Lucas M8 drive oil - Anyone with experience?
 

Have any of you run this M8 drive oil in their Bravos? Personal experience good or bad?

Last year was my first running this oil and I didn't have any problems. (I ran 2 qts of M8, and 1 quart of Lucas stabilizer) It would be nice to hear others experience, especially if it's over a longer period of time or if they have taken apart to see wear etc. (Or maybe it came apart on its own! :eek:)

Ran it for 3 seasons in my well worn bravos but only 1 pint of Lucas Stabilizer in each drive. They shifted much easier and no delayed shift issues. Ran boat 3 whole seasons on same oil just checking magnets each year. Oil came out of drives still semi-translucent darker brown, and ZERO-not even any fine metal mud on magnets after 3 seasons use.

Refilled with 75-140W Valvoline Syn. and 1 pint of Lucas Synthetic Stabilizer per drive before last season and they are still happy.

Dont have a dog in the fight for Lucas but did run heavy oils. Ran Both Amsoil 110 and later 140, Mystic 85/140 and sometimes with a 1/2 cup of severe gear 250. While My bravo gears still look like pimple face kids, I start to wonder the impact that the heavier oils have on the clutch cones. Anybody run heavy stuff then have clutch issues?

I run NEO oil from AADS which seems to be much heavier than the Amsoil 110 Extreme gear I was running. 4th season with NEO and going on the third on the same oil and my magnets are clean and oil is still fairly clear. No shifting issues other than a bad shift cable this season.

Cone clutches to me seem to need additives/friction modifiers similar to limited slip differentials require to function properly. The Valvoline syn oil I put in says it is for use in limited-slip diffs. My well-worn bravo drives shift quick and haven't had any issues with the clutches.

I'm sure some oil gurus on here could elaborate truth on that.

This thread is highly subjective but I used NEO, thought it was good but a bit pricey. The mad scientist in me found a happy medium with Mystic and later felt semi happy with Mystic 85/140 and a little bit of Amsoil 250.

I just realized Lucas M8 comes in 2 varieties. There's a 75-90 full synthetic (which I am asking about), and a 80-90 mineral version. I didn't know they had the 80-90.

The products are so close in looks that their website actually has a typo on one of the descriptions about the mineral 80-90, saying it's a synthetic also. But if you look at the tech data sheet you can see it is in fact mineral.

We use neo oil from AADS. The drive that hasn’t been burning oil seems to do great!!!

50 hours on the oil and it looks brand new!!!