I'm working with a manual CRV transmission, converted to RWD. The diff has been welded and the shafts were all custom made so they'd be stronger.. My question is, what else can I do?

I figure this is the area where I will probably run into the most problems at high boost/whp so I want to build it as solid as I can off the jump. I'm looking at cryo-treating the tranny and shafts, as well as ordering carbon synchros from synchrotech.. Outside of that, does anyone know of additional steps I can take? She'll be more of a casual driver, more for shows and occassional strip time. The car is at 310whp right now and am shooting for about 550rwhp give-or-take by the summer, with an increase to 600+ a little further down the road.

Any help is appreciated!

 

Short of custom gears (read: expensive), the only option really for (helping to, won't make them bulletproof) increasing the longevity of your gears is some form of treatment.

Cryo: This is best done during the manufacture of the gear. Doing it as post-treatment doesn't really give results (no matter how much the cryo companies tell you otherwise)

Our recommendation is WPC Treatment, which is Micro Shot Peening at extremely high velocities; resulting in a stronger part and reduced friction. The company (owned by Fuji Heavy Industries) have a branch in Socal and are used and recommended by several high profile race teams

 

Go the easy route and keep the power low. You could have a bulletproof trans but you'll still destroy the transfer case then the rear end. Easiest way to go other than keeping the power low is an OTS trans (can be had for around 10k) and rear end.

 

I just contacted wpc about "treating" my gears, waiting to see what they say. Thanks for the info, I've been doing searches and forums for a while now and the only thing I found was cryo.. Wish I could find some better gears now

 

Lol.. yeah, low power isnt in the plan. As for tearing up my tail section, I'm pretty sure the custom hardened shafts, welded diff and ford 8.8 rear end will handle what I'm throwin at it. The t-case is definitely on my radar, but working on solving the tranny gear problem first. If I go with the wpc, thats next on my list o'questions!

Oh, and as far as a custom tranny, I specifically want to run this transmission to push the envelope on it. Not to mention, pretty much every custom tranny for Honda Prelude RWD conversions.., ones that keep the H22 under the hood where it belongs.., will force you to spin your engine. Thats not what I'm wanting to do either. Mine is truly a one-of-a-kind build and I'm going to see how far I can take it.

 

Here is a good article written about a nissan trans but the methods apply to a lot of stuff.


http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_artic...-the-pros.aspx

 

Really good info, thanks runner. Would be even more beneficial if I was building a sentra lol. I got a swift reply from WPC and its definitely steeper in price per part than doing cryo, but I'm sold. I was originally looking to pull the tranny, drain and ship. With the amount of tear down to do what they want, I'll probably just buy a new one and ship it directly to them. That way I can destroy the stock tranny and determine its limits prior to installing the treated one.

Thats the real problem with "going where no honda has gone before.." finding parts and true technical data for certain areas like this are virtually nil at best. I'm going to enjoy pushing these parts to their limits and back. I had a friend a few years ago, had a fully built B16 eg running 550 and started with stock CV's. When they broke, he went to Hasport stage ones.. When they broke he went to DSS stage one's.., then two's, and so on. Even snapping them during street races, leaving him stranded on the side of the interstate, all just so he he could determine which worked best for his application. I wish I had his job, his money, or at the very least his technical findings on everything he tested! Damn blackwater for transferring him!! lol.

 

If you buy a new trans it will still have to be torn down just like any used trans.

 

You're right, I did say buy a new one and ship it.. Inadvertently, I left out the part of tearing it down first so thanks for clarifying that. Where I was going with it is that this way I don't have to remove the tranny first, which will cause a headache for me at this particular time plus un-needed additional costs. Instead, I can leave the stock tranny on until it gives out and find its breaking point, giving me plenty of time to stiffen the new one and ship it to my shop for re-build and swap. That'll also assist me as far as what'll be the first thing to go and how much hardening is required overall, not to mention giving me a great opportunity to see how well the WPC increases reliability. I'm going to start shopping for a new transmission shortly after christmas and we'll go from there. As soon as I start putting everything together and get the car back in the shop I'll be starting a thread with data and findings on everything.

If anybody else knows of anything to increase transmission reliability, please feel free to chime in! Thanks!

 

Check out http://www.remchem.com/ . We used to use their isotropic finishings on the gears on the Formula 3 cars I used to wrench on, and along with peening it creates quite a strong gear. If you want to learn a little bit about it, check out: http://www.taylor-race.com/isotropic.cfm .

 

REM alone doesn't strengthen the gear and it changes the physical dimensions.