To steer this thread a different way...
What is the best brand / type of oil/grease for the motor and the rear end differential?
I have seen hype for redline but then read about people saying it is too light and causes heat problems.
I've read about Mobile 1 some good some bad, Amsoil seems to rate higher but some dislike Amsoil as well.
Then still others say synthetic is a complete waste of money and does absolutely nothing which I disagree with totally, my father changed the rearend lube with some sort of off brand snake oil synthetic back in 1992 on the old 82 diesel suburban, he also put in synthetic tranny oil and synthetic crank oil and our mileage went from 16mpg up to 21mpg and that was with a 3speed auto and a 3.8 rearend! Oil does make a difference but the improvement is many times taken up by the increased cost of oil ah well.
Anyway
I am attempting to get my Dodge Ram 1500 crew cab w/ topper magnum 318 v8 to get the same mileage as my old 350 gas Suburban (which normally gets around 20-22mpg) The Dodge does not seem to respond to any ecomodding attempt, about the only thing that helps somewhat is filling the tires to the sidewall max of 50psi (I go to about 53psi and bounce) Driving 45mph very lightly on a long trip I once hit 18mpg but normally its stuck at 14.5
. Sadly my old beaters are falling apart so I will probably have to move into this dodge I am stuck with as a crafting vehicle, nice looking but bad mileage
Anyway at the moment I am putting in Amsoil 75w90 synthetic w/ moly and Vacclaisocryptene additive in the rearend (it calls for 90w145 which I cannot locate in Amsoil form at the moment) I am not worried as the truck is generally driven lightly and it is very rare that I pull a trailer though I do load up the back with crafts which are bulky but don't weigh much. So heat should not be an issue.
I am putting amsoil in the crank along with some crankcase moly Vacclaisocryptene additive (yeah, I got the stuff on clearance, its no longer made I think but I have read several dozen posts that it was the only one that worked at improving mpg and at $1.38 I can't do too much so long as it doesn't drop MPG)
So what types of oils for the rearend, crank and transmission do folks think would improve the mileage the most? I am not worried about the wear hype as long as it doesn't cause failure.
The tranny I am afraid to mess with as Dodge made their transmissions to be craptaskic and fail with any improper oil, I am uncertain if there is a synthetic oil for a dodge tranny that would work well but worth knowing for 50k miles from now when I get it changed again.
I also have a little Subaru 360 that I am attempting to fix up and I am curious what manual tranny oil would be the best for MPG, I am probably going to put in Amsoil synthetic and some gear moly since it is a dry clutch. I would consider Redline if it works better for MPG, especially for my fathers electric minivan since at 25mph I would assume lighter than normal oil wouldn't make much difference in wear.
Thank You
Ryan