Better gearing??

[golfg60 0]

Hi chaps,

I have a 2ltr G60 with various mods but i'm unhappy with the gear box ratios. I don't know what box the car has in it but i do know that it isn't the standard box. I seem to be changing gear far to quickly through the revs, ie the car hits 5800 rpm to quickly and then when i do change up a gear i'm aleady at 4000rpm (obviously this is when accelerating hard).

I can't help feeling i'm not utlising the cars power with these ratios.

I have heard of close ratio/ low ratio/ high ratio boxes but don't understand what this means or which one i am after. The top speed of the car is 125mph (this is where the car red lines) but the car has so much more potential to go way past this.

I would like a gear box where i don't have to change gears as often and hopefully get the most out of the car and improve my terrible fuel consumpsion.

Any help or advice would be very much appreciated as this is driving me nuts.

Cheers

Tom

[Kevin Bacon 5]

If your sign-on name is correct, then am I correct in assuming this 2.0G60 engine lives in a MK1 or MK2 Golf? Is it a White MK2? I knew of a white MK2 Golf 2.0 G60 but that had the cable box. The box you have in your car sounds like a 16V one (solid shift 020) with restacked ratios or a lower final drive. A standard 16V 020 box will max out at 139.9mph, so someone's definitely been fiddling, unless you're running 13" rims or something?

 

Or, you may just find that the previous owner hated the G60 ratios (as many people seem to) and restacked the box. Sounds like a good box to me, wanna swap??

 

Close ratio just means the gears ratios are setup so that the engine doesn't drop out of it's 'zone', this usually entails fitting a lower final drive or restacking the gearbox with different ratios.

 

Kev

[golfg60 0]

Cheers for the reply mate. The car is a mk2 but it is blue. I had a chance to put the cable box in but couldn't afford it at the time. I had a 16v before this one, second gear seemed to go on and on but in my g60 i find i'm working my way up through the gears pretty quick. As i said i'm not sure if this is a bad thing but i'm not sure if i'm utilising the cars power as when i change gear the gear i'm changing to starts at about 4000rpm which only leaves me with 1800rpm until i have to change again (i don't redline the car).

Cheers

Tom

[PhatVR6 0]

Sounds to me like you have alow final drive, maybe a 3.94 like mine. which is great for a revvy ening, but not so goood if you can only do 5500rpm.

 

Try swapping in a 3.3 final drive out of a VR6, or go for the proper g60 3.6 one.

 

or just change gear earlier and ride the torque instead of revving it.

[PhatVR6 0]

Do you know where your gearbox code is? it's on top of the box, near the front, right where the gearbox casing ends, and the bell housing starts. it'll be 3 letters, then some numbers. Tell me the letters, i'll tell you the ratios.

 

At a guess, I'd say it's AGC.

[golfg60 0]

Cheers mate, i'll check out those letters out when i get home and tell you tomorrow. Thanks again.

Tom

[GTDi 0]

Sounds to me like you have alow final drive, maybe a 3.94 like mine. which is great for a revvy ening, but not so goood if you can only do 5500rpm.

 

Try swapping in a 3.3 final drive out of a VR6, or go for the proper g60 3.6 one.

 

or just change gear earlier and ride the torque instead of revving it.

 

If i swap the final drive of my g60 box with the vr6 one the car give how much top speed?

[PhatVR6 0]

work it out

 

http://www.johnmaherracing.com/gearcalc.htm

 

gearing alone will not give you more speed, you need torque and BHP for that.

[Henny 0]

gearing alone will not give you more speed, you need torque and BHP for that.

 

This may be true in a standard car with the standard engine, but in an engine transplant'd car with an odd ball 'box it doesn't always hold true...

In my MKI golf 16V I used a 1.6 gearbox... You could accelerate to redline in 5th and bounce it off the revlimiter which meant that the max speed was about 130mph.... :? With a different gear setup she'd have gone a lot faster on top end, but the acceleration would have been slower and she'd not have hit the limiter...

Saying that, it was always quite good fun taking the car off both the end of the rev counter AND the speedo :shock: :lol: (she had MKI clocks still, so 120mph and 7K rpm clocks!)

[PhatVR6 0]

Not neccessarily. the top gearing can be too long, and stop you getting into the powerband, which means you can't overcome the drag of the car.

 

Top speed is aload of b0llocks anyway, I'm more interested with how fast the car can get to 100, andything over than that isn't really important, it'll only get you banned, and you won't see it much on a track either unless it's a retty big one.

[Henny 0]

Not neccessarily. the top gearing can be too long, and stop you getting into the powerband, which means you can't overcome the drag of the car.

 

Top speed is aload of b0llocks anyway, I'm more interested with how fast the car can get to 100, andything over than that isn't really important, it'll only get you banned, and you won't see it much on a track either unless it's a retty big one.

 

Yup, I agree totally, what I was saying is that the gearing can also be too short and make you run out of revs way to quickly meaning you've got to rev the hell out of the engine to do anything over 20mph!

 

I'm of the same school of thought about the top end too, that's why I fitted the 1.6 box to the 1.8 16V engine in my MKI... 145BHP at the wheels (dyno to proove!) in a car weighing just over half a ton meant 0-60 was around 5 seconds! Made a lot of people jump when it just "disappeared" from the lights... Pulling off in 5th was also quite a good giggle too, but only after I put in the heavy duty clutch! :roll: :lol:

[PhatVR6 0]

Yep, it can be too short, giving poor in gear speeds. and you you read the post at the top that exactly the problem the guy has! hence why I suggested a longer final drive.

 

Gearing can be a very personal thing though. an "expert" may have his (proven) opions on what is best for a geiven engine, but one you start to mod ify it all goes outof the window, and personal driving styles also come into it. what suits one person doesn't suit others.

 

oh, and some people seem pre-occupied with being able to hit 60mph in 2nd gear, and it totally blinkers them into wanting any gears shorter than that. When the reallity is, that 0-60 means sh1t all unless you're a motoring journalist.