I have had my car apart for the last few months working on several projects getting ready for the up coming race year. I got everything back together and took a test drive. I figured now would be a good time to post some pics and general 1st impressions of the parts. I will do a follow up after several days on a race track to keep everyone updated on how well they all hold up. What I installed over the winter:

Exedy S/P ORG clutch (30% more clamping force)
Sold Here

Kaiten light weight flywheel (chromoly steel 8.8LBS)
Sold Here

Quaife Differential (LSD)
Sold Here

MFactory FD 4.64 Final Ratio gears
Sold Here

New OEM differential bearings, transmission oil seals, thrust shims from
http://www.majestichonda.com

Everything looked like it was made with top notch quality, especially the Quaife Differential and the Infinitued FD gears. Very solid construction on those 2 parts!

1st thing I did was follow the factory service manual steps for removing the transmission:



Transmission out, you can see the OEM flywheel. It was time of a new one, I had heat spots and little stress cracks all over it.


Transmission on floor.

While the tansmission was out I put the new flywheel and clutch on. (the bolts that hold the flywheel on, are really on there! I had to use a real long pipe over the braker bar). Below is a picture of the new clutch and flywheel installed.



Next I cracked open the transmission. There was a thin layer of black grimy oil on everything so everything got a cleaning with WD-40 before it went back together. Other than that the OEM parts looked good.



I then removed the OEM differential and counter shaft, pictured below.






Using a big *** bench vice and blocks of wood I removed the final drive gear from the OEM differential. I needed the bolts to install the new FD gear on the new LSD. I also used a gear puller to remove the gears, syncros, bearings, ect.. from the OEM counter shaft. They needed to be installed on the new infinitude counter shaft.



The gears slid right onto the new Infinitude counter shaft, with perfect fitment. Below is a picture of them on the new shaft. I also checked all tolerances of the OEM gears and bearings and everything was well within tolerance. Got to love how well the OEM Honda parts hold up even when you beat the hell out of them on the track over and over and over.



Everything cleaned and re-installed into the housing. New FD gears, New Diff, New Diff bearings, New thrust shims, and New oil seals.


Everything is working geart so far but I can only get up to about 30mph around my house and I don’t want to take it out on the main roads because the car is not street legal and the last thing I need is a ticket for driving with no inspection, no insurance and no plates on the car. I will be heading up to the dyno this weekend to run it hard for several pulls and I will let you know how that goes next week. The real test will be in a few weeks at the race track and I will do a 2nd follow up at that time also. I hope it all holds up, I really don't want to pull that thing back out again

Modified by 577HondaPrelude at 5:03 PM 5/8/2006


Modified by 577HondaPrelude at 3:24 PM 6/14/2006

 

Great job

What's the OEM final gears ratio?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by astina &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Great job

What's the OEM final gears ratio?</TD></TR></TABLE>



Looking good man!

 

inspiring, good luck with everything

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94Vtecluder &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">



Looking good man! </TD></TR></TABLE>

Great .

regards

 

So you have to swap out the new counter shaft and final drive together??

Excellent write up and thanks for sharing.

 

The counter shaft is the final drive. You replace the ring gear on the diff and the countershaft and it moves all the other gear ratios at the wheel up or down depending on tooth count.

Pirate

 

Ooook, thank you Pirate.

 

yes.. the very bottom of the counter shaft is what mates up with the ring gear on the diff, thus the counter shaft is like a gear in itself. So if you change your FD ratio you have to install a new ring rear on the diff and a new counter shaft.

 

This is is a nice Honda-Tech thread, it needs to be bumped.

Any driving impressions yet? Is this a track-only Prelude or is it streetable too? What wheels/tires you run? It is always good to see someone get their hands into a transmission.

Pirate

 

Good job! I really want to get one of those FD's for the accord, same with the diff...

