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What is the best gearbox for a westfield?


Snappy

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I have a type 9 that's is broken, so what  do I fit or do I just get it rebuilt??

 

Westfield Zetec with 220bhp.

 

Quaife BHG etc? Caterham six speed?

 

What are peoples experiences of these so called upgrades? 

 

I use my car for country dashes, a few track days per year and have plans for a trip to France Germany etc

 

Whats your thoughts

 

Regards Mike

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The gearbox, with an appropriate set of ratios is potentially about the single biggest upgrade you can make. No if's, no but's, owners, even the most doubtful have proven it to themselves time after time.

 

But, the box is just part of the driveline, which also includes the diff - or to be precise, the ratio of diff you've got, the wheels, as in they're overall diameter, tyres included, and lastly the engine, as in what does it Rev to, in particular what revs for peak power, how wide is the power band and how big a drop in rpm when changing gear is OK.

 

Lastly, your own personal preferences will play a part, as well, most importantly, as how you're going to use it. No competition use and just occasional track day use means at a stroke, (I'd suggest), you can cross off all the Straight cut boxes. This immediately drops the vast range of ratios to look at down considerably.

 

BGH's range would all be normal help boxes, SPC have heli and semi heli boxes, as well as one or two others. The next step, apart from having a look to see what models people have been happy with, is to download one of the online ratio calculators and start popping in the BGH etc ratios with your diff and wheel sizes etc to see what sort of differences it would make.

 

Be aware you might have to also change diff ratio, depending what it currently is, for best results.

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I am with you Dave I have done the calculations etc. and am happy with that. If a change to the diff was needed I am also not worried as I want to change the diff for an lsd at some point also.

 

Its more about whats worth the money the quaife boxes seem to be pretty much all new inside etc but others may make there own mods with the change of a couple of gears etc but after that it seems if other bits like syncros etc are left if they look ok. A second hand gearbox is that second hand thus worn to some degree! I have spoken to the apparent main players but they are often a bit vague on what's replaced inside!

 

I have a fully reconditioned type nine which managed 700 miles before stuff started going wrong then by 2000 miles its crunching third and forth and jumps out of third and fifth which is funny as during the early miles it would stick in fifth!! Note what I said at the beginning fully recond! Then you go through the is it me but we are all great drivers so no chance! LOL Simple thing is I have been driving type nine boxes from 1992 - 2008 so I reckon I would have ruined a few over that time if I couldn't use the box, so feel comfortable to pass on that issue.

 

There will be plenty of people on here that will have bought boxes from whoever and I am interested in their view on whether the boxes have been good reliable etc etc??? 

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Thanks Rorys Dad but that's not my point, I can buy anything from anybody, but I was hoping to get some feedback from others regarding there purchases and use experience's to create a short list of what I felt were the best of the bunch.

 

I can't ask Neil if his box was any good as he has never used it! LOL

Thinking about it I will however just incase he has used 1ST Motion before and can give me glowing reports.

 

My box from Westfield was FULLY reconditioned by whoever supplied Westfield at the time but it must have been done at five to five on a Friday just before the guy was going on holiday because it was rubbish and no back up as with most people the warranty period isn't long enough for most peoples build times thus by the time the cars on the road and you find you have issues it to late...

 

Thought there would be a few who could say " I bought this box from X and there service was great etc and the functionality of the box is wonderful etc" But it may be less people than I thought have changed there boxes because theres works fine thus they have focused on normal upgrades widetrack, throttle bodies etc. 

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Similar choice i had 15 years ago when building the car i have just stripped, built it with zetec rather than pinto - good choice, with 3.64 LSD from cosworth - good choice, Mt75 box - not so good now ! The reason was that when i was a young sevice engineer with a company supplied sierra with the cvh / type 9, every car in the fleet seems to have sycro issues,on the gearbox after 50K - they seemed to me at the time to be a weak box so when building the westy went for the 75.  Its been bomb proof over the last 8K / 15 years and for the road and when out of 1st its actually not a bad compromise but if your using it for track work the spread of ratio's mean i'd go for something else.  RWD do a toyota box, but i think the ratios are simliar to MT75.  MX5 box goes with a duratec - but not sure anyones doing an adapter for the zetec. The type 9 I have for sale was build after i studied the gearing calculations with the above setup (15" wheels) As i was turned over by a breaker wrt MK3.5 mx5 mzr / duratec engine which turned out to be a mk3 without the forged bottom end, i decided after reading all the build threads & i have to say the excellent advice provided to others from Dave Eastwood, bite the bullet and go the s2000 route.

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snappy - you right i can't comment on how its performed - but others in the club have used 1st motion with positive results, hence why i went this route, visited in person and was impressed at Paul's unbiased advice... Oh and i had to wait 3 months as he's very busy - always a good sign in my book.

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For what it's worth, I have a similar power 2.0 zetec with a Quaife 3.92 LSD and a BGH E3 HD with 0.87 5th gear and the BGH shift extension. No problems with the gearbox over 6000 miles including a fair few trackdays so far (touch wood)...

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Thanks Rorys Dad but that's not my point, I can buy anything from anybody, but I was hoping to get some feedback from others regarding there purchases and use experience's to create a short list of what I felt were the best of the bunch.

 

I can't ask Neil if his box was any good as he has never used it! LOL

Thinking about it I will however just incase he has used 1ST Motion before and can give me glowing reports.

 

My box from Westfield was FULLY reconditioned by whoever supplied Westfield at the time but it must have been done at five to five on a Friday just before the guy was going on holiday because it was rubbish and no back up as with most people the warranty period isn't long enough for most peoples build times thus by the time the cars on the road and you find you have issues it to late...

 

Thought there would be a few who could say " I bought this box from X and there service was great etc and the functionality of the box is wonderful etc" But it may be less people than I thought have changed there boxes because theres works fine thus they have focused on normal upgrades widetrack, throttle bodies etc.

I have a first motion box and it's brilliant.

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You need to allow time for people to read, digest and answer. Seriously! 

 

Gearboxes have eave been a very common upgrade over the years, but not everyone that's done it and is still a member will necessarily see this in the first 24 hours.

 

The BGH get lots of glowing recommendations and there's a lot of modification work going on internally.

 

The more I think about it though, the more I tend to think that very few, if any suppliers (of standard off the shelf gearboxes) will just automatically replace every part with new. Don't forget, one of the issue we see these days is that pattern copies of original OEM Ford bits can be quite variable in quality range, with even the good stuff not being up there with what it was "in the day", I suspect many, will try and avoid replacing some of the original Ford bits until there is no choice, it's probably more reliable that way!

 

The trick boxes from SPC, BGH etc all have lots of other work done usually too, to improve reliability and performance, there are oiling mods that can be done on the T9 for example. As well as bearing improvements.

 

First Motion are getting a lot of praise at the mo, though I confess it's a company I've only recently heard of and never spoken to et.

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Super job, ticks for;

1st Motion

Quaife

bhg

 

Nice to know mileage etc

Also when you get responses from people who clearly give there mechanicals some work to do its a big plus on the tried and tested side!

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Noted Dave I will take a deep breath and relax.

My Jobs a bit 100mph, and like many when I have things to do I want to sort it and move on!

 

I like suppliers who ask the questions what and how are you going to use it etc and then the expert gives you best advice based and your responses and application super, but so far from a few suppliers I have spoken many don't seem that confident in there own product if you ask the odd tricky question.

 

Thus this forum is invaluable as ever because its real world responses and experience.

 

Thanks People

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