I'm sure this has been discussed before, I tried to search, however unsuccessfully. I am wondeirng if anyone here and with what degree of success has used an itr or b16 tranny for their motor, with a taller than stock 5th gear. I'm assuming for the horsepower of most mild or moderate buildups, a 1/4 mile (or freeway ) should really only need 4th gear at redline (I'm guessing somewhere around 120 mph @ 8000 rpm with stock final drive? Correct me if I'm wrong I didn't calculate it). With a b20/vtec or b18c in an eg hatch, I would think you could use a much taller 5th gear for gas mileage / engine wear purposes without having it bog down climbing hills. Just looking for people with more experience than me to break it down and let me know the deal, sorry for writing a paragraph and thanks in advance.

Please, only people who are more experienced and knowledgeable than me (which should be most of you ).

 

I personally have a CTR tranny w/4.785 final drive + a GSR 5th gear.

If you're mainly just wondering if the swapping out of 5th gear for something with a longer ratio is more feasible for better freeway gas mileage, YES, its possible to do and doesn't take that much work to get done, and is worthy of doing, depending on how long you want the 5th gear ratio to be.

Generally, a 94-01 LS 5th gear (0.0714) is the longest ratio OEM gear that Honda makes for a B-series hydro tranny. Then, a GSR 5th (0.787), and finally a B16/ITR/CTR 5th (identical ratio's of 0.848)

 

Thanks a lot, that's just the things I was wondering about.

 

Just keep in mind that any taller fifth gear you use will make the car more sluggish in fifth gear. It will certainly not feel as 'invincible' on hills and will most definitely require a downshift where none was needed before.