I had a few long trips in the past trough germany in the last year, so i was traveling like 200 miles and i was speeding between 90-120MPH constantly, i did this also with my previous cars for dozens of times... i';m hearing people saying it would hurt the engine to stay in vtec for a long period of time? but a lot of people say it wouldn't make a difference, only fuel consumption...

I got the 4.56 laying in the garage ready to be installed, i dont care about fuel consumption, i just wanna know how high rpm affects the engine.

 

Nyther, that was my concern too.

I used to make Los Angeles, CA to Las Vegas, NV trip more than once a week back when I used to live in vegas (250miles).
It wasn't too hard to keep the speedo at around 85-120mph in the desert with my previous imports. I just don't think I'd do that anymore, with the kind of rpms I see now. and of course for the sake of the safety of me and others

 

if you are getting 30mpg on the highway with gears I am getting some!! I average better city tha highway and I never break 80 with stock gears(normally cruise 76mph) which puts me at about 4k RPMS.

 

22-26/30 avg

 

I average about 23-25 with mixed. a lot of my driving is about 60mph. but on the highway I get less.

 

I get about 20 in the city and on the highway I can get a little over 25, but I have gears and a turbo. Gas consumption does matter to me and I don't want to drop any lower than that.

 

I have had 4.57's for some time now ... the pleasure of running them has always outweighed the added sound levels ... for me the plus sounds make the car more fun to listen to. On long trips of 200 plus miles it does get a bit tired and its definitely not a restful run compared to cruising in a GT or family vehicle.

to the original poster - do you have yellow box installed and set properly ? IIRC you should only be 400/500 rpm over stock at 80mph - it seemed like your numbers were a bit high...

 

I had to do a 1600 mile trip with 4.77 gears. RPMs were at about 5k driving around 80MPH.
It is loud and a little different being at such a higher RPM than youre used to. My engine to date does not eat a drop of oil and I track the crap out of it as well! Love these gears!

BTW.. Im used to them now.

 

I plan on going in the opposite direction and getting 3.90's It will be nice when I make the long drive to michigan and back.

 

Ndk4, I ran 4.88:1 gears in my old Fiat X-1/9, and the car did not have an overdrive transmission like the S2000. Made a number of long trips ...
Georgia to and from Michigan, Georgia to and from West Virginia, etc.
Since the factory redline of the car was 6k instead of 9k like the S2k, I'd expect the S2000 to take it in stride even more easily than the old Fiat.

That said, I personally wouldn't want gearing any lower (numerically higher) than what I have now (4.30:1), because the S2000 is a little too buzzy at high RPM's for my tastes. The Fiat was MUCH smoother at high revs, because the engine had such a short stroke (and minimal displacement). However, lots of the guys here have been perfectly happy with gearing that would drive me nuts, so you're probably just being a little too paranoid.