chrisjul,

Sir, thank you most kindly and welcome. Very, very glad to help us RWD brickboard Volvo drivin' champions!

I have to admit, I was biased by Amsoil quite some time ago as a vendor was nearby. Yet all I've heard of MTL is as good a kudos as any for synthetic lubricants. I mean read the specs of both brands. Amazing!

As for synchros in an M47 II-
- A 1990 240 DL wagon with around 170,000 (or much, much more as the odometer was replaced ten years ago from a front and rear chain reaction crash repair). Second gear synchro ground and grinds. I do not ever force it into gear, just let it bump out in protest and try again successfully, usually. It'd catch and grind most nastily if I was not conscientious. (I've driven stick on autos with no synchros.) The old fluid was just rotten and burnt and brown, yet very little silver. One intermediate flush of a quality mineral of the Ford "Type F" spec lube, or I may have done my brake parts cleaner "flush and dry". That M47 II tranny shifts like flipping a quiet light switch.

- A 1992 240 GL, with 140,xxx. Buy it August 2007. The synchros stick and on occasion is catches. The tranny (like the whole 240) was awfully neglected. A prior owner slammed the M47 II it into gear. Finally, few months later and fluids replacement. The M47 II tranny fluid was extremely rotten, dark, dark brown, more silver than I'd ever seen complete with a gear tooth piece! I did use solvent free break parts cleaner to "flush and dry" the tranny (spray around the fill hole and point up into tranny cavity and drain until clean and clear comes about - maybe a half can). Re-tilt the 240 for our manual tranny overfill trick we all do (and we ALL do the, yes?) with the Amsoil ART. Smoooooth as butter. Like flippin' a light switch. But I drive like a gentle doddering owld bastard. Hopefully makes up for the prior owner abuse.

- My 1991 240 that is pretty abuse free also has the Amsoil ART. It shifted smooth before, yet now, it is absolute quiet bedroom light switch.

In all M47s, sometimes you get a sticky bit when shifting, yet never a grind when using the M47 tranny properly.

All of the transmission run WAY cooler. While on the mighty West Coast I-5 in the deadening Summer heat of the California central valley at near 95°-100°, the base of the stick shift above the shift bellows was not much hotter. On mineral oil, in the 80°-90° range, the base of the M47 stick was much hotter.

Redline in your Volvo manual tranny, if you read the brickboard posts, does the same.

Maybe Redline is more popular since it sold through stores and retail outlets?

Amsoil uses private dealers (at home) on a hierarchy, primarily.

Actually, the M47 synchros were designed specifically for Ford spec "Type F". No friction reducing modifiers as in Dexron. The synchros use the hydrostatic or hydraulic resistance the fluid provides to function.

I think the M41/M46 can make use of a slightly wider range of lubes, yet these without friction modifiers. See your factory Volvo 240 owners manual.

Questions and comments?

Sorry, I do go on.

Thank you,

Happy Friday.

Unemployed Technical Writer with too much Under-steer
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synthetically lubed .sig. How I miss the UNIX days.