BE Gearkit
 

It seems BE boxes aren't all they are cracked upto be after stripping the teeth off 3rd gear.

I have seen this happen a few times now. Just wondering if anyone is running an uprated gearkit (quaife etc) yet??, or maybe a strenghtend kit (shot peened or cryogenic frozen)

to be fair, you are running lots more power than anyone else, so it is to be expected!

Well the turbo boys are well into the 400 bhp mark. Its also torque thats the main killer on boxes and mine falls well short at 250ft/lb.

Ill hold my hands up and say the gearbox im using has had a hard life. Its a very low mileage gti 180 box (roughly 20k). Prior so the s/c conversion it served well at 30+ trackdays and a ring trip. Can hardly complain about it shitting itself when asked to deal with another 170 bhp :D

what type of oil ? .
the BE is not bullet proof ,hence why the later more powerful diesl cars used the ML box ,have look it isa lot bigger than the be and bear in mind the be was designed for the 205 gti with 130bhp and for all the changes it is still basically same box .
yes ,a quaife gear kit will be better as the gears are treated ,not just machined
driven with some mechanical sympathy,good oil choice and s/c it should last fine
weakest point is the be box has same clutch spline size as Mas
i think the one you have has the larger diesel splne size which does help

I have thought about the ML box as it wouldnt take much work to fit in my car. Only issue i have is my Gripper diff wont fit and not sure there is many on the market that fit these boxes. I think quaife list 1 but would want a min order of 5 units.

With all that hassle in mind, i might aswell buy the BE gearset.

indeed there are no off the shelf diffs, Quaife did indeed list one.

could try gripper to see if they will make you one.

I have also ruined a BE - 3rd gear also. I am at just over 300lb.ft torque. Oddly enough was just discussing this the other night, and I'll probably move to a quaife straight-cut gearkit soon myself.

Wonder if we could get a mini group buy going. Im sure we could get at least 5 takers??.

The option is there. Question is would a standard ML gearset be upto the job though?. You wouldn't want to spend a fortune on the conversion and lsd to find our its not. Im fairly sure a uprated gearset for the ML will never be made unless its a 1 off so you would be stuck with it :panic:

Millers 75w 90 lsd/gearbox oil.

Has anyone do any ivestigation into gear oil temps on track??. Im wondering if this might be an issue aswell. Wouldnt take much to fit a thermostatic oil cooler.

I would think so, they're bolted to the high torque very heavy diesels, I think 270 lbft is the highest they have, any higher is auto boxed afaik.

407 has a 3.0 at 450 lbft.

your oil is wrong for a BE box with synchro's.

If your looking into gearkits drenth is a very good kit. Just an option

I don't think a close ratio box is required for you boosted chaps, do Drenth/Quaife etc do a tall enough FD to give your cars a decent top speed?

I did look at using a vag box on my car but its time making a bellhousing /gear change and again its a larger g/box -- maybe that tells us something --big is better anyone seen the g/box from an mr2 turbo --loooks like its from a truck and weighs near 100kgs
I do not think you need a 6 speed with all the power you have or really need a c/r gear kit ,buts its what available economically and there are plenty of be dif ratios .
could it be that 3rd gear is what you are using most of the time due to overall ratio of gears +dif unit,
so maybe its just pure wear + tear --if gears are not up to the power then the hardened surface will wear out and once that gone its not long for this world .
I like reline heavy shock --its like pink spunk --sticks to everything --impossible to wipe off + even though its 75 -140 the synchro,s work fine with it .
on another level its just the stuff to put in a noisey box -makes it a lot smother and quieter

I'd love to think so, but to be honest, the likes of quaife probably aren't interested in a little 5 pc's group buy for a BE box when they've the motorsport boys throwing money at them. :( I'm in if you do the legwork though ;)

That's the biggest concern Dave to be honest - I'll be looking for a very high top speed this year (accepting a reduction in midrange if needed), and I'm not sure I can get it.

Much more research required for me, but I don't know where to start!

how high ?
if you used a diesel dif ratio you could have over 200mph@8k
first job is for you work out the ratios you need --

John I'm sure we spoke about this on the phone a year ago or so - gearboxes in general are total voodoo to me mate, I'm completely ignorant, and they scare me to death!

That final ratio sounds ideal, but I know not what to do with the rest of the box and ratios (so I don't lose the nice crazy acceleration in 3rd for example) - is it just a case of building the BE box up with the diesel gears themselves? I would get someone else to built the box up, but it would be useful to know what I was talking about if they asked me what I wanted! Is it as simple as taking a BE diesel box, and my standard picasso gearbox to someone and saying "make this fast"? (I really know nothing at all mate!) Presumably there's no complications with the diff (gripper)? Don't need to change that or anything.

you need to get the codes of the gearbox your gong to use so you can check what all the individual ratios --someone will have a complete list of all the be boxs on a pug site

Most be diesel fd ratios I've found are super short like the 4.9 and 5.1 I have sitting in my shed?

depends what they're from, they'll be from n-a engines, or big tyres.

get an FD from a turbo engined car with smaller wheels and an appropriate gearset and you'll go as fast as the torque can take you.