I have a 91 civic with a '00 JDM b18cR and am currently using a cable Y1 tranny with LSD. Hasport has just come out with a kit that allows me to use a hydraulic tranny in my ef. I found someone who is selling a 98 ITR tranny with the 5.0 Cusco FD.

My car is daily driven in the summer only and I roadrace it 3-4 times a summer.

With an 8500 rpm redline, 4th gear on this tranny would top out at 106 mph. I would likely put a GSR 5th gear in it for highway crusiing.

Would the 5.0 final drive be overkill for my setup? Any thoughts or opinions?

 

First of all, when you say roadrace it, do you mean competitively? Or just tracking it? If it's competitively, I would think that choice would be up to the rules of whatever class you're running in. If not, I think it would be ridiculously fun on the track, but may be overkill on the street. I don't have experience with it myself, but for the fellas with the ATS 4.929 FD, I've heard it's...interesting. Try doing a search for that FD, see how people like it, yours should be somewhat comparable.

 

i have the ats fd and toda fw in my itr, and i can honestly say it has been the single most impressive thing i have purchased. the car seems faster than it ever was, and i had a set of toda spec b's with other mods. i cant see where you would go wrong w/ the cusco. i do however wish i installed the gsr fifth for the hwy.

 

If you want to be competitive, a 5.0 FD makes up for a lot of hp in track times. You buy that tranny to accelerate fast - that's all it does well. For the street a YS1 LSD cable tranny will give you closer gears than the Y1. My YS1 cruises on the highway at 4.3K - a 5.0K would put you around 5K. Personally I think that the hydro/cable kit, the higher priced hydo tranny makes it not worth coverting IMO. Stay cable. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

I believe Tweakmeister has the cusco 5.0.... might want to talk to him about it.

 

the cusco 5.0 FD is a gear ratio that winds up REAL quick. Not too ideal for daily driving. Also, cusco final drives are notorious for breaking on the main ring gear so be careful.

 

well if you have a 98 jdm spec tranny then you already have the gsr 5th and 4th gear.

i dont think the 5.0 is too low with a 98+ spec jdm tranny

there are even people with usdm itr trannys with ats fd, and smaller tires.

jsut really depends upon your goals and what you want to do

the cusco isnt too low, if you can get it for a good price (sub 1800) then it might be worth it.

canuck-mx-6 has it on his car. he seems to like it alot.

edit: and i wouldnt listen to others who havent had direct expeince with low final drives and whatnot. hear say isnt worth much at all.

 

what does just a 5th gear usually go for? i have a type r tranny with a 4.785 fd and its been driving me nuts on the highway. i am really thinking of going with a gsr 5th gear. is this a good idea and worth the work (how hard is this to do?)

thanks guys

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by patdemps &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what does just a 5th gear usually go for? i have a type r tranny with a 4.785 fd and its been driving me nuts on the highway. i am really thinking of going with a gsr 5th gear. is this a good idea and worth the work (how hard is this to do?)

thanks guys</TD></TR></TABLE>

instead of doing this, sell your the tranny and just get a jdm 98+ spec tranny. Its exactly what you want, without the huge PITA tearing apart the transmission to put in a 5th.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by patdemps &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what does just a 5th gear usually go for? i have a type r tranny with a 4.785 fd and its been driving me nuts on the highway. i am really thinking of going with a gsr 5th gear. is this a good idea and worth the work (how hard is this to do?)

thanks guys</TD></TR></TABLE>

i wimped out and got hte gsr 5th with my ats fd. i would just stay with the itr 5th

everyone on here suggested against it, and i still didnt do it.
listed to people on here and stay with the itr 5th

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by patdemps &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what does just a 5th gear usually go for? i have a type r tranny with a 4.785 fd and its been driving me nuts on the highway. i am really thinking of going with a gsr 5th gear. is this a good idea and worth the work (how hard is this to do?)

thanks guys</TD></TR></TABLE>
did you get a 98 spec jdm itr tranny? i am thinking you did since you have a 4.785 final drive you say...so if that's the case, you already have a gsr 5th like someone
mentioned before to someone else.

 

any roadracing that I have done so far has been non competitive. Just lapping events and such.

The tranny is a USDM '98, so it doesn't have the GSR 5th in it yet.

Any other opinions?

