Fluids

Got a collection of various fluids together for the car.  These sorts of things you usually change out one at a time, but since every system is starting out dry, needed them all.

Conventional wisdom has it, you don’t use synthetic fluids in these old cars, and pretty much everything here is synthetic.  Hopefully since the seals in everything are new, they won’t have “grown accustomed” to dino juice, and develop leaks, which is one of the main reasons given not to switch.

I won’t need all of the above in the first fill, wanted to get plenty to handle any spillage, and leave some leftover for the first fluid change.

Here’s a description of the Camaro’s new juices, from left to right-

Power Steering Fluid

Went synthetic with the power steering fluid, because there is a real possibility, the system won’t be able to cope with autocross.  The later cars (3rd & 4th Gen, even C4 Corvettes) have trouble with boiled PS fluid in autocross settings.  I’m not allowed to run a cooler, or make any other mods to help the PS system out directly.  The PS lines run very close to the headers (which have been coated with the best stuff out there) but that’s another source of heat.  The Redline synthetic stuff is supposed to be able to handle much higher temps than regular fluids, and better resist foaming and other breakdowns.

Manual Transmission Fluid

Here, some people say to never go synthetic.  Big reason besides leaks, is how it doesn’t work with the synchros.  Transmission synchronizers need some amount of friction to generate their speeds, and if the fluid is too slippery, they won’t work right, and cause crunchy shifts and increased wear.  Also, some of the elements present in modern GL-5 fluids, can be harmful to the metals in the synchros, mainly brass.  The Redline 75W90NS is formulated to be a good manual transmission fluid – it lacks the friction modifying agent present in traditional limited-slip gear oils, helping synchros work, and it doesn’t contain the elements so harmful to the synchro metals.

Differential Fluid

This isn’t so bad a place to go synthetic.  If I was really worried about the limited slip not working well (as I was in the Viper) I’d run a “NS” fluid here, but I suspect the diff will work fine, and the 80W140 fluid has the friction modifying (reducing) elements to hopefully keep it from being a push monster in sweepers.  Redline makes some beefier stuff like the Shockproof, but I don’t think I’ll really be hitting the diff that hard with these street tires and a suspension setup almost the opposite of what you’d do in a drag car.

Brake Fluid

ATE Super Blue is a fluid I was very fond of back in my S2000 track days.  It held up well to the abuse of the track in a car that was a little bit under-braked from the factory.  For whatever reason, the best brake pedal firmness I ever had in that car, was with the Super Blue.  I would say brake feel too, but the S2000’s brake feel was never very good.  It was also a color (blue) unlike any other, making it easy to tell when it had fully made it in, and later back out, of the braking system.  They used to sell a golden color fluid to use in alternating flushes, but the basic parts-store stuff (Valvoline Synpower was one of the best) was usually clear-ish, a good enough contrast.

Engine Oil

LAT probably isn’t a name most people recognize.  It’s the acronym for LubeATech Racing Oils – a small but growing company supplying high-end racing oils.  This brand was recommended by my engine builder, and since it’d been so long since I talked to him, really had to wrack my brain trying to remember the name he’d given me. With the caveat there’s a lot of legend out there in the engine building crowd, the story I got, was that Mobil1 used to be decent, but that Mobil had started cheeping out on their synthetic base stocks and additives, and that this engine builder’s customers were seeing rapidly increased wear under racing conditions.  He’d been moving them to LAT for a while, and had  a couple good stories of how the oil had saved a few butts from expensive catastrophes.  This oil isn’t cheap, but as you might imagine, neither is building a stock-legal ’67 302, and I want to do everything I can to protect it.  These engines simply don’t have the oil control by themselves to live under racing-type conditions.

Water Wetter

Most racers know about Water Wetter – it has some chemical trickery to reduce surface tension and improve the water’s ability to cool the car.  I plan to run straight distilled water + Water Wetter in the car, since it won’t ever get anywhere cold enough to freeze, and this will help keep things coolest.  Plus if anything bad ever happens and there’s a leak, it isn’t slippery like coolant (which can be worse than oil!), so it help minimize cleanup.  I don’t anticipate general cooling problems in autocross, but it’s hard to say now.

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There’s a couple missing – one is the grease that goes into wheel bearings, U-joints, ball joints, and other places.  Have a good synthetic grease in the gun for that.  The other is the fluid the car needs the most of – gas!  Fortunately there’s a station just a few miles from me that carries street legal 100 octane, which this thing will need.  On the dyno it was tuned running a ~100 octane mix of 91 and ~110 low lead fuel.  Not sure if you can get leaded gas legal for the street at the pumps any more these days.  Since it is carbureted and cat-free, I possibly have some fuel options my competitors don’t.

First driving destination with the car will likely be to that local gas station.  Still a ways away from making that trip, but the day is coming closer!