Regearing my Honda (1994 Del Sol VTEC)

[Shortie771]

I have a 1994 Honda Del Sol VTEC and im wanting to swap my final drive and 5th gear but im not very "car savvy" so i need help to figure out some compatible gears so ill get lower RPM's for better FE. I found a link that mentioned a gear swap for a Del Sol Si but i cant filter through the information i need and the the rest of it... Please help me out.

The link i found is,

http://www.d-series.org/forums/gener...-question.html

Thanks-
Shortie771

[SVOboy]

Del Sol VTEC has a b-series as I recall, so you'll be looking for parts from other b-series engines. I believe the dc integra ls had the highest 5th gear.

[Shortie771]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Del Sol VTEC has a b-series as I recall, so you'll be looking for parts from other b-series engines. I believe the dc integra ls had the highest 5th gear.

Yes Del Sol VTEC has a B16A2 i believe. dc integra ls you say? ok thanks ill have to look that up and check the gear ratio on it.

[Shortie771]

Ok i looked it up and here are the gear ratios of the Del Sol VTEC vs. the Integra Ls

Del Sol VTEC
1st-3.230
2nd-2.105
3rd-1.458
4th-1.107
5th-0.848
Final Drive-4.400

Integra Ls
1st-3.230
2nd-1.900
3rd-1.269
4th-0.966
5th-0.742
Final Drive-4.266

Seems like if they are compatible then the Integra gear is the way to go. I wonder what that will do to my FE and drivability, if i swap the final drive and the 5th gear?

[SVOboy]

Probably increase your FE a little and not change drivability much at all

[Shortie771]

How much do you think that will cost me? BTW do you think i would be better off doing a full tranny swap with the integra tranny since it is overall better than my stock tranny?

[Shortie771]

Cancel the last thing i said... A full tranny swap would be too much work and too expensive. when i get some cash ill get around to swapping out the 5th gear and final drive. All i need to do know is figure out how much the new gears will cost me and where to get them.

Thanks
Andrew

[evolutionmovement]

If you're not very car savvy, a transmission swap is what you want to do, and even if you are car savy, I can't see why you'd bother unless you didn't want to lose acceleration off the line, but you'd still lose that anyway with the new FD ratio. If the transmission bolts to the engine, you're talking a day, maybe two, job versus much longer to take everything apart and I wouldn't be surprised if buying the parts separately costs more or close to a used transmission anyway. There's a reason most mechanics just swap them. It's not as simple as just cracking it open and changing out the gears. You should be able to get a fairly low mileage LS transmission for around $600, usually warrantied, from a wrecker (Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market).

[MetroMPG]

Although the 5th gear is usually external to the transmission, under a stamped steel cover bolted onto the housing. Much easier to do than a final drive/entire tranny swap

See this thread for pics of a Saturn 5th gear swap: Saturn S-Series 5th Gear Swap

[theunchosen]

I am fairly certain the Del Sol trans is not like the saturn or the Merc(I think it was mercedes) that was mentioned.

The 5th gear is integrated I'm pretty sure. so swapping the gear as was stated means ripping the entire thing apart.

Its an entirely useful idea because the Del sol is doing 62 at 3K rpm. . .most hypermilers are doing 1.5-2K at 62 so its acceptable good mileage.