So they're saying that all trannys made for 5th gen Civic were short ratio, and all later ones are long ratios? How did that work?
They couldn't have been more wrong; 20/40 represent the tranny generation only, absolutely nothing to do with ratios. Both S20 and S40 have short and long ratios. Look for circular a stamp near drain bolt, it says A000 for long ratios and B000 for short ones.
Even all close ratio are not the same, shortest ones usually came with a golden sticker instead of silver.
If you wanna go even deeper: try finding S8G gearbox. It is from Del Sol Si, and has closest ratios of all D series boxes.