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Strenghtening R380

Tech Talk for Rover owners.

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Strenghtening R380

Post by Nick B »

I know this question has been asked BUT i have to ask it and would love Daddylonglegs to give a response.

I have a 1994 110 300tdi which has aftermarket turbo's etc to achieve about many times the torque (523nm) and about 224HP which also depends on ambient temps. I am on the second gearbox and want to rebuild the current one to handle the power. I don't drive like a hoon but I do tow land rovers and big boats long distance eg 1000+ klms at a time. So I NEED :cry: to get the r380 and transfer case to handle it. SO please HELP
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Post by uninformed »

i can't help, but mabe Mal Story of Maxi-drive can (07 55 303 934) he knows heaps about all the LR boxes and has moded them over the years, cheers, serg

ps mabe a good auto is the go???????
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Post by Philip A »

Isnt the Santana LT85 stronger than LT77 and R380.or an LT95 4 speed would be the best bet of land Rover boxes. thats why the army went to a n LT95 and 230 transfer combo.
BUT all gearboxes have max torque figures. maybe you need a Nissan conversion or New process.
A ZF certainly wouldn't take that torque but a 727 Chrysler maybe would.
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Post by ISUZUROVER »

Philip A wrote:Isnt the Santana LT85 stronger than LT77 and R380.or an LT95 4 speed would be the best bet of land Rover boxes.


thats why the army went to a n LT95 and 230 transfer combo.
Yes, the LT85 is stronger than the R380, but they are not exceptionally common and reasonably expensive to rebuild.

Where did you hear that? All the first batch of perenties had an LT95 with a strengthened T-case (better bearings, etc), but still an LT95. AFAIK the last batch made in the early-mid 90's had the same - never an LT230.
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Post by modman »

lra (rangie spares) used to do a gq 5 speed conversion on range rovers.
i don't know whether they used the lt230 transfer though.
that 5 speed has a deeper first than rovers i think?
might be the go ;)
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Post by Bush65 »

Some history from top of my head:

R380 designation comes from Rover 380 Nm (or is it ft lbf ?) torque.

R380 was intended to be stronger than the LT77 that it replaced. Larger bearings, wider gears, better arrangement with 5th and reverse.

But rover stuffed up with the 1st generation and introduced some bad stress raisers on the main shaft which is prone to break. This gave the R380 a bad name that hasn't shaken from some minds.

2nd generation fixed the stress raiser problem and had some other changes to increase the strength.

3rd generation came out shortly after and is stronger again.

You can tell which is which from the suffix letter in the serial number, 1st is suffix J, then suffix K, last is suffix L.

If your R380 does not have an oil cooler, you should add one as they get pretty hot.

To add a cooler, you need the thermatic valve that bolts to the left hand side of the gearbox case, suitable fittings, hoses, pipes and a cooler. The same valve was also used on some LT77 boxes.

Rover only relied on heat dissipation from the pipes that run from the gearbox to the front, then back to the gearbox. The military Wolf version has a proper oil cooler however.
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Post by DaveS3 »

modman wrote:lra (rangie spares) used to do a gq 5 speed conversion on range rovers.
i don't know whether they used the lt230 transfer though.
that 5 speed has a deeper first than rovers i think?
might be the go ;)
david
They used a LT230 on 2 that i know of - also both had a part time conversion as well :cool:

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Post by ashtrans »

Bush65 wrote:Some history from top of my head:

R380 designation comes from Rover 380 Nm (or is it ft lbf ?) torque.

R380 was intended to be stronger than the LT77 that it replaced. Larger bearings, wider gears, better arrangement with 5th and reverse.

But rover stuffed up with the 1st generation and introduced some bad stress raisers on the main shaft which is prone to break. This gave the R380 a bad name that hasn't shaken from some minds.

2nd generation fixed the stress raiser problem and had some other changes to increase the strength.

3rd generation came out shortly after and is stronger again.

