alienturtle
Human
Yeah i run a full gallon in there and do exactly as you stated. I just have to find some 50wt syn atf..
Oil change for ZF-5 Transmission
- Thread starter G. Mann
- Start date
Yeah i run a full gallon in there and do exactly as you stated. I just have to find some 50wt syn atf..
Diesel_brad
Dunce
Maybe that is why you are having rollover issues. The trans takes 6.8 quarts. not a gallon
alienturtle
Human
i just ran out and pulled the side fill bolt..oil came spilling out.. I put 4 qts of RL MTL in there and had to fill it from the top....no way you can fit 6.8 qts in that tranny....sure you dont mean 6.8 pints?
if i remember reading right 3.4 qts is where it spills out the side plug.. any more you must fill from the top..that is why i dump a full 4 qts in (1 gal)
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If having any trouble locating the stuff, Amsoil Makes a real good one , that's what I run, it's their CTL. Shouldn't have any trouble finding an agricultural dealer around there who handles it, but if you can't find anything, PM me.
There's no need to overfill the box with that stuff, it takes care of the rollover noise by itself, you don't need to overfill to dampen case noise
Diesel_brad
Dunce
no way you can fit 6.8 qts in that tranny....sure you dont mean 6.8 pints?
if i remember reading right 3.4 qts is where it spills out the side plug.. any more you must fill from the top..that is why i dump a full 4 qts in (1 gal)
Both of my sources say 6.8 quarts, and that is what i have in both of my ZFs, but i also fill mine from the top as well
gatorman21218
Registered User
Are you thinking of both the transmission AND the T-case?
Diesel_brad
Dunce
Nope.
Trans is 6.8 quarts and t-case is 2 quarts.
EDIT:
OK I am AN ASSS. trans takes 6.8 PINTS and t-case does take 2 quarts
alienturtle
Human
I knew you must of ment pints all along 
. I was trying to figure out how you got almost 2 gal of oil in that thing..
. I was trying to figure out how you got almost 2 gal of oil in that thing..
Diesel_brad
Dunce
I knew you must of ment pints all along
But i do have 6 QUARTS in my 96 and 97 ZFs. the 97 i get a slight smell of atf after driving. Guess i should drain it some
There are many many threads on this zf oil subject(we all know how these boards work and how we repeat ourselves over and over) and you always reply with this "detergents are bad for the synchros". You always state that as fact, but I have never heard an explanation or theory as to why this is? What exactly happens that makes it bad for the synchros? Did you pick this up from some other believable source or has a study been done on it?
If it's some sort of lubrication problem with the synchros, then it should be noticeable in how a detergent oil shifts compares to a non-detergent oil correct? Or is is some sort of chemical thing that eats the synchros up? I thought atf was full of detergents? It's a well known fact that atf poured into the engine oil will loosen up deposits in the engine to help lifters and other problems. I thought this was because of the high detergent content in the atf?
There are different types of additives in motor oil and gear oil then there are in ATF, and the manufacturers have posted many sheets on compatibility issues regarding synchros. I've been using and selling Amsoil for over 30 years now, I've been keeping up on this stuff for an insanely long time. Back when I first started selling synthetics, the norm for motor oils WAS straight weight non detergent. If you wanted a detergent oil, you had to purchase an HD oil ( HD meaning high detergent ) so motor oil interchanged with gearboxes redily and multigrades were just beginning.
The detergents/additives in motor oil are designed to be compatible with iron, steel, bronze, and a handful of other things found in engines, the ones found in ATF are a bit trickier, they have to be able to play nice with soft brass, and paper and all sorts of strange alloys certain plastics and composits while not being too slippery for wet clutches to grab and be able to resist foaming while being churned up. With all of the changes in the specs on motor oils, if you look at most of the medium duty and large truck transmissions out there that used to allow motor oil or spec it outright now call for some form of synthetic ATF as the proper spec for the fill ( same as ZF changed the spec on the ZF542 for diesels to a synthetic ATF as the proper fill from the original mish mash of options, but bear in mind, this wasn't a policy change for them, when they first built the thing synthetic ATF didn't grow on trees, and the available motor oil on the shelf was not yet experiencing compatibility issues When they change the additives in the oil to meet new specs for the newer engines, they become incompatible with older equipment in some cases)
And yes, trying to keep up with all this is a nightmare.
