If you're Trans Am or Formula is like most hobbyists, you keep the oil changed regularly (AMSOIL 5W30 is the brand preferred by this author) and you check your antifreeze/water mixture to make sure you're operating your Bird with the proper level of coolant.
But what about your transmission? When was the last time that you thought about changing the fluid in your T-56 six-speed or you're 4L80-E four-speed?
The factory recommends that you change your transmission fluid every 50,000 miles, but take our word for it, the sooner you get the factory fluid out and some synthetic fluid in, the happier your manual trans will be, and the longer it will live to give you a little bit of happiness, too.
AMSOIL, the world's inventor of synthetic motor oil, makes a full-synthetic transmission fluid which replaced GM Dextron III (and earlier Dextron versions). It's called AMSOIL Universal Transmission Fluid.
Our 1995 Pontiac Firehawk had only 44,000 miles on it, but the fluid was put in at the factory. That meant it's 15 years old.
It only took 15 minutes to get the old fluid out and the AMSOIL synthetic transmission fluid in. (Special thanks to Justin Cesler, Associate Editor of GM High Tech Performance for being the technician for this story.)
Here's how it's done.
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