Differential fluid thoughts/recommendations...

Mike LeClair wrote:
There is plenty wrong with more if the more is only to pad the wallets of the geniuses who make us believe that we just gotta have it.

Mike

Are you trying to tell us you don't put Nitrogen in your tires? :B

I guess we all should have stuck with that group 24 battery and 13.6 volt converter and carpet and plugging in and..........

rjxj wrote:

DownTheAvenue wrote:

djgodden wrote:
I'm getting ready to put a new larger differential cover onto my TV differential

WHY?

You think you know more than the engineers who designed and built your truck? leave it alone and follow the manufacturers requirements regarding type of fluids and change intervals.

It's not doing less than or worse than as engineered, it's doing more for the life of the drive axle. More oil for cooling, longer change interval, temp probe port, magnet, drain plug. What's wrong with more?

Running below designed temps is not always a better thing... In order for the aftermarket cover manu's to claim that its better they would have to do as much testing as the OEM and I'd be willing to bet they don't have the funding or manpower to do that...

I'd run manufacturer's spec oil, anything else is an unknown. Probably not necessary but I don't think a larger cover that offers better cooling is a bad idea. Most people would be surprised how hot a dif can get, especially when towing heavy.

gbopp wrote:

Mike LeClair wrote:
There is plenty wrong with more if the more is only to pad the wallets of the geniuses who make us believe that we just gotta have it.

Mike

Are you trying to tell us you don't put Nitrogen in your tires? :B

:B Of course I do! Along with platinum muffler bearings and a triple chromed Johnson Rod I am getting close to 65MPG WHILE TOWING!!!

Mike

I highly recommend AMZ/OIL SevereGear 75-110 for towing applications. The pic below is at 65K. I changed to AMZ/OIL at 15K. Most of the miles were towing a combined 27-29K. The ring gear teeth still have machining marks. The fluid came out a golden brown.

I have an 08 Ram w/Cummins that I bought new. I changed all the fluids last year. The book calls for changing the front & rear axle fluid every 15k miles. At 15k,30k,45k,60k and on. I changed the front & rear at 30k along with the transfer case & transmission. About half of the 30k miles were towing a 5er. Just weighed it before leaving Florida a month ago and the gross weight was 13,500. There was very little metal on the rear magnet or bottom of pumpkin. But change every 15k miles seems a lot, so maybe a bigger cover to hold more fluid is a good idea. It called for and I used 75w90 synthetic in both front & rear. I have the limited slip differential and the book also says "limited slip additive is not required". I also changed the transfer case & manual transmission. Both called for ATF-4. I did not know until I changed the fluid that the standard transmission now uses automatic transmission fluid. Book calls for changing both at 60k miles, but since I was doing the pumpkins just decided to do it all.

Synthetic 75w-90 in the rear is OE. Some are using 75w-140 due to high temps.
75w-90 in the front.

YamaDooed wrote:

rjxj wrote:

DownTheAvenue wrote:

djgodden wrote:
I'm getting ready to put a new larger differential cover onto my TV differential

WHY?

You think you know more than the engineers who designed and built your truck? leave it alone and follow the manufacturers requirements regarding type of fluids and change intervals.

It's not doing less than or worse than as engineered, it's doing more for the life of the drive axle. More oil for cooling, longer change interval, temp probe port, magnet, drain plug. What's wrong with more?

Running below designed temps is not always a better thing... In order for the aftermarket cover manu's to claim that its better they would have to do as much testing as the OEM and I'd be willing to bet they don't have the funding or manpower to do that...

It's gears not an engine. If it could run at room temp all day it would be even better.
You all armchair engineers overthink this stuff too much. Take a look at all the OE diff covers that are now finned aluminum covers. Prolly just a gimmick thou.....
To the op, the big finned cover is not a necessity but it helps a bit when towing/hauling heavy.
I've used Amsoil in my diffs and 2 stoke oil in my Sno machines for years. Nothing wrong with Amsoil. Can't make the claim it's magic juice or anything but it appears to be quality stuff to me. I wouldn't lose sleep if I had another brand of oil though.
I mainly use it for some purposes because you can bulk order a bunch of fluids and actually beat the parts store prices for high $ synthetic lubes. If you're buying it off the shelf somewhere you'll pay as much or more than others like Mobil 1 royal purple etc.

Cummins12V98 wrote:
I highly recommend AMZ/OIL SevereGear 75-110 for towing applications. The pic below is at 65K. I changed to AMZ/OIL at 15K. Most of the miles were towing a combined 27-29K. The ring gear teeth still have machining marks. The fluid came out a golden brown.

Keeping my above post in mind, I changed diff oil in my 07 at about 15kmi to Amsoil 75-90. Changed it again at 100kmi. Same results as ^. Oil held viscosity and not much wear at all. Oil was still nice gold colored, not much metal on the magnet and r&p gears looked great.
Again I'm sure my truck would still be on the road if I used another brand as well.