Thread: Penrite Sin Manual Trans 75/85 Vs Castrol Syntrans

Originally Posted by harro

Well the Penrite Sin Manual Trans is certainly no worse than anything else I've tried.
I have been running Nulon Smooth Shift 75/85 fully synthetic for a few years (at 30$ a litre) and the Penrite product is at least as good for shifting if not slightly better so at less than half the price I would say pretty good value (so far).

Cheers,
Paul.

UPDATE

Well the Sin Manual Trans has been in the box for a few months now including a few long trips and I can say I am quite impressed with the shifting.
We have had a few cool mornings, around 11 to 14 degrees (which is pretty cool for Cairns anyway ) and the cold shifting from first to second has improved heaps from what I had this time last year with Nulon smooth shift 75/85.

So at nearly half the price I would say bloody good value.

Cheers,
Paul.

hey all. As a note on all the different oils in the boxes, I have a '96 Defender 300Tdi trayback 110, owned it since new and I have always used castrol 80/90 in the transfer and castrol atf in main box as per the book. It has been my main vehicle until this year so was used for everything, 4hr nonstop highway work{loaded and unloaded, trailers,110kmh etc} offroad on the farm and 307 thou ks later it is still shifts oki, in -3! :O is quiet as any R380 setup and the oils still clean at 20,000 change. I really think change on time and more if doing hard work and no matter what brand oil you use will work oki. BTW, I was told when I started my first job at an earthmoving company that the worst thing you can do to a motor,box,diff,final drive etc is change the type and brand of oils around in a components life cycle. Regards Scott

Thought I would update this old thread as I have moved on from the Penrite product.

A short summary of what I have tried in the r380 and the results.

First was Nulon 75/85 smooth shift fully synthetic.
Woeful when cold and up to second did not improve much with increased temp. Back from third to second was hopeless regardless of temp, virtually had to stop to get it into second so....
Rating 1/5

Next was Penrite 75/85 fully synthetic.
Improvement across the board but still very average when cold.
Rating 2.5/5

Then....Syntrans!!
Well the comments on Syntrans are well founded with a dramatic improvement in cold shifting, not slick but still a hell of a lot better than previous (bloody expensive).
Rating 3.5/5

But I still thought I could do better so I started looking more closely at the specs and I came up with Redline MTL which is virtually identical to MTF94,
the spec lube for the r380.
Edit; the difference between the two was the Redline product is a full synthetic which made it a better option up here in the heat.
Not easy to get here so I ended up ordering a gallon off Ebay delivered to my door.
I had run the Syntrans for about 10,000 klms so I think I had given it a fair chance and as said earlier I was fairly happy with it.

Anyway I put in the Redline product and what a difference, very slight baulking when cold then smooth to slick shifting after about 2 to 3 minutes of driving.
I have since done a few thousand k trip towing our camper over various sorts of terrain in quite high temps and the consistency when shifting is excellent.
Rating 4.5/5

Definitely the best fluid I have put in the box and I would suggest it to anybody who has tried various products and still isn't totally happy with their shifting performance.

Cheers,
Paul.

Improving the cold shift is one thing but what about when the gearbox gets hot?

My experience with Syntrans was that it improved the shift until it got hot, then some of the stubbornness returned.

I've been using Motul Gear 300 for quite a while now and it is better than Syntrans for shift quality when cold (by a little not a lot) but heat doesn't bother it. Highway running on 40 degree days makes no difference to the shift quality.

I'd be interested to hear what people are finding with the Penrite oil when it gets hot.

Downside of using Motul is cost.

BTW, I followed Rick130's lead when choosing the Motul as he mentioned it cured the hot shift stickiness that I encountered prior to using it. I'm not an oil trailblazer...

Good to see you followed my advice from three years ago . Pat

Originally Posted by PAT303

Good to see you followed my advice from three years ago . Pat

I always follow your advice Pat. So what was your advice again?

Originally Posted by steane

My experience with Syntrans was that it improved the shift until it got hot, then some of the stubbornness returned..

funny, that has not been my experience on several different vehicles

i reckon it must come down to where the wear is in the box your adding it too.

this thread has provided some good feedback tho it has to be said....

Originally Posted by incisor

funny, that has not been my experience on several different vehicles

i reckon it must come down to where the wear is in the box your adding it too.

this thread has provided some good feedback tho it has to be said....

Yeah, a good thread on oil can be most satisfying It's an interesting topic, well at least it is for me.

I helped a friend buy a 300TDi Deefer recently which had 180k kms on it and it shifted gear perfectly when cold or hot. No second gear graunching, no change in shift from warm to cold, no notchiness, nothing but smooth shifts.

My old R380 which was a J suffix box was horrible (2nd gear crunch etc), but then nothing on my deefer saw any love from previous owners so it was to be expected. Syntrans improved it immensely and Motul mostly fixed it.

I've recently replaced it with an L suffix Ashcroft rebuild and for the first 10k kms it's been notchy and delighted in crunching second gear, mostly when cold but in the early days also when warm. It's taken a long time to 'wear in' but is now a sweet shifting gearbox. The second gear did baulk on the first shift each morning but that has all but vanished and I suspect will soon not exist. That's running Motul exclusively.

Different levels of wear do play a role in the shift quality for sure. I'm still amazed at the difference Syntrans made over whatever rubbish was used in it prior to my custodianship.