Thread: Anyone heard of Neo gearbox oil.

Originally Posted by dhumphri

Has anyone heard of Neo synthetic gearbox oil.

Obviously no-one.
Where did yu hear about it? And what was so special about it?

Ian

Hi Ian

Was talking with Ward the head technician at Graeme Coopers and he told me that it is the best gearbox oil he has ever seen.

Is extremely pricey ($270 for 5 litres) but apparently can be run for 100000kms and makes the box quieter and much much smoother through the gears.

Have been experimenting with different manual gear oils and have found nothing great so far including Castrol Syntrans which is not cheap in itself.

I have found one place in Sydney with 4 litres of the stuff at a good price and was thinking of giving it a go - just wanted to know if anyone had any experience with it.

Am going to pick it up on Saturday and do an oil change - will post the results. Daz

Daz - have you looked at Redline MTL? I've heard that it does rate very highly amongst many - even over and above Castrol SynTrans (which was developed for the Jaguar XJ-220). I use it in both my highly-tweaked Saabs and it's the only oil that will let me quick-shift without graunching.

Hi Omaroo

Have heard of Redline oils but have not tried any. How pricey is the stuff mate?
Daz

Daz it's about $36.00 per litre. Brilliant oil though. I've run it in one of my Saabs for the past 90,000 km and the box feels just like it did when it originally went in.

Depending on the viscosity required, there are other types that they specify on the following site:

http://www.redlineoil.com.au/product-ordering.asp

dhumphri
I have been running a Castrol full synthetic ATF oil in my R380 and LT230 behind a turbo Isuzu. Not as expensive as the oil you are sourcing but runs a lot quieter than recomended oils. A good freind used to run it in his HQ race car gearbox gives you smoother changes and handles temp a lot better.

PS At the moment I dont run the remote oil cooler and have had no problems.

Regards Justin

Back when I raced I was sponsored by the then Neo importer, so I have a bit of experience with the stuff, as well as Castrol's and Redline's finest.

First off, In my experience Castrol Syntrans has a better upshift performance than Redline MTL in the R380 'box.
Currently running an MTL/MT90 brew at 60/40 due to oil thinning with both Syntrans and MTL at 35*C+ ambients (no oil cooler) Less noise and better shift action on hot days/high load.

Which Neo brew are we talking about ? If it's MTF, IMHO it is too light in viscosity, being 4.4cSt @ 100*C ( ATF is around 7cSt) vs 10.5 cSt for Caltex MTF 94 (current factory fill and developed by Texaco in the UK for Land Rover), 10.5-11cSt for MTL and 11.9cSt for Syntrans.
Neo gear fluids are some of the best race gear oils available worldwide, and if I was still racing and had to pay for the stuff I wouldn't hesitate in using it, but back when a couple of the Sydney L/R garages started using Neo MTF (early '90's) there were no other dedicated manual trans fluids other than R/L MTL, and that wasn't easy to source as the importer was in WA and Blair Harley, the Neo importer was in Sydney. Back then, ATF was the specified fluids for the LT77 and R380 box and so Neo MTF was a far better solution.

However, If Coopers are talking about Neo 75/90 HD or RHD, then disregard the last paragraph.

I've found the Penrite Synthetic ATF (about $36 for 4 litres) to be very good in the LT77 in the R/Rover and I plan on using it in the R380 in the (newly aquired) Defender. I've tried light gear oil in the LT77 and found it made the box too notchy, it didn't even warm up after 800km in a day!!!! The guys at Penrite said the Synthetic ATF would be more stable at higher temps than the light gear oil, and much much better than the regular ATF commonly used in these boxes.

Given how inexpensive it is, I'd suggest you try the Penrite oil first and see how that goes.