It took me a bit to get everything together, but I ended up getting a pretty decent deal. There's an ebay seller (jdm engines corp) in Richardson TX that I got my ITR trans from for $1275 shipped. That's pretty decent for a 4.78 trans, I thought. They still have a few units left on eBay if anyone else is in the market.

Anyway, the trans came really complete and it was REALLY clean. The bolts were that shiny gold color. It definitely looked like it was a low mileage unit. It came with all brackets, slave cylinder, and also came with the mid shaft...not that I needed one...but it was crazy clean so I used it. It also came with the clutch and flywheel and trans brace, which I sold to make back some of the cost. The clutch looked brand new. So now I'm fairly certain that this thing only had like 20k miles on it or something...maybe less.

My friends let me do the trans swap at their heated shop with a lift...which is just down the street from my house. The lift makes the job of swapping easier...but not by that much. Honda transmissions are so damn easy to do lol. It took me about 1.5hrs to remove it and about 1.5hrs to put it back including a new rear main seal and a lot of ADD. I experience a defecit of attention for sure.

My driving impressions:
I really really really like the 1-3 gearing. It's pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I was always just in between 2nd and 3rd on the track. Neither was optimal with the 4.4 trans. It was either a slight bog in 3rd or having to slow down harder at corner entry in order to stuff it into 2nd for corner exit.

I think that the lowered 3rd gear will help me keep it in the power band. The thing I do NOT like about the JDM trans is the 3-4 gear delta. I kinda wish Honda would have just put a 4.78FD into the USDM/96-97spec trans with the USDM/96-97 spec gears.

The car seems to accerate so clean 1-3 and then kinda fall a little flat in 4th.

Either way, I think that it will improve lap times a bit. Not that I'm competing with anyone but myself anyway...but it's always nice to go faster.

Anyway...I was just posting this in hopes that it would help anyone else looking at the swap. I would post a video...but the car is away for storage. Maybe in the spring.

 

Tires are too wide for the wheels, finna make feel all wobbly and whatnot.

 

I'd say your impression pretty much sums it up. I really have a Love/Hate relationship wit my 4.7. I wish there was a quick way to change gears out for different tracks. You will eventualy experience the agony of running out of gear in places you used to not have to shift at but you'll get used to it.

 

Im thinking about doing this and was wondering how the powerband feels over the 4.4

When you see the difference in dyno graphs between the 2 FD's you see that it literally raises the bar of the graph where it looks like your getting gobs more power...not overall HP but it seems like there is more power earlier in the graph....

basically does 2nd and 3rd gear pulls feel stronger??

 

I rode with him after the FD swap, and it DEFINITELY feels like it pulls much harder 1-3. Especially top of 2nd into 3rd. Speaking in drag racing terms, if he ran a 14.4 on a 2.060ft with a 4.4FD, assuming the identical conditions, i would say 14.1 or faster with the 4.7FD.

 

It is a pretty dramatic difference in 1-3. It accelerates much faster and youre at 85+ MPH in the blink of a fist. 3rd gear is where the car really comes alive. 1st and 2nd are so short that you just rip thru em. I love it. But 4th gear is kinda where it falls off. In retrospect, a USDM trans with a 4.7 would be better.

Like Todd00 said though....it'd be nice to have different gears for different tracks. In a few years, I might think about trying out a 4.9 FD. we'll see.

 

You're nuts, I think the only track around us that would benefit from a 4.9 is AB north, maybe. I'll be all up on your junk with my GS-Type-R.

 

Yea, I stole that from you, wanna fight about it?

 

^lol. There's tight enough sections at gingerman...or any other track that we've been to except road america. Turn 2 clockwise at gingerman, for example is really awkward and *kinda* uphill.

 

^^^Thats what i have in my setup... USDM Trans w/4.7FD.. had to pull the trans back out of the car due to having the washer misaligned...:hammer..

but here is a comparison of jdm trans vs usdm trans w/4.7

 

That is true, I haven't tracked Honda's yet (my s2k doesn't count) so I am still very new to the whole "no power" thing. The evo would charge up those hills like a Semi. Definitely cannot wait to ride around Gingerman in your car with the new FD. I want to see you pull 1:47-ish lap times.

 

1:47?!!! Lol. It's just a stock ITR with a drop in filter, header, trans, sticky tires, Konis/GCs and an alignment. IDK about no 1:47s, son. In the S2000, yes....1:46-1:47 on the same set up as last year.


That sucks. Luckily they're easy to pull. lol.

