I have a 96-97 spec jdm itr motor and I am trying to decide what trans I want. I know the gear ratio differences and know they are close price wise. I recently watched a video where they compared the 96-97 spec itr to the 98+ spec itr and they were dead even. I will be drag racing quiet a bit along with auto x. I am leaning more towards the 4.785fd, but I will let everyone give their opinion.

 

4.785 or if you can swing it, 4.928.

 

thanks for the reply. anyone else?

 

yeah if your concerned with racing i would go with the numerically higher final also.
for the street, IMO the car will be just as fun to drive eitherway, but for autocross and to a slightly lesser extent, drag racing, there will be an advantage

 

I want it to be somewhat streetable. I only drive the car once or twice a week on average, but I still want to be able to get fair gas mileage. I am trying to get a hold of engine importers like Hmotors, Tiger Japanese, Toronto JDM to see if they could seperate a 98+ Spec trans from a swap and ship it to me with some sort of warranty. I RARELY see members on here selling one (there is actually one now for $1000), but I do not have the money now. I plan on spending around that much anyways.

 

i can tell you if you try to get a tranny shipped you are going to have issues, since you are oly 2 hours from toronto you should drive up/down and hand pick what you want. I have never heard of a warranty for trannys but off all the names you listed im partial to torontojdm been dealing with him for 10+years never a crappy product and straight up guy!

 

The funny thing is that I am only 1:30 from Tiger Japenese (I have been there several times), and I was going to pick it up there. I just have heard great things about HMotors. Last time I was at Tiger Japanese they let my friend and I take a whole EF8 front for pennies on top of what it was worth. It was freezing out though and we did have to take everything off, but it didn't take long.

 

fuel mileage is most largely effected by how you drive.
the final reduction ratio won't make a noticeable difference at the pump

 

I know it will not be noticeable (driving wise), but the FD will affect gas mileage if monitored. I shouldn't be so picky about gas mileage because I will not care much. I will be beating the sh*t out of this car so it is not going to be babied. I basically just want it to be somewhat streetable when I do plan on having some fun with it on the streets. I have never driven or driven in an ITR or ITR swapped car so I am pretty excited to put this together and have some fun.

 

You would be surprised to know that a FD or close gear set will decrease fuel consumption. You're at a higher RPM but it takes less throttle to keep the car moving, hence less fuel consumed.

I have a B18C5 trans I can install an MFactory FD (or OEM 4.785 if you wish) in and ship out to you. I've shipped a lot of transmissions to the northeast without problems.

 

Ok. Pm me a price please

 

well considering the weight and aerodynamics of the car won't change, the change in fuel consumption will be effected by whether or not you move into a more efficient rpm for that particular engine. its going to take the same amount of horsepower, which is a measure of work, to keep the car moving. and you get the same amount of power per unit of fuel unless you change compression ratio. A lot of it comes down to tuning also.

it just so happens that most honda engines are very efficient at the higher cruising rpms, hence the shorter final drive increases fuel economy.
the close gear set works the same way in terms of fuel consumption, by keeping the engine in a more efficient range.
acceleration is a different matter since the rpm is changing anyways.

 

Perfect. Just what I wanted to hear. Looks like I am going with the 4.785 fd. This thread really helped my decision.

 

Just an fyi, in the Hotversion videos, i think they attributed that to the difference of the rims size.

 

I have a 96 JDM B18C as well (GSR spec), and i have the 2000 civic Si tranny with the 4.785 fd and it is absolutely the single best mod i have put in my car, and it adds 10-15% torque, so your car will drive like it has a hell of a lot more horsepower than it really does. it does drop your top speed a little, but the acceleration totally makes up for it. I would say even go with the 4.9 final drive! If you're going to keep it NA, definitely go with the 4.9, it wont let you down. if you're goin turbo tho, keep it at the stock 4.4 or you'll be doing nothing but roasting tires.

 

Its an NA 96-97 Spec JDM ITR motor with a Hytech header, BC Spec 2 exhaust, aem 3 inch and a tune

 

you can't use the 98+ spec tranny unless you have the JDM 5 lug conversions because of the 36mm axles

 

Yes you can. i am almost positive that the splines of the axles are the same size as a GsR trans on the transmission size, which means you can use a stock B series axle

 

does anyone else have input on that statement ^^ ?

 

?

 

Yes, the spline size is only different on the hubs, not the diff.

 

I also have a JDM 96 ITR. I put in the 98 spec 4.785 Final 2 years ago.
I then put in the Mfactory 3.07 this year.
This transmission feels great, a nice balance between aggressiveness and streetability.

 

ya thats what i figured. so I will be able to use my stock Integra axles with that trans, Sweet

 

This is a good read. It says that Honda used a gsr 4th/5th in the 98+ trans to keep highway rpm's down and the 96 spec trans is actually the smoothest as far as rpm drops go. The best OEM trans would be a 96 spec trans w/ the 98 spec fd.

http://www.ht-archive.org/showthread.php?p=43975957

 

great article