I have an LS 5th gear. Here's the how and the why.

I did a full Overhaulin' style job on my 1995 Civic. All of you Myspacers can look at the car on my profile. I have a blog and a slideshow. My profile name is fukengrooven.

The tranny I originally sourced was a USDM Type R tranny with 4.4 final drive and factory LSD. Aside from the JDM Type R tranny with the 4.7 final drive, the USDM Type R tranny has the shortest gearing of all B series trannies.

Anyway, after I started to drive the car, I immediately realized HOW short the gearing was. My RPM's at 70MPH was 4,000 and my RPM's at 80MPH was 4700 RPM's. This is great for racing and good acceleration, but sucks for fuel economy and engine longevity. With no luck, I looked long and hard for a GSR or LS tranny with a GOOD LSD installed........meaning a Quaife or factory LSD. No OBX or Phantom Grip pieces of #@$!. With any used tranny, you always run the risk of getting a #@$! sandwich. So I just went full bore and sprung for tranny surgery courtesy of Gearspeed Transmissions in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. The point of contact there is James Ornelas. I pulled the Type R tranny and delivered it there along with a brand new Quaife LSD.

They rebuilt the entire tranny with new carbon synchros, an LS countershaft, an LS 5th gear, and an LS 4.266 final drive. 1st through 4th gear remained the same. I had to use the Quaife LSD because the ITR or CTR factory LSD will not work with the smaller ring gear. The total bill from Gearspeed was $1500. The Quaife ran me $930 shipped.

After I re-installed the tranny, I was VERY pleased with the performance. 1st through 4th acceleration suffered little, and 5th gear is NICE AND LOW. 3100 RPM at 70MPH and 3700 RPM at 80MPH.

Remember that the gearing is the same between an ITR and a Civic Si B16 tranny. Only difference is LSD versus non-LSD. So if you HAD to rebuild one of these trannies, that is your golden opportunity to add LS 5th gear and final drive. 1st through 4th are about the same as GSR tranny acceleration.

If you did the same with a GSR tranny, your 5th gear would be the same as mine but acceleration in 1st through 4th will be worse because the GSR tranny has longer gears than an ITR or B16 Si tranny.