R180/T5 lubricants

[I8AV8]

Hi - i have just picked up a 510 and want to know what the best lubricant to use in the R180 is (welded carrier) what weight, brand and type if applicable.

Also, the car has a T5 - the OEM recommends Dexron 2 - has anyone tried synthetic Dexron2 or anything else with positive results?

thanks!

[kthomas]

Dexron-3/Mercon. Fascinating tranny the T-5, using ATF. Is this an IT car???

First, get rid of the welded diff. Then ask again when you can tell us what kind of limited slip diff you get. Meantime, any GL-4 or better in a 75/90 weight will work, but I'm sorta partial to Redline Lightweight Shockproof with additives depending on the LSD.

[I8AV8]

The car has been re-classified as "IT/GT" i'm in Canada and the rules are a little different when you only have 4 or 5 guys to race with. we run IT1 through 3 and if you don't fit there, then you go to IT/GT. the car is more like and old GT4 car and is vintage legal.

thanks for the advice with Dex3. i even found a free service manual for the T5 on www.carfiche.com there are also some good old Z-car and 510 books there as well. The high cost of a Quaife will force me to keep the welded diff. do you think there is a performance gain to running an LSD over the 'NSD' - or is it reliability based?

thanks again!

[kthomas]

Canada, cool (no pun intended). I'll be near Montreal skiiing on Monday. Anyway, any LSD would be faster than a welded diff. We were. You're adding an element of drag, all the time to some degree, with a welded diff. And forget about racing in the rain (which you ought not do in an old Datsun anyway, but that's another subject). Many in the ITS Z community ran welded R180's through the early 90's, and experienced several stub axle failures, some of them spectacular in a bad way. I think a lot of us eventually migrated to clutch or Quaiffe LSD's and our stub axle issues disappeared.

[ITZ34]

I use Redline shockproof also. If you use a 75/90, you need a GL5. GL4 gear lubricants are for transmissions. The don't contain the sulpher phosporous additives necessary for rear end hypoid gears. Redline MT90 or MTL works fine in most trannys.

Katman. I am a welded diff holdout and am going to LSD. In your opinion, which is the best type,,,clutch or Quaife. Do you have any experience with the ATB type?

Thanks

Dave Ciufo

[I8AV8]

have you tried to use the Subaru R180 LSD? - it is a clutch-type unit and is supposed to be quite durable - at least thats what a local Subi racer has told me. and the fact that they are relatively lo-cost from salvage yards makes it more attainable.

thanks for the redline data ITZ34 - i wasn't sure if the synth diff lube had the sulper phos in it - thanks!

[x-ring]

have you tried to use the Subaru R180 LSD? [/b]

I thought the diff Subaru used is an R160?

If somebody knows for sure they're not please let us know -- I see them on eBay all the time. I'd really like to replace my welded differential, I just can't pony up the cash right now.

So tell me, oh wise Katman, aside from the (maybe) R160 Subaru unit, which differential should I be saving for?

[pballance]

FWIW, you may run into a spline problem with the Subie R-180 and the half shafts are different but can be fixed. Lot's of details can be found at www.hybridz.org or .com I can't remember right now. There is a sticky about the diffs as well and they recently completed a group buy of the Powerbrute LSD.

There is also a subie R-160.

Hope that helps and I am hoping to upgrade to an LSD this year as well.

[ITZ34]

I've been reading about the Automatic Torque Biasing Diffs (ATB). They look interesting, and supposedly are used on the GT3 Porsche. The website is below.
Anyone know anything about these?



http://members.optusnet.com.au/amaxeng/five10/diff.htm

[I8AV8]

the first time i read about the ATB was in one of the Carroll Smith "...to Win" books - i think they were used by Ford Racing for the GT40 LeMans effort of the 60 - and rather successfully at that. I could be wrong, it's been a while but i'll look it up on the wekend. i'm also pretty sure that Quaife is also an ATB. the pricing fro Aus looks to be quite good compared to the Quaife.

[ITZ34]

I wonder if the Aussie one is just a knockoff of a Quaiffe? It's a lot cheaper.

[kthomas]

We used the factory clutch type LSD and ran much less preload than was traditionally thought of as "race preload". We started around 105 ft-lbs of breakaway per the recommendations of an old friend from Nissan Motorsports (back when they actually had people who knew stuff- before the big purge). Stock was about 43 ft-lbs as I recall. By the time we sold the Z's we were in the 65-85 range and couldn't tell anything detrimental. With the go pedal down, the peg spreads the ramps and tries to lock it all up anyway, and Chet Wittel is one of those shoes gifted with a very aggressive, deliberate turn in (unlike me) and from our data acquisition efforts we trained him up to treat the go pedal as an off/on switch so we spent almost no time in turns in anything resemblimg a coast or part throttle situation. Paul Reckert was very similar in style. So preload didn't affect us apparently.

Now I've driven a Gleason Torsen in an R200 and found it no different than our clutch LSD's at Road Atlanta in the dry. Others have way more experience with the differences I'm sure, but if we were running Z's again I'd proly buy a Quaiffe for their lifetime warranty. Although you could buy a couple Nismo clutch LSD's for the price of a Quaiffe and have two diffs ratios always ready to go, which is what we did (plus we got wholesale prices from Nissan).

I'm not familiar with the ATB's.

[JeffYoung]

Iv'e driven the Quaiffe in the TR8 and a TIGHT Nismo clutch pack in a 260z.

I preferred the Quaiffe's feel but the Nismo hooked up better. The Quaffie, if one wheel got unloaded, lets you down.

[ITZ34]

I broke down and bought a quaife unit. I may buy a Nissan LSD for the other gear set, they are a lot cheaper, but the lead time from Nissan is 6 -12 weeks.

Thanks

DC