el98

I'm only 17 and this is my second civic, only thing I have ever done is change the oil in my car, I don't know a whole lot about vehicles. Eager to learn though.

I recently bought a civic with a b16a, I'm not sure if it is cable or lsd transmission but the gear ratio seems to be really high in it. If I go on the highway it will be revving about 3200 rpm doing 100km/h.

So is it possible to swap out gears? I have no idea to be honest, or should I just buy a new transmission?

kaval

It's possible to do this by lowering your final drive to something from an LS Integra, or swapping out 5th gear to an LS 5th. Although I remember someone here mentioning that changing the 5th gear won't make a big difference.

If you lower the final drive the car will feel like it accelerates slower.

D.T.P

Yes its possible. As said above, you can swap ring gear with pinion gear or swap ls 5th.
Imo ls 5th would be the best thing to do, as said it will not make a HUGE difference but you will save some gas on highway and still have a lot of power. By lowering final drive or swapping the transmission to LS, the car will be slower. Its basic common sense. You have less mechanical advantage, thus slower.

Over time you'll get used to the short gears, and everything else will feel weird. I had a b16 transmission on my b20 until the transmission granaded (lol) and now with an ls transmission its a lot slower, I hate it. And gas saving are not that big.

Moreover, regarding your question what transmission you have, well if you have a small reservoir for clutch fluid, then its hydraulic. You can also look at the front (by the fan) and see if it has a cable or a piston. Generally you won't see cable transmissions in 92+ civics. And if you look at the stamp for the transmission, right by where engine block meets the transmission, also facing the fan, it will say LSD if it is.

Hope that helped

ol Dusty

iTrader: (2)

Maybe with B series anyway, my d15b vtec came with factory LSD and it doesn't say that anywhere on the housing.

el98

Thanks for the help, I got another question for you or for whoever wants to shed some light on it.

How do I go about getting a LS 5th gear, also if I take it to my mechanic how much time am I looking at to install it?

Also when I cold start my car it idles around 2100 rpm, If you push in the clutch it will oscillate a bit from 1500 to 2100rpm, After it warms up a bit it will stay around 1500 rpm and then when it's fully warm it will idle at 1100 - 900 rpm with no oscillating. I know the engine will idle higher to warm up, but the oscillating well cold got me a little worried.

Thanks again

MPR

I know people tend to complain about the gearing in the b16 being too short and the revs being too high all the time. To be honest, unless your running a larger b18/b20, there's nothing wrong with running the b16 at these higher rpms. It's a smaller displacement engine that doesn't make much torque. It runs very efficiently at even 4000rpm+, so even though it's "screaming" compared to most other engines, it's still just sipping fuel.

I've got a b16a2 with SiR trany (now with 260k+) and drove home from virginia beach all highway at 4000rpm+ all day long. That day yielded my 2nd best fuel economy ever recorded with my car wich was 702km/tank (roughly 37mpg average). That's 37mpg running constantly between 4-4500rpm.

I totally agree with lengthening 5th gear in a b16 trany when coupled to a larger b18/b20, but imo it's not necessary with the b16 and I question if it would really help fuel mileage in doing so, since you'd be lowering the cruize rpm, potentially below the b16's peak efficiency range. This means with the extra aerodynamic drag at highway speeds, it may require more throttle input to maintain the same speed as before which means the engine is running less efficiently and thus, burning more fuel, even though it would be revving lower. Lower rpm doesn't always mean less fuel burned.

You can go ahead and try it, I'm curious to see if it helps. Let us know how it is. But it's just my observation from owning a b16 with short-ratio trany for the past 6 years, I think honda did a very good job with matching the gearing for the b16 (being a smaller engine with less torque), and I wouldn't be overly concerned with the higher rpm operation of the b16. It's actually very efficient in the mid range rpm's. I've noticed while cruizing on the highway at 100-120kph and ~3500-4000rpm, the throttle input required to maintain speed is practically next to nothing (like 2-5%). That = very little fuel being burned.

Just something to think about...