Trilogy maintenance-sc oil change

[jdando]

Did a little spring maintenance on the car this morning. Trilogy 0098 has been my daily driver summer/winter for the past 11 years. Currently 113,400 miles, 100,000 miles with the super charger :banana:

I thought it would be a good time to change the oil in the super charger. A bit of Googling suggested these items as a "best" way to go.


2 bottles of Genuine GM Fluid 12345982 Supercharger Oil - 4 oz.
VvW Large Plastic 100ml Syringe +120cm (47in) handy plastic tubing

$30 dollars later and Amazon had the parts at my doorstep.

The drain plug is located on the front plate of the blower. You remove the plug, insert the plastic tubing and suck out the old oil. Apparently there is supposed to be 8 ounces of oil in there. I removed just under 1 ounce. It was dark colored and smelled really bad (a combination of overheated cat poop/urine smell).

I put in 6 ounces of new oil before it started coming out the fill hole. Re-installed the fill plug and was done in less than an hour.

Upon start up the supercharger sounded quieter.

I had noticed a slight weep of oil over the years, but did not think I would be this low on oil. Hopefully I caught before any major damage.

So just a quick word to other higher mileage Trilogy owners. Check/change your super charger oil before it is too late!

[JohnE]

Another tip, make sure to check the level again, while the engine is HOT. You want to install the fill plug warm, in order to reduce the chance of leaking. This helped eliminate issues that I had with my Trilogy.

[RF Overlord]

Apparently there is supposed to be 8 ounces of oil in there. I removed just under 1 ounce. It was dark colored and smelled really bad (a combination of overheated cat poop/urine smell).Shows how rugged the Eaton M112 is...and yeah, the fluid smells awful even when new.

[Cobra25]

When Stiegemeier Ported & polished my mine they used * Mobile 1* , 15/50 full syn motor oil in it. They told me to change it every 30,000 miles. I wonder why they use that oil & weight ?

[jdando]

When Stiegemeier Ported & polished my mine they used * Mobile 1* , 15/50 full syn motor oil in it. They told me to change it every 30,000 miles. I wonder why they use that oil & weight ?

Perhaps the Mobil 1 is cheaper than the $22 for 8 oz for the Ford/GM supercharger oil.

Perhaps RF Overlord can chime in here.

[RF Overlord]

I can't speak for Steggy, but my initial feeling is that since Roots blowers spin at up to twice crank speed, I would rather have the oil Eaton specifies. It may have something to do with the presumed operating environment and change intervals. Eaton may spec their oil assuming the end user is not going to change it per instructions, if at all. When changed relatively often, M1 15W-50 may be suitable, but a couple of $10 bottles of special fluid every 50,000 miles is a LOT cheaper than rebuilding the blower.

[JohnE]

The Eaton oil is not compatible with SAE 30. Yes, some aftermarket re-builders do use alternate oils for cost. Mine was rebuilt and uses M1 50, if I remember correctly