5.84 Final Drive Review

[Midnight]

Problem you have with the 5.4 it's neither fully track or fully road. So you're asking 1 thing to do 2 jobs. We went with 5.8 knowing it was more track focused however still drivable on the road.

Biggest thing I feel when comparing is the UK vs JDM gearing. The DC5 OEM gearing already has a short 3/4 compared to most other cars. By adding a final drive you're only going to make them shorter in terms of usage.

This is why (im guessing) Area MS suggest the gear ratio change of select gears to aid the performance through the gears and more usage. I do think that the 5.84 on stock gearing would be far too extreme for any road car and would be for track only!

However I would suggest the complete opposite as above U.K. 6th gear would totally destroy the driving of our car I feel. They are pretty evenly matched so having such a rev drop (mainly on the road) wouldn't be great. Although our car hardly see motorways so it's suited for us.

After driving the car more, personally I'd say the 5.4 would be good for the road and the 5.1 being really tame. Although I have no real experience with those FD so only an assumption.

What I will say is that the 5.8 is ballistic lower down and out of corners. 👍🏼

 

[SamDC5]

I don't know how any of you get on with a more aggressive FD I get annoyed with the standard FD around town, my left arm never felt so strong changing gear every 2 seconds lol

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

[Fez]

I totally agree with the more gear changes, when at pembrey circuit coming out of the hairpin on to the straight i was going 2-3-4-5-4th for the next corner where as my mate in stock FD DC5, was 2-3-4 and then staying in 4th for the corners, and he was right behind me.
The only time i was noticably quicker was coming out of the next hair pin which is low rpm 2nd gear and thats where i would pull on him, but soon as we are both up in vtec, theres not much between us.

 

[Midnight]

Fez, what FD is that?

 

[Fez]

Fez, what FD is that?

I've got 5.3.

 

[ep3itrdc5]

i have a 5.1 and tbh i havent noticed much difference on the road.. apart from the annoying high revs cruising, love the noise yours makes dave7368! good work... but how do you put up with it lol

 

[carl hammond]

Hi all, just having a look through this thread (need to read it fully as there are some great replies), but the cars off to TGM this week and I need to consider what to do whilst the box is off being assessed, I think the clutch is the issue so that's being done but I don't know whether to do the FD at the same time or not to bother and put the money into other things.

Anyone here running them and able to confirm if they will be worth it and if they are worth the money in reality as the cars a road car (hardly driven) but going to be used on track more going forward, however I don't want to waste money on things that wont be that noticeably different if that makes sense.

Thanks

 

[Indi]

I absolutely love my 5.84. the car just feels so lively and responsive. I'd definitely recommend it on a weekend/track car.

 

[carl hammond]

I absolutely love my 5.84. the car just feels so lively and responsive. I'd definitely recommend it on a weekend/track car.
Thanks mate, how does it feel vs oem? as in where do you notice it more etc as I would like to keep my vtec high (currently 5250rpm), but will all depend on other work I have done at the same time whilst away

 

[carl hammond]

As above, the M factory final drives are semi-helical so you do get a slight whine from them, more so with the 5.84 apparently but the noise from my 5.46 is barely noticeable.

Interesting topic this and I'll throw in my 2p in case it is useful to anyone considering a different final drive.

I've fitted shorter final drives to other cars in the past and fully believed it was one of the best things you can do, but I have very mixed feelings about my 5.46. The car feels like it accelerates quicker, but with more gear changes needed to reach the same speed as before; it feels like it cancels out any advantage. In my experience, there doesn't seem to be any difference in straight line pace with the 5.46 versus the original final drive. A rolling start from 60-65ish is now in a really awkward spot as there's not enough of third gear left to use and fourth feels a bit flat, whereas the original final drive is good to go in third gear.

That said, when I took the car back to Cadwell Park with the 5.46 fitted it was fantastic. The engine was always on the boil and I could make the most of every gear on the straights - this is less of an issue at Caddy, but at other tracks I've found myself needing to change into fifth on straights for all of a couple of seconds before getting on the brakes. Now I get much more use out of fifth on the straights. The same can't be said for my local track of Croft though as it really didn't suit the 5.46 - I found I needed to short shift at hawthorn to avoid running out of revs at the chicane.

I also went for the EP3 sixth gear and don't regret that decision - 70mph cruise is around 3750-3800 RPM now so I tend to bumble along at 65mph now which is a more comfortable 3500 RPM. I've never needed sixth gear on any of the tracks I frequent, probably just as well as if you max fifth and change into sixth, it definitely feels like an odd gear out in the cluster compared to the JDM sixth. I personally doubt you would need sixth gear with a 5.46 in an N/A DC5 on UK tracks other than airfield days, so I would definitely recommend the EP3 sixth if you drive on the road or travel long distances to/ from tracks. Just be aware that the pre-face and facelift EP3 sixth gears are different - you need a pre-facelift EP3 sixth to fit a DC5 box.

In terms of ratio, I feel a less severe 5.1 would be the best all rounder for an N/A DC5 that is predominantly used on the road with the odd track day here and there - you'll get a slight benefit in acceleration but without taking too much out of the speeds that are attainable in each gear (to the point it feels like you're constantly changing gear). It would also negate the need for a longer sixth.

In summary, I find it a hard modification to recommend and I do wonder if it's because I went for such a severe ratio; although I know others will disagree with me and say they're perfectly happy with the even more extreme 5.84. But if I had my money again would I do a shorter final drive? No, I'd probably have put it towards drop in cams instead.

Thanks for this epic post as it's really helping me at the moment as my car's going in for some work on the gearbox/clutch (which ever is needed) and I have been looking at a final drive, but in a year or so the car may be turned into a track focussed beast only so I may consider just leaving the gears and final drive alone until I know the full final future of the car so not to ruin it and waste money.

Great comments thanks

 

[Nathan_621]

I took my Dc5 in this week for a 5:46 along with a ep3 6th and can say this setup is awesome.

Like as the above says more gear changes but the acceleration and increase in torque through each gear really makes the car come alive. Looking forward to getting on track with this setup.