I need your advice on fluids.

[Fiatracertracer]

I will be changing the fluids in my 1982 Spider and I need to know what is the consensus on fluids.

I need to know the following, what have you all been using for fluids?

1 Motor Oil: what weight should I use and should it be synthetic or conventional??

2. Oil filter: Which one?

3. Differential gear oil: what weight and synthetic or conventional?

4. Transmission fluid? Weight and synthetic or conventional?

4. Antifreeze type?

Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

[TX82FIAT]

There are a lot of opionson what fluids to use. I would stay away from synthetics for one reason. They seem to find small imperfections in surfaces or gaskets and create leaks. The synthetics are better, but if you are not replacing gaskets I would stick with regulat dyno oils. For the motor oil, Rotella 15W40 T seems to be popular and it is like $17.99 for a Gallon. The oil filter is a PF-13 I think, The larger filters are better. Mobil 1, Puralator, K & N. I use K & N. There have been some post in the past about Fram not being a good filter. The transmission gear oil should be GL1 90 wt. non EP. The non EP is important as the brass syncros in your transmission do not like additives. Some nNAPA stores stock GL1 non EP if you can not get it there try a tractor supply store. For the diff you can use any 75/90 gear oil really. antifreeze you can use anything off the shelf as long as you have the right 50/50 mix.

Again, you will get a lot of opions on this.

[johndemar]

Only thing I can add is that someone long ago did a study on the oil filters. Can't remember if it was this forum or not, but they went to the trouble of cutting the filters apart and measuring their filtering capacities.

The consensus was that Fram was not a particularly good filter and the Wix (NAPA) filter performed much better.

For what it's worth I've been using the Wix and Rotella combination for years.

[BEEK]

"wix" most filter media, i have cut many apart

[Exit98]

Trans oil is GL-1 90 Gear Oil. NAPA part # NHF65201

[ClarkTheShark]

1. I have just started using Rotella T 15w40. On the jug, it says "Heavy Duty Diesel Engine Oil."

http://www.amazon.com/Rotella-550019913 ... =rotella+t

2. For Oil Filter I use a FRAM PH8. Its a monster.

http://www.amazon.com/Fram-PH8A-Passeng ... s=FRam+ph8

3. For trans I use Redline MT90 full synthetic. $15/quart need 1.5 ish quarts.

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Line-50304-Tr ... line+mt-90

4. For Rear End and Steering box, I use Royal Purple 75w90 gear oil. need 1.5 ish quarts.

http://www.amazon.com/Royal-Purple-Perf ... e+gear+oil

5. EDIT - Forgot to tell you about AntiFreeze.

Ive found that the best antifreeze to use is the conventional 50/50 from your local auto parts store. I use autozones 50/50.

[Fiatracertracer]

Great..... Thanks

regarding the antifreeze.

I had a bad experience with using the wrong coolant in a Chevy S10.

Using the wrong coolant ate the head gaskets of my fathers pick up after 2 months of use. He thought that any 50/50 mix of coolant would work. So he just added some to the mix. The heads needed to be removed and gaskets replaced at 93,000 miles.

I never would have thought it was possible but according to Chevy only OAT coolant should have been used with distilled water.

According to Jeep, a different antifreeze should be used in their vehicles. OAT should not be used in Jeeps but HOAT should be used in their 2005 - 2006 diesel liberties with a 50/50 mix of distilled water.

Mercedes, BMW, RR and many others have specific recommendations for what coolant to use.

Tap water may have minerals that can break down as rust particles creating a reaction in the system that seals radiators shut.

There are pictures of this on the Web..

the right coolant will prevent rust or resist rust.

[majicwrench]

The wrong antifreeze did not eat or "ate" your head gaskets. Gaskets fail for all sorts of reasons. Antifreeze of any type does not eat gaskets. Diff antifreezes protect diff metals, provide diff lubrication, etc. Again, they do not eat gaskets. If anyone has any real evidence otherwise would be fun to see it.
That said, you should certainly bear in mind what the maker asks you to use, and what is already in cooling system.

My only advice to the OP would be to avoid all the high dollar stuff. Tis no need in our drivers.

