Gearbox, diff and prop upgrade
Discussion
I have been abusing my Chimaera on the dragstrip for many years now and somehow the drive train has taken it bar a couple diff and gearbox rebuilds, a couple of mounting bushes and brackets, various clutches and quite a few UJ's.
This week i have chatted to Roadcraft UK and decided to order a TKX gearbox with a billet flywheel, RST twin plate clutch and all the parts i need to complete the conversion. Only part they have a problem with is the concentric slave which they recommend i look to Tilton to provide.
Apart from maybe a couple thousand miles a year on the road and lots of drag racing i want to have the gears to achieve 200 mph on the Elvington mile.
To reach that goal i either need the gearing or a significant increase in the engines useable RPM range.
The gearbox i am choosing is the TCET18086 which has a wide range starting at 3.27:1 in first and 0.72:1 in 5th
With a 3.08:1 diff i can reach 200 in less than 6000 rpm
With a 3.45:1 diff t would need to reach 6660 rpm
I intend to go bigger on the diff housing and have a new propshaft made complete with beefier UJs. Has anyone had this done? Recommendations will be appreciated on this.
I have always worked on a tight budget on my car and think i have achieved quite a lot considering but now is the time to take the next step. Wish me luck and watch out for updates on the progress.
Engine evolution is a seperate subject but i also have plans for that soon enough
This week i have chatted to Roadcraft UK and decided to order a TKX gearbox with a billet flywheel, RST twin plate clutch and all the parts i need to complete the conversion. Only part they have a problem with is the concentric slave which they recommend i look to Tilton to provide.
Apart from maybe a couple thousand miles a year on the road and lots of drag racing i want to have the gears to achieve 200 mph on the Elvington mile.
To reach that goal i either need the gearing or a significant increase in the engines useable RPM range.
The gearbox i am choosing is the TCET18086 which has a wide range starting at 3.27:1 in first and 0.72:1 in 5th
With a 3.08:1 diff i can reach 200 in less than 6000 rpm
With a 3.45:1 diff t would need to reach 6660 rpm
I intend to go bigger on the diff housing and have a new propshaft made complete with beefier UJs. Has anyone had this done? Recommendations will be appreciated on this.
I have always worked on a tight budget on my car and think i have achieved quite a lot considering but now is the time to take the next step. Wish me luck and watch out for updates on the progress.
Engine evolution is a seperate subject but i also have plans for that soon enough
M80 diff casing, cw & p to match, maybe quaife differential. Propshaft i guess you can only speak to your local supplier, I use Bailey Morris, local to me, or someone who specialises in drag sport.
Pro-linx for CV joints
just sounds like you're in specialist territory and wear/expense will be bigger, as in circuit racing...
Pro-linx for CV joints
just sounds like you're in specialist territory and wear/expense will be bigger, as in circuit racing...
Before i went turbo i used nitrous oxide as the power adder.
The engine was built to 330bhp NA then i was adding 2 stages of nitrous taking total power north of 500.
It was only when i invested in Mickey Thompson drag radials when my launches dropped deep into the 1.6's to 60 foot when i started snapping driveshafts and it took a few clutch options before finding a combo that has worked well for years now,
John Reid rebuilt my T5 and upgraded a few parts and despite wear has never actually broke.
The diff brackets and mounts have took a battering as well as the rear wishbones.
I invested in Dave Mac driveshafts and decent CV's and these are still going strong after hundreds of drag races.
With new wishbones, the new TKX box, RST clutch and an uprated diff with beefier brackets i think it should all be good with room to accept power upgrades later.
To add my car has a fully welded in roll cage which also makes a huge difference to the chassis rigidity.
I am looking forward to getting at least 1 front wheel off the ground soon
The engine was built to 330bhp NA then i was adding 2 stages of nitrous taking total power north of 500.
It was only when i invested in Mickey Thompson drag radials when my launches dropped deep into the 1.6's to 60 foot when i started snapping driveshafts and it took a few clutch options before finding a combo that has worked well for years now,
John Reid rebuilt my T5 and upgraded a few parts and despite wear has never actually broke.
The diff brackets and mounts have took a battering as well as the rear wishbones.
I invested in Dave Mac driveshafts and decent CV's and these are still going strong after hundreds of drag races.
With new wishbones, the new TKX box, RST clutch and an uprated diff with beefier brackets i think it should all be good with room to accept power upgrades later.
To add my car has a fully welded in roll cage which also makes a huge difference to the chassis rigidity.
I am looking forward to getting at least 1 front wheel off the ground soon
that would be cool and a bit scary as well 
Transmission: I spoke with someone Tremec put me in touch with a few weeks ago. He touted the TKX' ability to shift at high RPMs as the main selling point.
Diff: Depending on how much you want to overdesign the system for future engine upgrades, you may find that Quaife and Gleason Torsen are limited in their offerings. Detroit locker could be permanent, albeit a little obnoxious to use on the street.
Diff: Depending on how much you want to overdesign the system for future engine upgrades, you may find that Quaife and Gleason Torsen are limited in their offerings. Detroit locker could be permanent, albeit a little obnoxious to use on the street.
DangerousDerek said:
The gearbox i am choosing is the TCET18086 which has a wide range starting at 3.27:1 in first and 0.72:1 in 5th
With a 3.08:1 diff i can reach 200 in less than 6000 rpm
With a 3.45:1 diff t would need to reach 6660 rpm
Remember that there's a 3.2x option (3.23?) that would fall somewhere inbeteeen those 2...With a 3.08:1 diff i can reach 200 in less than 6000 rpm
With a 3.45:1 diff t would need to reach 6660 rpm
John told me that it was an option available from TVR as a "fuel economy" option (!) but it was pretty rare - he might have one though, or know where to get one...
