Best weight oil for 93 Civic VX engine/tranny for Ecomodding ???
 

The vehicle was acquired in Dec of 2010 and is in need of an engine & tranny oil change. ( engine oil was changed by corner car lot at time of purchase and was the cheapest grade they had... and tranny oil was changed ? ).
I understand I can use the same oil of both...
What is the best ( safest ) weight/viscosity oil to use for these two with ecomodding in mind ?
Not sure if brand really matters as long as it's fully synthetic...
Read on the forum about 0W10 & 20, but not quite sure and wanted to run it by you folks who have been doing this much longer than I with solid results.
Looking forward to the responses so I can get this done asap !
Thanks Guys !
Douglas

I have researched the tranny oil thing a lot. The slight difference in MPG from one to the next will be erased if the tranny fails due to the wrong lubricant. I settled on using the Honda recommended Honda brand manual transmission oil. If you look at other forums, this just seems to be the safest choice. The owners manual says regular motor oil may be used temporarily if need be, but to put the Honda brand fluid in at the first opportunity.

I use Mobil1 5-20 cause I can get it at Wally World for 23.50 for a 5 qt jug.

BTW Fram oil filters are crap, I get Purolator golds at Kmart, NAPA filters are the same as Purolators for 2 bucks more. They are very good filters for the best price.

if the motor is solid and gets good oil pressure, 0w30 mobil 1 will do.

I agree with Honda tranny fluid. We're assuming it's a standard tranny?

Find out the original spec engine oil for your Civic and start there. My '97 is spec'd for 5W-30 but yours is an earlier generation. If it burns or leaks using whatever it was spec'd for, try something a bit heavier.

Remember the upper number in the oil weight is the only one that counts once its warmed up.

Yup, it has the standard 5-speed tranny.
Doesn't burn or leak oil. Has about 175k on the clock...

HONDA Civic manual recommends : Engine - API "Energy conserving II" 5w-30
Tranny - 5 speed - API "SF or SG" and then use a bar chart based on temperature of climate - I live on the East coast of Central FL...

I am interested in the 0W-30 as I believe it will be less friction in the motor & thus maybe eek out a bit of mpg's in my favor - just don't want to do it at the expense of my motor/tranny failing !

I would typically just use the manufacturers recommended, but I see so many people on this site recommending lower viscosity oils that it has my attention ! :-)

similar question to the original post here: i'm sticking with the stock engine oil but want to try synthetic in the trans. i believe i saw one member on this forum mention using 0w-30 synthetic in their VX trans and were happy with it but wanted to confirm that. i ask because i know that many older, pre-synthetic transmissions will only tolerate synthetic gear oils that are classified as 'NS,' which means 'means no friction modifiers,' but i don't know if that classification or one similar applies to synthetic engine oils.

I would be strict with gearbox oil, with manual wrong oil choise can make shifting hard or even kill syncros rather quickly.

I was told by a very retuible Honda trans guru. Regular motor oil is fine the new Honda stuff is to thin or use amsoil those are it he said.

Half and half
 

When I changed out my transmission fluid last time I only had one quart of Honda manual transmission fluid in the garage at the time, so I mixed mine with 0W-30 motor oil. Seems to work just fine.

0w20, unless your oil light goes on when idleing.

personally with those miles I'd stick with the stock weight oil. I had friends with this car and they seem to need plugs every 15 k or so for best mileage so try that if you need to. made quite a difference.

i was asking about manual trans oil. i'm not positive but i don't believe the vx has a trans oil pressure light.

also, i personally wouldn't take a chance running such light engine oil that the oil light may come on at idle. insufficient engine lubrication can create costly engine repairs that would offset any minimal gains in fuel economy. once i finish my input shaft bearing and get this vx on the road, i will stick with stock 5w-30 engine oil but i will be running 5w-30 synthetic engine oil in the trans.

Ive had good success with using one quart of synchromesh and two quarts of oil.

10w40 in my 1993 CX manual trnasmission
 

I followed a forum member's experience and experimented with Royal Purple 5w30. It seemed to work well in my 1998 DX transmission. When I swapped to the 1993 CX transmission, I stuck with the 5w30. Shifting was harder, and I at first thought maybe I had not been so lucky and got a transmission that, while operative, had chunkier shifting quality than my stock. I was wrong. I put 10w40 synthetic in yesterday and it's like a new transmission, as good or better than the DX was. And that's why I swapped to a 93K mile transmission anyway (in addition to hoped for FE and cruising speed benefits from the fifth gen CX gearing).

I'm in a little disbelief at the difference.