What happened to me was:
-Swapped out the USDM trans for what was SUPPOSED to be a 4.7FD trans.
-Turned out not to be a 4.7FD. Dude totally screwed me on that one. His screen name is eghatch9295, BTW. Total scumbag scammer.
-Pulled the trans out again to install the 4.7FD.

This was a week after I swapped my GSR's trans to a B16 unit for better gearing.

I feel as if I can do the trans swap in my sleep now lol.

 

C'monnnnnnnnnn, don't be a pu$$y. An ITR is just as fast as an s2000

I find this quote to be quite convenient. Just so happens I have an Integra that needs a trans swap.

 

So are you saying that a USDM 96/97 trans with JDM 4.78 will be better than JDM ITR trans?

 

^Yeah, the JDM trans has a GSR 4th and 5th gear to keep the RPM "civil" when cruising. Don't they know that most people that own ITRs are hooligans?!

 

Unless your car is a dedicated track car, I would stay away from the 4.9. It's really specialized for short course tracks with relatively short straights (like Tsukuba for example). Anywhere where there is more than a 1.5km straight, you'll run out of top end speed pretty quick.

 

^Thats what I've heard from one source. He says he doesn't really like his 4.9. There are other people that say they love it, however.

 

For me I'm leaning toward the 4.9 since I don't track the car and just want to make the car fun and enjoyable to drive. Although I think the 4.7 in the USDM trans should be quite nice "middle of the road" compromise.
I see a lot of posts about gearing for this track or that track and that's a bit out of my ballpark. There's no such thing as the perfect trans for sure,...kinda like comparing turbos, and endless debate.

 

4.9 is definitely race only. I think its good for places like Tsukuba, but places like Fuji Speedway, even the 4.7 was unbearable. I ran out of gear on the front straight and was bouncing on the limiter for about 100 meters. For a DD, I think 4.7 is at the boundary of driveability. Japan doesn't have too many long straight freeways like the states so it doable here, but if I were in the states (esp CA) I would keep the 4.4 and just make 1,2,3 shorter.

Really depends what you want to do. Check out the DC2 in this vid with really short gearing...its really nice, but can you imagine this on the freeway?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcnBy04OZGw

 

Nothing like hearing the rev of a Honda!

Looking at the MFactory gear cal. the 4.9 in the USDM tranny adds a maximum of 400-500 rpm's in fifth gear @ HWY speeds. Iv'e said before that as long as I don't have a fart can or buzz saw sounding exhaust I don't think another 400 (or so) revs would bother me.

 

[QUOTE=Japan doesn't have too many long straight freeways like the states so it doable here, but if I were in the states (esp CA) I would keep the 4.4 and just make 1,2,3 shorter.[/QUOTE]

-OR- use the 4.7 FD in the USDM transmission with an LS 5th gear.

I know King Motorsports (Mugen) in Wisconsin did that to their 98ITR which made the car much more driveable on the freeway at cruising speeds.

Their perspective was that using the LS 5th gear was an optimal choice as you rarely use 5th gear when racing anyway. This set up makes a lot of sense which offers flexibility for race characteristics 1st - 4th, and having 5th as a cruising gear to get you to all of those ITR and saves your engine from blowing up from scraming all of the time.

He told me "trust me, you'll love this mod for aggressive street driving".

db

 

I doubt that the ITR in the video had just a 4.9FD. It seemed like it had a short ratio trans as well.

I don't think I'd do a LS 5th gear. The RPM drop would be annoying even for DD. The stock trans puts you at about 4200 RPM at 80. A 4.78FD in a USDM trans puts you at about 4500RPM at 80. No big deal. That's not going to blow up your engine. I'd take that over the LS 5th gear.

 

I noticed that also. That thing was mad-revving!



[/quote]I don't think I'd do a LS 5th gear. The RPM drop would be annoying even for DD. The stock trans puts you at about 4200 RPM at 80. A 4.78FD in a USDM trans puts you at about 4500RPM at 80. No big deal. That's not going to blow up your engine. I'd take that over the LS 5th gear.[/quote]

There's been a couple of members here that did the LS 5th and hated it. The 4.928 from MFactory is a 10% underdrive gear so whatever RPM you're at with the stock 5th gear add the 10% and that's where you'll be. I might just have to be the guinea pig here and try it for myself to see what happens.

Once again I'm speaking for me who never has plans to track my car though.

 

From my experience, loaded car with jack, tires, track gear. Front splitter and gen2 wing at full downforce, rpm at 4700 in 5th gear gets 35mpg.
No big deal.

 

Yep, I could see that. I got 33mpg at 80 with my stock trans and 3 people in the car. I think the revving issue is more psychological than anything. Seems everyone's SO worried about it.