Ive been told that this is a very good mod to transfer power to the floor on these FD. the only thing is that i have yet to meet someone with the change already done. The whole conversion is about 550.00. what do u guys think?

 

As I've said before, a 4.30 gear change isn't worth it unless A) you have an automatic, or B) you already have to open up your differential anyway (breakage, new differential unit, etc.).

The ring and pinion costs $500 from RP, so your quote must be for installation only, correct? ~$1,000 is a lot to pay for a relatively small change in acceleration and reduced fuel economy in my opinion. You'll drop a few mph in each gear, accelerate a hair faster, and turn more rpm at any speed, which means greater fuel consumption. Spend your money elsewhere unless it's just burning a hole in your pocket and you won't miss it.

 

Poor rob20rx7, still no posts from someone who has made the switch! Oh well, I'll throw in my 2cents.
While I agree with every point jimlab makes, I personally would like to make the change to 4.30 gears. Why?

-I feel stock gearing is quite high for my type of driving
-my rear tires are 275/35/18
-I drive a modified fd & don't care about fuel consumption
-I love acceleration (who doesn't)

The rear gear change is not a job to take lightly, but of all the jobs that an fd requires during ownership, it wouldn't be in the top ten of most difficult. And regarding the cost, relatively speaking, $500 isn't a lot to spend on fd parts. At least it's money spent by choice and not because of a reliability issue or wear.

 

Why not the 4.77 gears instead?

BTW, I've ridden in and driven an FD with the 4.30s, and I couldn't tell any difference except where the gauges were concerned. A change in tire height could accomplish the same end result with less effort.

 

Better than going to the lower diff gear which makes first gear even more useless, go with the closer ratio 5th. This makes it a real gear.

 

I feel that this answer depends largely on your mods.

If you have a low to medium horsepower car, the 4.3 might be a nice upgrade to help pull you off the line and up to speed. (220-320 rwhp???)

If you have a higher horsepower car, the 4.3 will make first gear even more useless than it already is. I can't get traction very well until 3rd gear due to my mods. I wish that I had a re-geared 1st and 2nd so that I was putting down LESS power to the ground in those gears. I've also toyed around with the idea of putting in a 3.9 diff, but I don't want to hurt my power to the ground from 60 mph and up.

If you're looking for more highway power, consider a new 5th gear set. There are two ratios I know of (0.762 and 0.806) and they will make your cruising around on the highway a lot nicer. I run the 0.806:1 5th gear and I love it. This might not be a good pick if you don't like to rev a bit... 90 mph on the highway is 4000 rpm for me.

B

 

It goes alot better when you put it together with a
KAAZ lsd.

 

I have the 4.3 and KAAZ unit. My speedo is 3 MPH off because of the gears and I HATE the KAAZ (Noisy).

 

I like mines