best efficiency.
I'd fit an oil to coolant heat exchanger (one of those oil filter housing sandwich ones), wind some soft copper tubing around the exhaust manifold (or just a small spiral of stainless brake line inside the collector), an expansion tank (say one of those generic coolant overflow tanks) and an auxiliary coolant pump.
Sure, the pump adds electrical load, but that would build heat in the heads faster for better combustion. Everything would warm up faster thanks to the block heating up more evenly.
If you get one of the magnetic drive pumps they can run continuously with very low load on the electrical system.
The side benefit is the car cabin will warmup faster as well.