Technical SAE160 1953 Chevy Drivetrain oil

Hi, folks. A friend of mine has a 1953 Chevy with original straight six and a closed drivetrain. Somewhere in that drivetrain he needs a SAE 160 oil. As we live in Germany, we are not familiar with that kind of notification. What kind of oil do you 53 drivers over the big pond use as a modern and available substitution? Thanks in advance.


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A current replacement would be 85W-140 gear oil.

 

This is a good one for Blues4U to answer as he is a lubrication expert. I'll send him a PM

 

SAE 160 is a non-current viscosity grade, SAE no longer includes that grade in it's viscosity specifications. I don't have the SAE specs for 160, but SAE 140 is probably the closest you are going to find. But you also need to be concerned about the additive chemistry. Those cars used gear oil without the heavy doses of sulphur-phosphours extreme pressure compounds of modern oils. Those compounds can damage soft metals in the transmission and differentials. So don't use a GL-5 rated oil, that is for modern hypoid differentials. Look for a GL-4 rated product in SAE 140 viscosity. Something like this Chevron product: https://cglapps.chevron.com/msdspds/PDSDetailPage.aspx?docDataId=475943&docFormat=PDF

 

This article may help explain some of the mystery of gear oils: https://www.widman.biz/uploads/Transaxle_oil.pdf

 

Thx for coming over to this thread with your wealth of knowledge in lubrication. I have another personal experience I'll relate to you via PM, as it's not really pertinent to this thread's subject. Sort of puzzling to me, and I'll try to pass it along in the next day or two via Pm if that's OK.