 

great thread

atleast now i know where i can get a better FD

 

Hey Walter,

glad everything is going okay

just remember to change your tranny oil after the initial run-in of the new gears, as you will have some metal shavings in your oil after the bedding-in process of the new gears

 

great! im a big fan of track racing and glad to see others as well. there are not many track racers, most people prefer 1/4

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Any driving impressions yet? Is this a track-only Prelude or is it streetable too? What wheels/tires you run? It is always good to see someone get their hands into a transmission. </TD></TR></TABLE>

track only, so I can't do too much driving around town or I might get a ticket

I'm going up to the dyno in 2 days, so then I can really put some load on it.

 

good stuff man

what made you decide to go with this 4.64 final over a 4.71 circuitworx or one like it??

does this one whine?

 

bump for you

 

So why we're on this techy talk someone want to explain what the FD mean? He increased his final drive. So does doing this make the gears tighter or longer? Does increasing the FD also increase the trannies theoretical top speed? Would this be better for a street or track car, a NA or turbo car?

 

a bigger final drive ratio makes the gears shorter, the change between gears is the same, its just that each gear achieves a lower speed at given rpm

generally shorter gears are better for NA cars, lowers the top speed, and while this is streetable (i dd a 4.71) it is defintely a track car mod....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">good stuff man
what made you decide to go with this 4.64 final over a 4.71 circuitworx or one like it??

does this one whine? </TD></TR></TABLE>

No whine that I can hear, but my car is anything but quiet. The main reason I got this particular FD is because Infinitude gave me a great deal on their FD gears, and it looked like a very solid part that should hold up on track.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So does doing this make the gears tighter or longer? Does increasing the FD also increase the trannies theoretical top speed?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Basically, a bigger FD ratio will make the car accelerate faster, but the top speed will be lower.

 

sounds good.....i'd like to know if you ever notice any whine from it, my circuitworx whines like hell and it has for 6 months now, im still just wondering if thats how the gear is or if something else is wrong.....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 577HondaPrelude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Basically, a bigger FD ratio will make the car accelerate faster, but the top speed will be lower.</TD></TR></TABLE>

So the rpms @ 80 mph on the highway would be higher than with the stock FD?

 

Read this first, it has good info:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/gear-ratio.htm

raising the numerical ratio of the FD increases the RPM the engine turns at a given vehicle speed. Since Honda VTEC engines have peak power up around 7000+ rpm gearing it lower (higher numerical FD ratio) makes the powerband more accessible. IOW you don't have to wait for the rpms to come up to get into the optimal powerband.

Imagine this: if you are driving on the street in a normal Prelude at 40mph in 5th gear you will be around 2500rpm. 2500rpm WOT you will probably be at about 80whp max without boost.

Now if you were in the same car with a 10.5 final drive (for example) you might be going 40mph at 4000 rpm in 5th gear which at wide open throttle will make around 100-110whp from the extra revs. So the car equiped with a higher final drive will be at an advantage in the same gear at a given speed.

The gear spacing between 1-5th gears will not change. You will still drop the same RPMs from the top of each gear but the vehicle speed will be different.

The advantages of the FD is quicker acceleration at the expense of top speed and the extra time required to shift since you go through the RPM band quicker.

Make sense?

BTW wheel/tire selection along with OEM transmission choices can be less expensive, require less work and get you the gearing you seek too. It really depend on your engine, your application and your budget.

<u>For example, if you have:</u>
205/55/15 wheels/tires
.812 M2Y4 5th gen Prelude 5th gear
4.64 FD (aftermarket)
80mph = 4250 rpm
70mph = 3700 rpm
60mph = 3200 rpm

<u>BUT if you have:</u>
205/40/16 wheels/tires
.87 M2F4 4th gen VTEC Prelude 5th gear
4.267 FD (stock)
80mph = 4450 rpm
70mph = 3900 rpm
60mph = 3350 rpm

Pirate

 

Thats sweet good luck man.

 

It's always nice to see this kind of stuff posted here. Thanks!