Valvoline MaxLife VS Castrol Dexron III.

[Rockford Fosgate Fan]

About to change my transmission pan in my 95 LT1 Camaro and it has come down between these two fluids to use as a replacement. I would like to spring for some Mobil 1 or Royal Purple but IMO it is not worth doing that unless you flush the transmission and change all the fluid. Flushing the transmission would be nice but on a 4L60E with 80K I don't think that would be a good idea. Since the transmission has 80k on it would it be a good idea to start running the high mileage stuff like MaxLife or should I just go with Castrol?

Thanks

 

[kanling]

If you don't have any leaks or other age-related symptoms that high mileage fluids claim to cure, I say stick with the plain old Castrol.

 

[bmwtechguy]

I like the Maxlife ATF because it has some universal ATF abilities and seems to be at least a partial synthetic. And I would ask, why is a flush at 80k miles a bad thing? Have these 4L60E's been known to grenade if flushed at higher mileage service intervals?

 

[unDummy]

No transmission has been known to grenade with a flush flush.

I'd use the plain ol' DexronIII if everything is working normally. Skip the high mileage stuff until you have problems with leakage....

 

[Islandvic]

rockfan, install a universal drain plug. I bought one for my 4l60e pan in my '95 Z-71.

NAPA has one from MotorMite for $5.

Its a good unit. I drained and refilled my truck's pan a week after I had drop'd/cleaned the pan, changed the filter and refilled.

It had 160K+ miles on the orig fluid so a flush was out of the question.

I used SuperTech DexIII with 15oz of LubeGuard.

 

[caprice_2nv]

I changed the factory fluid and filter at 200,000km's (around 125k miles) in my 86 Caprice with a 700R4 trans (same trans as a 4L60). Did a complete flush at that time and used Motorcraft Mercon fluid since I worked a at a Ford dealer. Then I went over 2 years and 33,000km's (almost 20k miles) and did a complete flush fluid and filter again since the it had been overheated trying to get through heavy snow in my driveway (5-6000rpm for half a minute at a time several times). Fluid was slightly burn but no metal shavings to be concerned about in the pan. Going to check the filter after it dries, see how much material was caught in it, then if it looks not much metal was going through there I'll go another 30k then switch to synthetic fluid.