I read about the blue grease but never used it.
I use the same grease tlapinski uses - Super Lube. Seems to work well but I don't go out of my way to dunk reels.
The Penn 704 & 706 are simple designed reels that just keep going and going. I got a hard cranking 706z in a trade and after a couple of hour digging out the hardened black crap on the inside and stuff its spinning pissa right now.
The VS insides are super simple and people shouldn't be scared to open them up at all. I made a wrench out of a piece of pvc for some one and made an extra one for myself. A guy I know on the other site fishes well over 200 days a year all the time and he beats the pee pee out of his reels - what does he fish?? VS150 most of the time and a 200. He plans on getting a 250 soon and has had a 100 in the past.
I used a yellow Nautil 6500 for a season - not crazy about the bananna handle at all and have problems at time I get the line under the spool and under the drag knob to boot.
Happened more than once so it wasn't a fluke thing - running 30 lb Stealth. Since then I use PP on most of my spinners. Dirt and gunk sticks to the silicone rubber and seemed it was impossible to get it off.
I fish an 8000 Spheros and 4500 baitrunners (A&B) and find them to be dependable and the waterproof drags are nice to have. I never dunked one entirely just some mild soapy water after my trip and they been going strong over 3 seasons.
VS are $ - no doubt about it. I got thru reels like candy it seems....LOL. I fish one and get bored w/ it and go try another one and its a viscious cycle.
For all the reels I have tried in the past 3 yrs I could have a full fleet of VS's bu now.
Here is an interesting fact: a VS300 can drag 20 lbs of dead weight across a basement floor faster and with less effort than a Penn Senator 4/0H. It does it better than a Penn 9500ss (it can do it but it doesn't like it). That is something you could appreciate if you needed to slow a fish down from rocks or whatever. For offshore tuna the VS300 sounds like it could put a hurt on some small-mid sized tuna.
As I was typing this - I grabbed my Shimano Torium30 and tied it to 20 lbs of weights and tried to crank it on the floor - it wasn't too happy......LOL. Bound up and too a lot of effort on my half.
Sorry for rambling - just some info I thought I would pass long to some one wanting a VS - don't over look the 300 size if you want a winching reel.
I just got a bunch of my gear together and sold & traded some of it until I had enough $ to buy an used one.
Its a sickness because now it makes you wanting more in other sizes. :P