wortham

first off, mark did an excellent job as far as i can tell at this point. the install when flawlessly, and seeing that it's the first time he's done an install like this on an S, i couldn't be more satisified. if there's anyone else considering a 4.44, 4.56, or 4.77 install, you might wanna talk to him. mark did all the diff work himself, and it took him 6 hours. i could tell when he was done, he was a little wore out from the whole thing. in fact, he told me it took him two hours to figure out a problem cuz one of the tooths had just a wee bit of marring on it that would have caused some whining if he had not found it and ground it down. (mark, if you're listening, correct me if i understood any of the above wrong. )

in any case, i took them out, and at first, i really didn't notice much of a difference. yeah. i felt a little extra pull on the low end, but nothing like my sc install. then, i got back to tucson, and i had no one in front of me at a light. i opened her up rrreeallll wide, and oh good god! first gear is an afterthought. it's just there to get you to VTEC where you really pull. second is almost identical to first used to be. and when it comes to the higher speeds, it's some serious pull.

in any case, this is probably the most cost effective performance mod you can do. the hardest part about it is finding the right mechanic that will do you right. and if there's already one in the area that has done one, you're golden. sooo ... now, we have one.

wortham

oh. what i didn't mention is the speedo issues. i had no idea my speed would be so far off, but i'm guessing you're sitting at about 20 - 25% off. when i was cruising back to tucson, i ran into a cop. of course, everyone slowed, but my speedo was still reading 85mph. and i wanna say i've heard that 80 is around 5.5 rpm range. well, the speed was reading about 100 at that point.

sooo .. if you do this mod, be sure to get a yellow box so you can adjust it to where it should be.

dreamgetter1

Congradulations, I'm glad you like the mod.:-)

xviper

Wortham, the 4.57's should take your speedo off by 11.5%. Add in any speedo error that was already there from before (maybe 1% to 2%) and you should be pretty accurate. I'd dial in the Yellow Box at 13% to start and go from there.

jayhawker

Damn, it seems your RPM's didn't climb as high as I heard they would in regards to freeway driving. Does it feel like you need a 7th gear now?

wortham

we'll find out soon enough when i do the correction tonight. and i would have guessed higher, xviper, but 13% ain't nothin' to scoff at.

Doc

I thought you were supposed to go easy on them to break them in before you wailed on them? Is that not true?

JJ

wortham

i asked rick that same question, and i don't have the link anymore that he gave me that explained how to break them in, but the jest of it was drive easy for a 1/2 hour. rest for 10 mins. another 1/2 hour. then 10 more mins rest. and that's really it.

jic, i'll prob changne my diff fluid out in about 1,000 miles or so in case there might be any metal shavings in there.

wortham

i guess it would help to explain why. once the gears are set, that's it. set. no more moving so there's really nothing to break it if all was installed right.

wortham

i just got back from calibrating the speedo. it seems between the new tires, natural inaccuracy of the speedo, and the gears, i was 18% off. for reference, that means for every 5 actual miles, it was registering 5.9. makes a BIG difference.

and every time i open her up, i'm more impressed by the amount of power it delivers. it's sorta deceiving at first, but it's almost comparable to my motorcyles days where the bike had more power than i had skill. real good stuff.