I have the AUG at the moment and its very short for my taste. I need something taller to take advantage of the low torque of the 8V. Not to mention the highway speeds...
Thanks! I made a mistake and never checked the gearbox my old cabbie had. It used to be a 1600 Carb 5 speed which had a tall box. Very good for highway cruising.....
sounds like what you need is a 4T gearbox - they are relatively easy to get hold of, i know of a few kicking around
I dont know if youve changed it already, but I had a 4T box fitted in error on my AUG GTI. The high speed cruising idea is fun on motorways (I had 90 at 3500 rpm), but hit a hill or try it on dual-carriageways and the appeal starts to wear thin. Even worse, the gaps between the gears take all the character out of the car IMO. Going through the gears at lower speed feels more like a Mondeo than a gti. On most local roads you end up cruising at around 2000rpm which just doesnt feel right. I'm saving up for a 6th gear for the motorway - best of all worlds!
How bad is it to do a 2000km trip with the engine revving at 5k rpm all the time? Will I make it to Greece or end up on the side of the road with a blown engine?
Keep the same box but put a tall 5th gear in, it can be done with the engine and box still in the car, just needs to drop the box down at the n/s by taking the engine mounts off and lowering on a jack, then 5th gear can be accessed by removing the end casing, a good gearbox place should be able to do this in an hr or 2.
Yeah i agree - a tall 5th sounds like a pretty good compromise. 5k all the way to greece doesnt sound too relaxing!
My 4+E box is great & pulls strong in all gears but i have more torque than a standard 8v so it depends how strong yours pulls. 2nd just hits 60mph 3rd is about 95mph 4th is about 130mph 70mph in 5th is about 2100rpm
I'm putting a 8v Gti box on my 1600, will this be a better box than the standard 4+E? What RPM at what speeds should i get? Should i get a higher speed at lower revs with the gti box? or the other way round? Just read, 70mph at 3500rpm, is that bad? Edited by: Jettas
Jettas, If youre getting 3500 rpm at 70mph (in 5th gear right?) thats not a 4+E. 4+E is more like 2500 rpm at that speed. Infact, my original GTI box revs about the same as that at 70mph. Thats probably about right for your engine i'd say. The ratios lower down may be different, ie. if you put a GTI box in you will probably get lower speeds at higher revs which will make it accelerate quicker, but you'll have to change gear more often. Older GTI boxes may be more like pushing 4000 rpm at 70 mph which i find too Mental for comfort - try not to end up with one of those, unless you dont go on the motorway much. (check out the link further up for a table of codes)
