98 forester trans ratios

For the 98 Forester its 3.545, 2.11, 1.448, 1.088, .780 with a final drive of 4.11 but what year rs?

The 93 AWD Impreza is 3.545, 1.947, 1.366, .972, .780 final 4.11

 

edited the post for ratios

 

the answer to all your questions waits for you in your pm box.

 

okay n00b time!
What's the advantage of taller or shorter gears? I mean, what does all this meaaaaaan!?

 

Check out this website: www.subaruforester.org. It is a really informative site that I know you will like.


Mark

 

Shorter gears give you greater mechanical advantage, since gearing is essentially just a torque multiplier. That being said too short of gearing leads to having to shift very frequently (like in STis), but always being able to stay in gear, or maybe drop 1 gear if you need to pass someone.

Cars with fat torquey powerbands generally do better with longer gear ratios (such as muscle cars running 3.55 and 3.73 rear ends) and conversely cars with very peaky rev-happy motors work better with shorter gear ratios (like Hondas running 4.76 axle ratios).

WRXs in America have always come with a 3.9, which is a good balance between cruising revs and performance. The automatics come in a 4.11 which helps the overall gear spread since there's only 4 gears to play with. Non-turbo models came with 4.44 and 4.11 gearing depending on the model to give them more power and response.

Shorter gearing will slow down spool a little bit since it decreases engine load but the motor will rev faster so its not that noticeable except on a dyno sheet. I'm pretty happy with my 4.44 gearbox as it makes the whole car feel sportier compared to similarly powered stock-tranny cars I've driven. However its impossible to get more than 21mpg since I'm cruising everywhere around town at 3K+ rpms, otherwise its lugging the motor around in 5th at 45, 4th at 30 etc.

 

And how do I figure out which setup mine is, 4.11 or 4.44?
I know my transmission is from one of the older JDM Sti 5-speeds, but I don't know how much they swapped over.