Thread: OILS AIN'T OILS - R380

the castrol syntrans 75-85 offering is by far the best oil i ever found for the r380. much better than anything else i tried.

used it in defenders and in v8 discovery after using vmx80 and a few other things.

the caveat i found was that when switching to syntrans that it took a month or so for the gains to make themselves really apparent.

even used the excess that i had laying round in an old hi-ace gearbox and the difference was amazing..

Im using VMX 80 which seems to work both well in hot and cold conditions in 95' 130, keen to know what sort of difference is worth the $'s??
Cheers

I agree with Inc, as i bought my 98 110 with a 240k on the clock and from a young bloke with no idea, there was a lot to fix.

One thing I had a problem with was changing gears when cold and then when hot coming down from 5 to 4 and sometimes from 3 to 2.

Even thought it needed a set of synchro rings, since changing to castrol syntrans 75-85 the gear changing problems have since gone with only the occasional clip going back down.

As Inc said, it did take a while to see the differences and at first I though I had made a mistake. I serviced the 110 just before a trip to Fraser with GCLRO in October, no differences, but after running around Fraser it all came good. Thinking about changing to fresh now that it is working better.

Will still rebuild box as part of my long term plans for extended trips, but for now it is running heaps better on syntrans 75-85.

'Progear' is the old 'syngear', a very good oil IME.

JC

Originally Posted by incisor

the castrol syntrans 75-85 offering is by far the best oil i ever found for the r380. much better than anything else i tried.

used it in defenders and in v8 discovery after using vmx80 and a few other things.

the caveat i found was that when switching to syntrans that it took a month or so for the gains to make themselves really apparent.

even used the excess that i had laying round in an old hi-ace gearbox and the difference was amazing..

Hi Inc, would you also recommend using the castrol syntrans 75-85 in the LT77 Defender Gearbox, or is there something better for the LT77?

Cheers Jeff

i have used it in lt95 and lt85 boxes with great results but have never owned an lt77 so have no experience i can recount sorry

but i would be trying it if i had one

heard people say it can eat shims but that has not been my experience

Originally Posted by incisor

i have used it in lt95 and lt85 boxes with great results but have never owned an lt77 so have no experience i can recount sorry

but i would be trying it if i had one

heard people say it can eat shims but that has not been my experience

Thanks Inc, I should get my gearbox back next week from being rebuilt , so I will also the bloke at the shop (it's a land rover shop) what he would recommend and see it he know anything about castrol syntrans.

Cheers Jeff

Does anyone know if you can use syntrans in the LT230 just to keep commonality with oil that you carry.
I was always told to use synrax but it means I must carry both types when travelling.