I went back and took a hard look at the page in the Ford Chemical catalog that describes Ford Honey and found that it does indeed call it a 75W90 oil, not just that it can be used for a 75W90 gear oil.

It does not say that it is a GL4 oil though, just that it can be used wherever a 75W90 GL 3/4 gear oil is specified. So maybe it isn't quite GL4, or maybe it is GL4 but just not tested to validate it.

What is even more interesting is that it is clear that the Castrol SMX-S is published to be 75W85. It is interesting that in a Ford bottle it is a 75W90, but in a Castrol bottle it is a 75W85. Yes, I have verified that it is the same product, but my information source requires confidentiality.

I still have the opinion that any high quality manual transmission oil that is as thin as ATF or as heavy as 75W90 should work fine in this transmission. So why didn't Red Line's product hold up?


Jim Johnson 98 SVT 03 Escape Limited