Synthetic oil tend to leak a tad more because it does not swell seals slightly like dino oil, and it tends to be thinner.

[DanD]

Older head gaskets formed around steel can rust . I have a 20 YO head gasket on a shelf in plastic, and you can see the rust seeping out of the surface of the gasket material. So yes, old anti freeze can play havoc with gaskets.

I had to replace the head gaskets on a 1980 928 due to deterioration as a matter of fact... that was when the car was about 25. This has been fairly well documented as a not uncommon problem in Porsche circles.

[bradartigue]

Virtually any motor oil you can buy today will exceed FIAT's recommendations. Synthetics (by the way all motor oils are highly synthetic, the ones called "Synthetic" are 100% synthetic) are a total waste of money and tend to leak through seals, plus, with a 3000 oil change interval, what would be the point? Like many people here I've used Rotella-T for years and it works great. It is also the correct weight per FIAT.

Oil Filter: Mahle or Bosch. I spend too much money on filters maybe but I've never had one fail. I've seen FRAMs fail. Stay away from old FIAT filters, they are paper on the inside and at least 25 years old.

Antifreeze type. Any type will work, but use distilled water. Even the bottom of the line antifreeze sold in the local auto parts store (and under the brand name) is sufficient. The water is what matters. Change according to the instructions and you'll have a happy cooling system. So long as it was happy to begin with.

Transmission and Differential fluid. NAPA's GL1 and GL5 work just fine. Shell Rotax as well if you can find it in the non-EP type (which isn't easy to do). I avoid Redline fluids, I find they eat up bronze parts (like Synchronizers) and leak through seals.

Brake fluid. I've never had a problem on any of my cars using ATE fluids. I interchange between the red and gold when I change fluids, because I can clearly see that I've replaced all of the fluid with the color change. The temperature range of the blue is higher than the gold but both are so far above what a FIAT can do that it doesn't matter.

[Fiatracertracer]

Thanks again i really appreciate the assistance.

Regarding oil filters filters:

I understand that the bigger the better, what are the part numbers for the over sized Mobil 1 and or Bosch?

Regarding the replacement of antifreeze in older cars. The classic car community says the the following about the product called Zerex z-05 (HOAT) coolant:
"Zerex G-05 is the only choice for an old car. It is an HOAT anti-freeze that greatly reduces rust, any deposit buildups."

Here is a good read from Motor Magazine regarding the selection of coolant: Mash on the link http://www.motor.com/article.asp?article_ID=816

[Fiatracertracer]

..

[baltobernie]

I understand that the bigger the better ...

Bigger (can) is not necessarily better. Some of the larger-size filters that can be fitted to your Spider have less media than the smaller ones.

But as others have pointed out, unless used as a daily driver, virtually any combination of oil and filter will probably be OK. I would not use oil designed for diesel engines. Some of the new Rotella blends are rated for "mixed fleet" (gas and diesel engined), and they would be OK, IMO.

If you contact Castrol, they will advise you to use 20-50 GTX in all but extremely cold environments. You can do a lot worse than heeding a recommendation from a supplier such as them.

As a newbie, you can do your car a favor by getting to know one or more of the vendors that specialize in vintage Fiat parts and accessories. You have one near Hartford; Fun Imported Autos and Toys (F>I>A>T>, get it?). If you buy your routine maintenance items from vintage vendors, they will be around when you need something major.

[ClarkTheShark]

But as others have pointed out, unless used as a daily driver, virtually any combination of oil and filter will probably be OK. I would not use oil designed for diesel engines. Some of the new Rotella blends are rated for "mixed fleet" (gas and diesel engined), and they would be OK, IMO.

I'm confused... The "Rotella T 15w40" I've been buying is wrong?

Everyone has always said that this is the oil to get. In fact I couldn't find any others other than the one that said "heavy duty diesel engine oil."

[bradartigue]

Castrol is going to recommend that because they stopped making the 15W40 that we ran for years. 20W seems heavy to me, but again its likely far better than 1970's oil...

15W40 Rotella is fine, check the specs on the back, they exceed FIAT's specs. The "heavy duty diesel oil" stuff is called marketing. Many of us have run Rotella for decades, works wonderfully. Only the loonies spend big money on oil.