gearbox oil?

[mrflibbles]

just a quick question, how much oil does a bellett/florian gearbox hold and what type of oil do you guys recommend for it (what rating gera oil)?

[PR91]

originally they used a straight sae30 oil. believe it or not, this is now found as 4 stroke lawn mower engine oil!
personally, i use 70/80 gear oil. as these boxes are now over 40 years old, the extra weight oil helps them shift better, and the oils of years ago are nothing like those of today.
brand wise, i swear by penrite stuff.
get hold of a 1.5 litre bottle, and u'll have some left over.
hope this helps.

[mrflibbles]

thanks for the info!
was leaning towars the 70/80 as that is easy for me to get, just wanted to confirm it!
thanks for your help!

[Farmer]

Sorry, slow to check this thread. I don't like to disagree with you Brett - MUCH experience! But in my experience, when I have bought 2nd hand Belletts I have invariably drained the gear oil out & put in fresh SAE 30 (yep Honda 4 stroke engine). This has eliminated the notchy/crunchiness particularly when cold as the Synchros can spin up faster. Betty has this oil in & has had all summer, & has one of the better 'boxes I've owned. Perhaps it's all different in race conditions with extra heat?
If you want to try "in the middle", there is a 40/70 performance Engine oil available. I'm going to try this in our '93 Camry as it has a very crunchy 3rd most of the time, but when we went to Sydney a few days ago it was as good as new after 4 hours of constant running & very warm.
Might help, can't hurt! (Book says 75/90)
Hope this helps. Cheers, Matt.

[JT191]

I have many years experience with the later five speed gearboxes in the RWD Piazza and FWD Geminis. And apparently a better level of literacy than the service technicians at the dealership, because I can read the shop manual and they apparently can't. When the Piazza was new, it came back from warranty service with gear oil in the transmission. It took a little under 600 miles of highway driving in the summer before it lost first, second, third, and fifth gears, and fourth gear remained only because it is 1:1 direct drive.

The transmissions that are supposed to use SAE30 are designed for it and don't survive very long on gear oil. It's probably one of the reasons they manage to squeeze more performance out of lower powered engines than many other manufacturers (140 HP Piazza matches 0-60 and quarter mile performance of 188 HP Mitsubishi Starion)

[JT191]

I picked up a little information on this topic yesterday.

At a lull in the work at course setup for Sunday's race, a younger driver was telling a story about getting transmission oil on his hands and gloves and how long it took to get the terrible smell off both.
An older driver chimed in saying he is a chemical engineer and that much of his work was adding that terrible smell to natural gas so that people can tell if there is a leak.
The explanation for the smell of gear oil was that a certain smelly ingredient was required to handle the high force between the tip of one gear tooth as it wipes against the flat of the gear tooth it is pressed against.
I asked him to clarify the difference between transmissions that use motor oil and those that use gear oil, and he said that the ones using motor oil do not experience that high force between the gear teeth and do not need the smelly additive in the gear oil.
So the transmissions using motor oil have less internal pressure and friction between the teeth.

[yellowperil]

Very interesting information there JT191. Thanks for posting it.
I have always wondered why the Bellett Gearbox takes engine oil and thought it very strange.

[Farmer]

Yeah, Thanks JT. It's nice to have a reason for things that are unusual. I've always run straight 30 oil in my 'boxes with no deterioration in their operation whilst I've owned them. *Bonus* - If you get it on your hands, there's no stink!
Cheers.

[oz_toffa]

I have just recieved from Germany a Bellett service sheet showing all the maintenance points of the vehicle and the correct Lubricant according to Caltex.

2.2 liter SAE 30 of 40

Diesel Bellett is 2.0 liter SAE 30

Chevron guide says

Engine
boven 27C SAE 20W/40 , 40
32C ot 0C SAE 20W/40, 10W/30 , 30
15C to -12C SAE 20W/40, 10W/30 , 20W/20
Onder to -7C SAE 10W/30 , 10W

Gearbox
boven 4C SAE 40
21c ot -7C SAE 30
Onder 15C SAE 20w/20 of 10W/20

Hope your german is as good as mine

OZ

[RobSA]

Thank you gentlemen off to the shop tomorrow for some gearbox oil SAE 30 or 40

Cheers
Rob

[Glenn]

sort of off topic but what oil do most owners put in the engine ? not a rebuilt one.

glenn

[Farmer]

Glenn, I'm running Gulf Western 25W60 (Aus made & cheap!) in both Doris (original fit 90,000miles 3-bearing) and Aunty Mary (Florian 1600 alloy head - 100,000+ miles) under advice of a car club mate who builds historic race engines.
Doris uses about 1lt/2,000 mile, Mary has just had a change after 5,000 mile (8,000km) of regular use and had used less than 1/2 lt. (Her valve guides & seals were replaced before I put her back on the road.)

Cheers, Matt.

[GerryBellettGT]

Glen,I was using GTX2 20w-50,did an oil change last month,supers had Valvoline engine armour,
Syn blend 15w-40,6Lt $20. which Valvoline recomend,so have givin it a go,at that price change often
Gearbox using Penrite sae75w-80 Syn fortified,no problems but small leak rear seal over the month,I know my Dad always said oil,grease,filters,and water cheap maintenance Gerry