Standard trans swap for '96-'00 Civic?

[brucepick]

This is kinda related to the "Six speed 1988-1991 Civic?" thread started a few days ago but I'm going at it from a slightly different angle - can one swap in a different tranny or some different gears?? I'm only talking about standard trans here, not auto.

For me I think that taller gearing in top gear would be the goal. I'm on the highway a lot. Of course I don't want to be crippled in town but a slightly higher 1st gear plus slightly taller spacing between all steps should give a good drop in rpms when in 4th and 5th, right? Or any path to a higher 5th gear might be good of course.

I gotta admit, not (yet) owning any Honda I'm not familiar with the different trannies etc. that were used. So I hope you'll be gentle and not send my head spinning with toooo much new jargon.

How about the next gen. Civic, ending in '05? Same deal? Or does it use a different group of standard trannies?

I find not too many HX on the market. But plenty of the other versions like EX, LX, DX. If one could change the gearing you could probably get a few extra mpg... probably nearly as good as the HX mpg when you're all done. Just without the lean burn - but we know it's possible to get good FE without lean burn. And cheaper Oxy sensors, too!

My mechanical skills are medium. I've been pretty intrepid in modding my own car and have done my share of tuneups, brake work, some suspension work - but I've never pulled an engine or tranny and never pulled a head.

Comments?

[varg]

It'll be a lot harder to change the gear ratios within the transmission than to change the final drive, which is why most people do it that way. As for swapping automatic to standard, very possible and not that expensive in an older Civic from what I've seen... But good luck on a newer car. All the techno-wizardry makes it very costly to implement such a modification and quite difficult as well.

[brucepick]

Final drive swap - sounds good.
Can someone give a bit more detail on final drive changes in the Civic?

1) Any issues with speedometer/odometer changes, or is that driven off the final drive's output so it becomes a non-issue?
2) Do you have to pull the tranny or engine+tranny to change the final drive?
3) Any recommendations on what final drive to use and which cars would be good donors?

I'm considering a '96-'00 Civic, or possibly '01+.

Thanks!