Synthetic Dexron VI ATF in 003?

[sshulk]

Getting conflicting views … can I use synthetic ATF dexron vi or do I need to use conventional?
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[SGKent]

I guess whale oil is hard to come by these days.

Dexron II replaced Dexron (#B-license). Dexron III replaced Dexron II. Then it gets confusing. Some say yes, some say not really. I could not find a chart that was definitive. Many other forums suggest using Dex/Merc marked oil. My bus is a manual trans so I personally can't answer it directly.

The issue is that the name Dexron is a trademark. No one can publish a label that states "Dexron" unless GM approves it. GM controls the mixture of the oil when they license someone to use their trademark, like McDonald's controls what is in a Big Mac. They let the licenses expire on the earlier Dexron products so they can't control what is in it. If you use any oil be sure to get it from a major supplier like Castrol, Valvoline, Mobil, Pennsoil etc because they are someone with a name to protect. Technically you can't get Dexron B anywhere because it hasn't been made in 50 years due to whaling restrictions. Dexron VI is only listed by GM as backwards compatible in their own transmissions, although it may be backwards compatible in others. They are not interested in the old car market. They sell and license products for newer cars mostly.

Maybe someone will be by with a better answer. A search here on the forum for "Dexron" may answer the question too.

example:

[Wildthings]

Valvoline Maxlife ATF covers a pretty broad range of applications and is what I have been running in my Vanagon automatic for about 10 years now.

[timvw7476]

[metahacker]

[Abscate]

[udidwht]

Run Dexron VI in my 94 Fleetwood 454 TBI w/4L80E

Another trans oil that can be ran in lieu of Dex VI is TranSynd

The old DEXRON(R)-IIIH fluids would start off typically at a KV/100'C of about 7.5-7.8 cSt. By 80,000 miles, they would typically have dropped to about 4.1 or 4.2 cSt.

Typical DEXRON(R)-VI fluid starts off at only about 6 cSt, after 200,000 miles they are typically still above 5 cSt. That kind of data just proves, that DEXRON(R)-VI fluids exhibit far superior performance than the older, DEXRON(R)-III type fluids.
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