I would keep my eyes out for a good replacement, esp. if the fluid was that dark after only a week with that much stuff stuck to the drain plug magnet.

Also after quite a bit of research the Valvoline full syn 75/90 gear oil surpasses Royal Purple and Lucas and is almost as good as Amsoil in some of the tests. My local autozone sells it for about $7 a quart.

It's 24 pages long but lots of good info on how different gear oils test, http://www.lastgreatroadtrip.com/wp-...comparison.pdf

 

...thanks for the input Alex J,and yup that dark color didn't leave a nice impression when I saw it, but pic of drain plug gives a more dramatic impression than actual thing, almost no metal shavings this time, just gunk and very, very fine metal hair, and metal dust, as I said. For sure that t-case must had suffered, and might still be. Truth be told it felt pretty good last week with fresh 75W-90; this week I poured in 85W-140, and although no noises and truck responds fine, for some reason I think it felt better with 75W-90. Being this oil so cheap, would it hurt to drain and refill again? should I stick with the 85W-140 or go back to 75W-90? would like to read what you all think. As per the link, I'll give it a look, thanks for that! ;-]#