I appreciate your response, but you still didn't answer my question. If you don't know, that's ok. I was looking for something like "the synchros in the zf are made from *** alloy, and the engine oils with the br549 additive are not compatible with the *** alloy, and can cause them to disentegrate, and wear prematurely, etc."
Of course I have a vested interest in this subject, since I have been running 10w-30 motor oil in my zf for the past couple of years. I see Mel is still promoting his straight 30w oil, which is impossible to shift when cold. I am sure any type of gear oil would render the zf totally useless below 40 degrees F.
Of course I have a vested interest in this subject, since I have been running 10w-30 motor oil in my zf for the past couple of years. I see Mel is still promoting his straight 30w oil, which is impossible to shift when cold. I am sure any type of gear oil would render the zf totally useless below 40 degrees F.
I spent over 3 weeks researching the zf lube specs ,but I have better things to do with my brain cells than to sit around and remember specific alloys etc of every little detail after I've finally figured something out, and this is in top of over 30 years of researching various lube specs for assorted pieces of machinery. It would be humanly impossible to remember the last minute detail as to what specific alloy in which part doesn't like what in one oil and another. Some internet bench racers like to start throwing a lot of numbers around to confuse things but when you get the big picture togethr, the research has been done, and I dont' play the throw around the fancy numbers game to bench race and try and out do anyone.. I simply do the research and present the facts that are out there for anyone to find if they want to spend the time, I'm just saving them the time.
Mel is quite correct with the 30 wt non detergent. It works fine, that was an older standby to go thicker than the factory fill of dino ATF which is 20 wt. People seem to forget that these things are not luxury cars, they are trucks that are designed to pull heavy loads and were never supposed to shift like a toyota, especially when cold. The fact that you can put synthetics in them now and get them to shift so easily on a -30 deg morning is just a nice little benefit of progress marching on.
The modern equivelant conversion for the 30 wt motor oil would be to use 30 wt synthetic ATF which does shift better when cold than even the original dino 20 wt ATF, but 30 wt motor oil will shift fine after about a mile or so.
As far as any type of gear oil rendering the zf useless , that is far from true.gear oil is graded differently than motor oil and ATF . As it turns out 30 wt motor oil crosses right over to 85wt gear oil , and 50 wt synthetic atf crosses to 90 wt gear oil . ZF has a lubricant spec sheet that lists ATF, 30 wt non detergent motor oil, and gear oil in a few different multigrades with no extreme pressure additives as all acceptable tested lubes with synthetic ATF being the recomended lube for boxes used with diesels
Any other wt of synthetic ATF or non detergent motor oil or gear oil that falls within those boundries would be acceptable lubricants for that box as per ZF factory specs. THey have come out with a number of different lube spec sheets over the years that appear in different places, but any lube that , in quality is above the grade of the original spec will be considered acceptable.
Sorry I backed you in a corner. I think you wasted a lot of time typing that last reply. Yes, I am giving you a hard time about it.
This is a old thread someone was reading and liked. I clicked on the alert and it came up.
Did a lot of experimenting since 2011, it is now 2024, still have the same truck, and for past 10 years I have been running the Dexron VI in my zf. It is the best oil I have found for it, and what the factory specs for it now.
If you want to get rid of roll-over noise, increase your idle speed just a little bit, it will lessen the noise dramatically.
Did a lot of experimenting since 2011, it is now 2024, still have the same truck, and for past 10 years I have been running the Dexron VI in my zf. It is the best oil I have found for it, and what the factory specs for it now.
If you want to get rid of roll-over noise, increase your idle speed just a little bit, it will lessen the noise dramatically.
