Just got my car back from Ben at GTR Motorsports in MD. He did the install of the 4.57s in my 05 s2k. We were having some problems with the gears being waaay too loud when he first shimmed it. It's a lot better now-backlash set at .0065" with a perfect gear pattern. The tolerance on my set may have been on the tight side.

On to my review:

These gears are still noisy, yet tolerable. Its not noticeable during acceleration or deceleration when braking. When you're cruising or letting go of the gas, the gear whine becomes apparent from inside the cabin. You can also hear the gears meshing when you pull it out of gear. However, I had my friend following me and he said all he could hear was my exhaust (T1R) and not the gear whine.

Anyway, since I just got them, I wasn't abusive to them-yet. The car pulls HARD in first and the pull is very noticeable in every gear. It almost feels like it never dropped out of vtec (from 1st to 2nd). Then when you hit vtec, it feels like someone just pushed the NOS button!! I'm being a little sarcastic, but I'm just trying to emphasis that you really can feel the difference. I assume this would be similar to an 00-03 with a 4.77 gear set. You will definitely have to row through these gears, but thats all part of the fun in driving these cars! Also, you WILL lose top end speed. With these gears, I'll be maxing out at 140ish. Check out The Reverends Gear Calculator.

Use the s2000 ratios, but change:

final drive: 1.208
axle ratio: 4.57 (or 4.10 for stock)
max RPM: 8200
tire size: 245/40/17
5th gear: 0.942
6th gear: 0.763

I would definitely recommend these only if you really think you can live with some gear whine OR if you are only going to be accelerating or braking and not cruising I would also recommend Ben too, for all those in the DC/NoVa/MD area-this guy is a perfectionist!

 

THanks for the review. To date you are the first MY04/05 owner to post that they have installed the 4.57. Even though I know that a number of others have as well.

 

good review. I'm planning on these gears myself for a mod. I have an 02 so I will definitely do some comparisons as well

 

I recently installed 4.77s in my AP1. Love em. Some gear noise, but definitely tolerable.

Ryan

 

Good review.
I run the 4.44's on an '01.
Love them!!
Highly recommended except maybe for those that don't do a lot of 75MPH and over interstate driving (not going to happen in Hawaii).

 

[QUOTE]Stratocaster Posted on Mar 14 2005, 12:45 AM

 

Thanks for the review. I wish noise wasn't so subjective.

Any chance you've ever ridden in a B series Honda with the ATS 4.9 FD? A friend of mine had this FD in his ITR and we dubbed it the "blender" because all you heard was gear whine. I'd like to be able to guage if the 4.57 rear of the s2000 is equal to, better, or worse than the ATS in a B series.

 

[QUOTE=tabach0y273,Mar 13 2005, 10:14 PM]
These gears are still noisy, yet tolerable.

 

if you can hear them over the T1R, they gotta be pretty loud

 

Just installed 4.44s. No whine at all. My installer has done about 20 S2000 diffs and of those 20, 6 were for the 4.57 Richmond Gears. He says all Richmond Gears have a 50/50 chance of getting the whine. Out of the 6 4.57s diff they had to reinstall 1 set because of whine. He personally does not like Richmond gears. His shop does diffs all day for 4x4 trucks and he says this is nothing new for Richmond gears.