Which Trans Shep, Tre, Jacks ? Im tired of breaking my Trans

[onesickcrx]

I know I know the same question everyone asks which company makes the best trans? I bought my parts from Shep last year when I broke my shift fork and also replaced my 3-4 shift sleeve. I was very happy with his products his service and his prompt shipping. Also he was the only one that called me back the day I called. As far as this time I tore the teeth off my third gear. I was in third gear under power and then there was nothing I am getting sick of these crappy transmissions so.....

Basically I want to buy a trans that is capable of holding power. I do not like to do things twice so I am thinking of going with a Shep stage four with EVO III first gear Electro polishing (REM ISF) all the gears and a 4 spider center diff. When I talked to Shep he suggested not going with a Quaife center diff because it wont hold up too daily commutes which I do.

Now Tre seems to do a lot more things like I can get every thing cryogenic treated and Electro polishing (REM) a Speed Design 4 spider center diff and a double syncro 5th gear also he has a shot peening process he does.

A couple of things I noticed wail I've been looking at peoples builds and web sites it seems that Tre cuts down the gear to add a extra syncro now since I have already shredded my gears wont this increase the chance of doing that again? I mean less gear area mean weaker gears correct? Now as far as center diff's what are the diffrence's in 4 spider diff to a Speed Design's 4 spider diff? Is all of this really needed too make it stronger? Would I be better going with a Quaife ATB helical limited slip front and center differential?

This is kind of a daily car / weekend warrior I like to drive it aggressive but I want it to last and be able to commute I do take it on 1200 mile trips. Any opinions and recommendations feed back or anything I am open too so please share and discuss

Thanks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[14bCrazy]

My advice would be to buy a 96 Civic 4 door. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif I have a TRE one but don't have enough miles to give you a good opinion but I won it so I aint going to complain. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif

 

[Spott]

I had a used TRE build tranny in mine. It worked well, I never had any problems.

 

[4Grim]

I have a fully built TRE tranny with all the bells and whistles. Its held up like a champ and haven't had one single issue with the it.

 

[Dialcaliper]

TRE, Shep, Jacks - all have reputations for reliable work apart from the usual freak incidents that happen from abuse or defective parts

Personally, I plan to send mine to Jack when I'm ready, mostly based on the fact that he's helpful and explicitly states everything he will do to the box. He was also very friendly and helpful answering questions by email.

Shep, while he has a good reputation and good customer service, tends to assume you don't know anything and won't spend the time to answer technical questions, or explain why exactly you do, or do not need a particular thing.

TRE I don't have much interaction with, but I'm not attracted to their fondness for front diff inserts and welded diffs. Probably just my personal preference, and more focus on drag specific setups.

 

[GVR-4]

How well the tranny holds up depends on how much torque you are producing and if you load the gears up suddenly or not. You should email jackstransmissions.com after you have checked out his site. A lot of FAQ's are answered on his website. Try to figure out what you want from that info and then ask him if you can't decide what you want from the info he provides on the website.

 

[Barnes]

On the topic of processes to treat your tranny with. Anyone have any non-anecdotal evidence that cryo treating really helps gear strength?

EDIT: K. I think I found some articles by ASM. Hope that answers my question.

 

[gaylantvr4]

i have a built tre transmission and so far it has treated me good.

 

[Dialcaliper]

The phenomenon you're looking for is "Cryogenic Martensitic Transformations" if that helps you research or look for white papers. It is mostly observed in steel, and a few other exotic alloys (like shape memory metals). It more related to phase transformations like melting, freezing and other solid-solid phase transformations like tempering of steel. Think of boiling liquid nitrogen for example. Since it is not a diffusion or chemical process like most hardening processes, the rate doesn't halve every 10 degrees or so, which is why it still progresses at cryogenic temperatures.

Cryo treating of steels, exotic alloys and some ceramics by this mechanism has been researched and the physics behind it is fairly sound, with modest improvements in strength, and better resistance to wear and fatigue similar to the same transformation occurring at higher temperatures. The evidence appeared before the question when parts launched into space were returned to earth, after seeing severe temperature extremes, showed unexpected mechanical behavior.

As far as cryo treating of aluminum, brass, plastics, and other common materials goes, no properly controlled experiments have been able to show noticable improvement that stands out from the noise, and noone has put forth a good theory that is reproducible.

The general consensus is that cryo treating improves fatigue life and surface wear properties, which in turn prevents or slows the formation of fatigue cracks, which is how most transmission failures actually occur. The gear and gear teeth, barring defects, are plenty strong to carry the load, but once you load cycle them hundreds of thousands, or millions of times (every revolution of the shaft), cracks can eventually form which concentrate stress and eventually fail.

I'd hazard a guess that if you could actually apply enough torque to tear the tooth off a new, perfect gear, the output shaft or one of the diffs would rip itself clear out of the aluminum case first.

Cryo your steel parts if it makes you happy.

ISF surface treatment works similarly to shot-peening. It hardens the surface of the material by "cold working", and smooths out sharp corners and machining marks that concentrate stress and become initiation sites for cracks.

If you wanted a no-expense spared transmission, cryo-treat, then shot-peen, followed by ISF, then send them to Microblue for tungsten disulfide dry film for good measure. But that would be overkill and a waste of money in almost every case.

 

[onesickcrx]

^ very good info

Thanks for responding too all and I still have a 91 crx so no need for 96 civic 4dr hehe

 

[Sean92AWD]

Hey i sent you a pm man. Let me know if your interested.

 

Quoting onesickcrx:
I am getting sick of these crappy transmissions so.....




I wouldn't call holding up to twice stock power "crappy".

Isn't heat a major contributor?

 

[14bCrazy]

Quoting onesickcrx:
^ very good info

Thanks for responding too all and I still have a 91 crx so no need for 96 civic 4dr hehe



I'll give you a good deal on it. How about $4000. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif

 

[Flip4G63]

dogbox.. stop bitching and buy it.

 

[onesickcrx]

A asked about a dog box and the reply was something along the line of race car not used for daily driver use

Listen I understand its asking alot for our trans to hold alot of power but I want too know who and which trans to go for. If in deed I do need to go with a dog box I will eather A buy one or B turn my car down permently which is not what I want to do but I will if need be.

 

[Flip4G63]

what kinda power are you making??

 

[onesickcrx]

I am not sure what kinda power exactly yet. I just want to know about peoples feed back on the transmissions they have bought or driven on or heard of

Thanks

 

[eviLntt]

The dogbox transmissions are pretty noisy from what I have heard. I have about 1500 miles on a road race transmission from jacks and it is doing great. The engine in my galant is completely stock and I can tell the trasnsmission wants to keep reving (I shut it down around 5000 rpms). Nice shifts and strong pulls, I recomend one. Plus Jacks is great with customer service and turned around my core charge early because I was trying to get more parts to finish the instal.

 

[Lonewolf64]

I run a TRE "stage 2" transmission on my vr4. My car is a full bolt on 16g setup with cams powerwise. The tranny is as smooth as butter and there are no signs of issues at this power level.

 

[onesickcrx]

thanks for all the feed back guys and pmed info as well /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/applause.gif keep it comming