Well I’m done using Torco RTF in my imcos SCX-4s. Around 2021ish I noticed the color changed from a deep blue to a green very similar to the mercury/quicksilver gear lube color. Shortly after on a poker run I locked up one drive and the other was about 2min behind. Both about 100hrs on them. Had them rebuilt, ran fine summer of ‘22.

Changed lube at end of last season, nothing unusual on magnets or drained through the strainer, and tucked her away for the winter nap. First time putting props on this year, neither drive would spin. Locked up tight. New lube had never been ran in the drives since winterizing. WTF. Put the boat in the water without props and shifted fine. Pull back out, put props on and they spin like normal.

Ran a couple more times in June without issue.

Getting boat ready before 4th of July weekend and try to spin stbd side and it’s loud and really had to put effort into it just to spin the prop.

Pulled them off and sent back to Mr. Gadgets. While draining I found what was like sticky tarry black stuff on both upper magnets. He disassembled and finds this black tar everywhere. Never seen it before. Nothing looks very worn, just all gunked up.

Anyone else out there see something like this? All we can conjure up is maybe some type of mold, similar to a diesel fuel. Either way my experience with the torco rtf has not been great lately and I will be making the switch to probably royal purple.

Following...........

FYI... If I remember correctly. A while back Smitty (articfriends) was doing some gear lube testing in his 1000HP Bravo application and Royal Purple gear lube showed some of the fastest degradation of new gears out of all the lubes he tried. I have only blown 1 drive in my life. It coincidentally happened when I changed my TRS to Royal Purple. Not saying it was the culprit, but I have never used it again.

neo oil results w 1000 hp in front of Bravo

Royal purple is well known to be garbage.
For drives Im an Amsoil man.
Have had the best luck with it .

Hmm. When Brad @ Imco shipped my SCX's back to me this year they were filled with Imco's own line of oil. The Imco oil is different than Torco and cheaper as well. My SCX's only had 3 hrs on the last year when they had shifting issues and were filled with Torco. I wonder if there were drive issues we don't know of causing Imco to change to a different drive oil.

Yea I think imco knows more than they’re leading on…. Maybe I’ll give they’re stuff a run

Mine were really hard shifting when before, now they are very smooth and easy shifting. I agree with you that they know more than they are letting out.

That sucks not fair!

Amsoil severe gear

readily available, comes in 5 gallon pails, widely loved. I've personally talked to people involved with designing neo/bravo shop oil and they tested everything and said it's the best gear lube made besides theirs.

I also talked to one of the owners of Driven racing since I run their 50wt engine oil and he admitted amsoil severe gear is the best gear oil made.

When the competition recommends a product that's pretty impressive.

We have had good luck running it in everything from boats to diesel trucks for 20yrs now. I personally don't use all amsoil products, I like Driven engine oil better, but severe gear is great stuff!