You can tell which is which from the suffix letter in the serial number, 1st is suffix J, then suffix K, last is suffix L.

If your R380 does not have an oil cooler, you should add one as they get pretty hot.

To add a cooler, you need the thermatic valve that bolts to the left hand side of the gearbox case, suitable fittings, hoses, pipes and a cooler. The same valve was also used on some LT77 boxes.

Rover only relied on heat dissipation from the pipes that run from the gearbox to the front, then back to the gearbox. The military Wolf version has a proper oil cooler however.
I would agree with Bush 65,

best option is a suffix L and an oil cooler,

I have some more R 380 info in the tech section on our web site,
Dave

www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk
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Post by Nick B »

land rover australia put the strongest of the R380 boxes in my truck before I bought it but I have managed to kill it.

ps. Don't like the idea of buying a new f350 just to do the highway work and keeping my fender for offroad as that would be a bit out of my budget :cry: so please don't reckomend that :lol:

thanks for the info so far fellers.

PPs is it at all possible to nitride and machine some stronger parts for the R380 Just like we do for building racing gearbox's

PPPs Ashcroft do the Bowler rover guy's use use any rover boxes in there racing trucks?
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Post by Philip A »

Re army .
I was told by a mechanic at Trivett Rover who is the son of a good friend that the latest army batch has an LT95 box with the tranfer case machined off and a HD LT230 fitted. I wondered why they would go to such trouble but didn't really question him closely about it. He claimed he had worked on them.
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Post by Ossie »

modman wrote:lra (rangie spares) used to do a gq 5 speed conversion on range rovers.
i don't know whether they used the lt230 transfer though.
that 5 speed has a deeper first than rovers i think?
might be the go ;)
david
Andrew actually was seling the GQ 5 speed and LT230 out of his vehicle a few months back. I think he was asking $3,500, maybe give LRA a call you you are interested.

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Post by ashtrans »

PPPs Ashcroft do the Bowler rover guy's use use any rover boxes in there racing trucks?

The ones I am familier with use stock suffix L boxes,
Dave

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Post by Nick B »

ashtrans

would nitriding some of the gearbox shafts and using tapered bearings help as well as adding an oil cooler?
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Post by Thonger »

Philip A wrote:Re army .
I was told by a mechanic at Trivett Rover who is the son of a good friend that the latest army batch has an LT95 box with the tranfer case machined off and a HD LT230 fitted. I wondered why they would go to such trouble but didn't really question him closely about it. He claimed he had worked on them.
Regards Philip A
Every one I've been under has LT95, incuding the latest IIMV's 6x6 that where built mid/late 90's. There are some 110/defenders floating around though? but I thought they where standards civi models repainted for an army trial.
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Post by ashtrans »

Nick B wrote:ashtrans

would nitriding some of the gearbox shafts and using tapered bearings help as well as adding an oil cooler?
not sure, personally I don't buy these fancy surface treatment processes but I may be wrong,
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Post by takearidewifme »

I know daddylonglegs is having computer trouble.... but i will be seeing him later so will ask for ya

Mark
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Post by Nick B »

thanks mate

When you see him can you get the measurments for the Jeep transfer to lt230 twin transfer setup and all the parts I need to do it, as an engineer mate of mine will do the machine work for me when the Box and Transfer are out.
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Post by rick130 »

Nick,
you could contact Quaife in the UK. They do an R380 complete gearset replacement, maybe even dog engagemet :cool: Clicky here although their bits, being race focused, are priced accordingly.

BTW, can you profile your engine mods please ?
Sounds interesting.
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Post by DaveS3 »

Nick B wrote:thanks mate

When you see him can you get the measurments for the Jeep transfer to lt230 twin transfer setup and all the parts I need to do it, as an engineer mate of mine will do the machine work for me when the Box and Transfer are out.

You mean underdrive :?: :?

Search on the topic, Bill has covered it in detail - he is also pretty busy ATM.

Dave.
Land Rover Discovery - GQ conversion underway
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