Dom
cliffords said:
I would think you will struggle to reach 200 mph. The power needed to get there is immense with all drag and other losses.
I know it’s nowhere near but I did 176.5 at Elvington but ran out of gearing and rpm.That was with a 330bhp NA engine and adding about 170 bhp of nitrous oxide.
I think with 600bhp and correct gearing I could get close.
DangerousDerek said:
I know it’s nowhere near but I did 176.5 at Elvington but ran out of gearing and rpm.
That was with a 330bhp NA engine and adding about 170 bhp of nitrous oxide.
I think with 600bhp and correct gearing I could get close.
Are you aiming for Vmax, or standing quarter drag times? They'd need very different gearing. That was with a 330bhp NA engine and adding about 170 bhp of nitrous oxide.
I think with 600bhp and correct gearing I could get close.
GreenV8S said:
Are you aiming for Vmax, or standing quarter drag times? They'd need very different gearing.
Both!My quarter mile times were hardly affected when I went from 3.45 to 3.08 years ago.
The turbo provides a lot of torque from 4000 rpm and when racing I am always above that no matter what the gearing.
I realise you said you're working to a tight budget but these days you can go out and buy mainstream cars around 450bhp that will achieve 180 mph. I believe that needs to jump to about 600bph for 200 mph in the same car because the laws of physics are tricky fellows. I'm sure you also appreciate that around those speeds aero performance is incredibly sensitive; not just for top speed but especially for keeping a vehicle stable. You don't want the car going all "Mark Webber at Mulsanne".
Looking at your list of wants I can't imagine any of those components coming cheap at the sort of power/torque ratings you'll need, so it may come down to a question of which direction you like to spend your money.
Fantastic project though, well into Big Cojones territory!
Looking at your list of wants I can't imagine any of those components coming cheap at the sort of power/torque ratings you'll need, so it may come down to a question of which direction you like to spend your money.
Fantastic project though, well into Big Cojones territory!
I do miss this sound…
https://youtu.be/cy32MM0P2rQ?si=1Io3KqMu4CG5h_dy
Much quieter with the turbo but I did get fed up sourcing and filling nitrous bottles
https://youtu.be/cy32MM0P2rQ?si=1Io3KqMu4CG5h_dy
Much quieter with the turbo but I did get fed up sourcing and filling nitrous bottles
impressive on many levels!
I've gone down the ls3 4" stroker, tko600 with 2.77 BTR diff route. Intentionally long geared, only went in last year so still exploring/fine tuning set up. Exhilarating performance as I'm sure yours is! so much potential in these cars.
When I'm ready I would love to do the Elvington mile too.
I've gone down the ls3 4" stroker, tko600 with 2.77 BTR diff route. Intentionally long geared, only went in last year so still exploring/fine tuning set up. Exhilarating performance as I'm sure yours is! so much potential in these cars.
When I'm ready I would love to do the Elvington mile too.
Edited by Pagey430 on Saturday 27th January 19:10
DangerousDerek said:
I do miss this sound…
https://youtu.be/cy32MM0P2rQ?si=1Io3KqMu4CG5h_dy
Much quieter with the turbo but I did get fed up sourcing and filling nitrous bottles
lovely sound, sometimes I miss my ols Griffith 4.3 big valve, it had such glorieus sound, but crappy seats LOL.https://youtu.be/cy32MM0P2rQ?si=1Io3KqMu4CG5h_dy
Much quieter with the turbo but I did get fed up sourcing and filling nitrous bottles
btw at high speed, we were doing some runs back in 2008 or so on the German autobahn with the forum members, some stood up a hill by the parking lot and made pictures when we went by almost top speed, at this point I was at least 300km/h in the Hartge Z3 coupe 5.0 or maybe a bit more it could go to 315km/h but what I wanted to show,
look at the kevlar front hood, the gap between the hood and side panel, normally small, but it inhaled so much air , I did not know until I saw it, with you hands you could not pul that,
and I installed later new hinges, but that made no difference... the force of air, so I installed rally clips, so it stayed close, see last picture example.
se here with clips
Bloke 
hope you're good. Not sure if you remember my thread on this forum 'TKO600 to RV8' some years back now. May be of some help. Modded bellhousing, 2nd hand low miles TKO600 gearbox with near as dammit same ratios as T5 (Ford not Chev as two differing 5th gear ratios and the latter is too tall.) RST twin plate clutch, suitably modded prop-shaft and 'Dave Mac' driveshafts. Think I did it all in my self for 3k. I went for the existing outside slave as it's far easier to change seals if they go. Lot's of measuring and then measuring again but worth it. Craig at DYNO -Torque modded the bellhousing for me with with a three day turnaround as the comedians around the Stoke area who apparently modify chassis too were a joke and I got my stuff back from them after a six week piss take 
hope you're good. Not sure if you remember my thread on this forum 'TKO600 to RV8' some years back now. May be of some help. Modded bellhousing, 2nd hand low miles TKO600 gearbox with near as dammit same ratios as T5 (Ford not Chev as two differing 5th gear ratios and the latter is too tall.) RST twin plate clutch, suitably modded prop-shaft and 'Dave Mac' driveshafts. Think I did it all in my self for 3k. I went for the existing outside slave as it's far easier to change seals if they go. Lot's of measuring and then measuring again but worth it. Craig at DYNO -Torque modded the bellhousing for me with with a three day turnaround as the comedians around the Stoke area who apparently modify chassis too were a joke and I got my stuff back from them after a six week piss take Edited by macdeb on Wednesday 10th April 16:32
Edited by macdeb on Wednesday 10th April 16:33
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