 

The 5.0 FD makes the car feel like there is torque everywhere. Since the car goes through RPM so quickly, it is nice if you had some extra space to play with (like an increased redline). Passing on the highway in 5th is just stab of the throttle away. Downshifting?.............what is that?

If you want to use this for racing, there better not be any long straights, as your topspeed is lower, but for a shorter course with some turns, it helps. Dave Pratte from http://www.hadamotorsport.com told me that on certain courses, he made up almost one second per lap with the 5.0 over the stock 4.4

I bought the tranny from him, and he bought it from someone else. The tranny has been used for racing, with no problems from the cusco FD. When I got the tranny, it was mint, but due to my 9500 RPM shifts, third gear was starting to grind, so I replaced the gear and synchro, and its mint now. Shifts like a new tranny. There is no way that I could go back to a stock 4.4 now

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by red civic standard &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">any roadracing that I have done so far has been non competitive. Just lapping events and such.

The tranny is a USDM '98, so it doesn't have the GSR 5th in it yet.

Any other opinions?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Just buy the tranny. You will love it. If you puss out and put a different 5th gear in, I will personally buy you a dress.


-the r0cker, who has a 4.929 final in his itr tranny and who is also building an ats 4.929 final/ ats lsd/ ats 3,4,5 gearset tranny for his itr powered hatch.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Black R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
-the r0cker, who has a 4.929 final in his itr tranny and who is also building an ats 4.929 final/ ats lsd/ ats 3,4,5 gearset tranny for his itr powered hatch.</TD></TR></TABLE>

i think thats overkill. with the extra bling money you spend on the 3,4,5 gearset, you could have more money to put into making more power with your motor

you will end at like 115mph? @9.5krpm?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bob-DC2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

i think thats overkill. with the extra bling money you spend on the 3,4,5 gearset, you could have more money to put into making more power with your motor

you will end at like 115mph? @9.5krpm?</TD></TR></TABLE>


yeah, it'll be great for NASA autox events. And no, the mph is dependant on the tire size to a certain degree as well.

 

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


yeah, it'll be great for NASA autox events. </TD></TR></TABLE>
you will be like, "yeah i hit top of 4th gear on the back straight," and people will look at you like you are crazy, cause very few if no people will hit 4th or maybe u mihgt hit 5th sometimes...

 

Yeah, they already look at me kinda crazy at the scca events.....

 

I have the ATS and Fidanza FW in a '96 spec JDM ITR Tranny and it RIPS. I drive on the highway a lot and ~4500 rpms at 70 is not a big deal IMO. On the road course it is extremely worth it, pulling out of corners is the biggest difference.

There is no reason to get the GSR 5th unless you plan on doing a lot of road trips where you are in the car for more than a couple hours at a time. And the excuse for gas mileage is BS because I get 28-30mpg on the street with my setup.

I dont see how a 5.0fd will be a huge difference from the 4.9.

As for combining the ATS 3/4/5 with the 4.9...that is going to be a very very very close tranny. Like, 70mph in 3rd, 90 in 4th and 115 in 5th....way to short for my liking. You will probably loose more time because of shifting than you will improve from the gearing...my $.02

 

dammit.

I waited too long and the tranny is sold now. so i'm in the market again for a high FD b-series tranny.

 

mines still for sale

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Black R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I will personally buy you a dress.</TD></TR></TABLE>

this coming from someone who has longer nails than my girlfriend....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bob-DC2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">mines still for sale</TD></TR></TABLE>

looks like a nice tranny, but the cusco 5.0 tranny was selling for a much nicer price.

 

I think that too high of a final drive can be just as bad as too low. On one of our tracks here in AZ, the 4.4 fd would place me in 4th for less than a second on all 4 straights while the 4.7 I have now is perfect!- puts me right at redline in 4th at the end of the straight. Now if I had the 4.9 or 5.0 I'd probably have the exact same problem I had with the 4.4, but with 5th gear instead of 4th.

Also, the straights on the track I'm referring to (Arizona Motorsports Park) aren't that long compared to many other tracks around the country, so if you decide on the 5.0 or 4.9 and get it for the benefit of the added torque in every gear, you will want to shoot yourself everytime you get into 5th gear if you have a GSR 5th. You WILL use 5th gear and every time you do, there goes the advantage you just gained.

Also, cruising at the higher rpm has had no ill effect on my gas mileage, just my ears