fluids/grease?

[pie4foou]

Does everyone pretty much just go by the manual for what types of fluids and grease to use? or are there better choices now that the truck is 14 years old?
So far I have ordered the swivel house "one shot" but have been wondering what to use for the diff, transfer, axle, and motor oil... any suggestions? anything to avoid completely?

[carlosz]

I have 3 classics and work at the dealer, Iam not boastin by any means it is just related to the answer and its reasoning.
at the shop we use 5w30 straigth for every engine regardless of mileage or vintage. the BMW engine in the 03 to 05 range and the freelander require synthetic all over and a special mineral in their trannies. all others get synthetic upon request
I have been using synthetic axle grease on my cvs for about 7 years now, as well as differential transfer case and transmission.
10w30 on the motors all castrol. some of it can be pricey.....I still do maintennance at regualr factory reccomended intervals and if I off road every weekend that particular truck gets fresh lower fluids and greases the following monday and gets ready for the next weekend. ( by lower fluids i mean axle diff, cv inspect and drve shaft lube).

I have found that this way I have had to do less hard part replacement specially wheel bearings, the transmission is more forgiving to higher temps and the engine mantains a contant idle thru-out the time. during winter, cold star ups are nice and smooth
all my engines are scheduled to be up dated to 4.6 by next year simply because, my 87
was overhauled some 50k miles ago with a 13 to 1 compression ratio and it is beggining to show its age, my 90 is scheduled to be sold and it has a new 3.9 with 4.6 heads and my 95 was overheated by my wife when the thermostat failed.
all of these new engines have used and will use synthetic, I have found a long term advantage in maintenance and wear and tear benefits.
just my personal experience and I thought it would be a good time to share.

[pie4foou]

thats awesome... sounds like a pretty rad fleet you have going. Every monday you replace all the lower fluids? wow, then i DEFIANTLY need to get crackin on that soon... i was told that i should change all the fluids after any serious off roading and if there were any water crossings espically if entering while the trucks all warmed up it will cool and pull water into many fittings and such.

alright well i know what i'm doing as soon as napa is open... thanks for the info!

[pie4foou]

any recommendations as far as brands go? castrol is what i've heard of most... anything to stay away from?

[pie4foou]

alright... that was only a $125.00 oil change... i know synthetic is a little more but damn thats a lot of oil in that machine!

[carlosz]

normally I offroad during weekends, so on mondays the truck Ihave used that weekend goes in for maintenance regardless of what the schedule says, i have been particular to castrol mainly because of their dot 4 brake fluid back in the days and their association with imports which Ihave worked on for 25 years. other lubricant manufactures did not offer a dot 4 but did offer some kind of racing type brake fluid.
also many manufacturers of the cars I worked on would suggest castrol products, as you know owners want to see the same goes into their cars. the shop would stock up on large amounts of these products and I as a tech would get a freebie and that is how I developed such folowing.

[pie4foou]

i was going to say, that would be a pretty costly regular procedure. obliviously the prior owner didnt do the same with my truck. today i found that my "swivel housing" the ball lookin thing is all pitted on the top of it.
must have been parked for a while.

[carlosz]

I have seen that pitting before, specially on the cromed swivel balls up until 95 or so. the latter 96 to 98 1/2 discoveries series one, had a black swivel which so far has proven to be better than the crome units as a matter of fact if you get a new swivel ball from atlantic british you get the "updated version" the black one same with the dealer, you get "the superceeded" unit. it is not a matter of maintenance it is a matter of quality of build, the pre 90 or non abs swivels hardly ever show damage such as pitting
so I guess they had better build quality back then.

[pie4foou]

humm.... price check!
well lets see at $267.00 for a new one
I figure the one i have now will need grease about every two or weeks.. swivel grease at $9.95 on sale with like $3.50 shipping then in 39 weeks of doing that it would have been cheaper to buy a new one and i plan on having my truck longer then 39 weeks... uhg. guess i should check the local yards first maybe i'll luck out, but i doubt it. most of the junkers sittin around probably have started to pit also.....

[carlosz]

sounds like a plan, I second the idea behingd the junk yards, give CAR CANNIBAL or ROVERS LAND a shout, they are on the internet under followed by .com. they tend to have what you need at good prices under warranty, also contact Paul Grant (paulgrant@mac.com) I have dealt will all of them before I am very pleased with the outcome of the transactions.
best of luck.

[pie4foou]

yes i' bought a bumper from paul, and a distributor from CC.com cc sent me a distributor barely wrapped up in a box and it showed up all smashed... then they sent me another one but they didnt tell me that the second one had just a "dummy" module... luckly the one from the first distributor still worked.

[carlosz]

darn, Have dealt with CC twice before, once a timing cover and second a 10 spline diff the diff came in a wooden box possibly heavier than the diff it self but shipping cost was something like 15 bucks.
the cover was caked in engine oil and dirt but in good order to my surprise it included the water pump (which I used for about 3 years) and the oil pump and gears (3.5motor)
all for about 125.00 including shipping and it came wrapped in lost of plastic and inside a box.
Paul, I cannot say bad things about him, every transaction has been excellent and even axle shafts have been well wrapped. I may have done some 10 or so deals with him.
rovers land, I used them extensively when I worked at an independent shop, that is where they obtained their used engines, you receive what they tell you they have, that is if the engine is missing an exhaust manifold they will tell you at time of purchase and that is the way you receive it no surprises mising something else or incomplete.
as for damage they will note that once it leaves their facility it is out of their control but will respond well and try to assist as much as possible if you have a claim.
as well as many others on this forums, ihave dealt with a few other guys , i have gotten negative or positive acknoledment and that is a personal list of guys I refuse to deal with for one reason or another, specially now a days. ihave been repairing rovers for a while now and have been owner for about 7 years, back then it was difficult to find parts for these beasts out side of the dealer so you took what you got with agrain of salt and that is how my personal list begun.
now a days suppliers are a dime a dozen with competive prices and better service both new and used.
just my rambling 2 cents. with out putting anyone on a pedestal or under the table