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That is a a very interesting read. I have never read that before. I did know some of that information prior to reading that article. I did learn some things about these cars and that's always a plus.

You are absolutely right! It’s a great machine, next too my “69” & “74” Zs it is my favorite respectively speaking. The GM10 (W1)platform from both a functional & economic perspective was a failure. That is not to say that the fifth generation GM FWDs weren’t good or enjoyable. I owned a 91 3.4 GP a 93 GP & a 92 Cutlass. I liked all of them & overall they were good cars, but they had their limits and not much could be done to improve their handling. Where as the MS2000 (W2) platform for the sixth generation was a game changer for performance, but there were still some major chinks in the armor that needed to be dealt with to have a real street performance car. At least in my opinion. Below is a bit of an old article on those platforms. https://www.wardsauto.com/news-analysis/gm-moves-shake-midsize-malaise

For the LQ1's, I thought the motor or pan had to come out in order to do the engine cover. Thanks to 55trucker, that's not the case at all. The passenger side axle shield has to come off, maybe the axle itself, I'm not sure and need to revisit his notes again. The rest of the components will then have to be removed off the side of the motor obviously. With the LQ1, you have to have the special tools in order to remove the timing belt components as well, something not needed for the 3.1's. The tools consist of the lock down ones for the cams, a puller for the cam cogs, and a puller for the dampener or harmonic balancer. The same tool that pulls off the cogs is used to pull off the intermediate shaft pulley as well. One thing that I learned...very glad that I learned, the engine cover gasket is a ONE TIME USE gasket. I'm not 100% sure if this is true on the 3.1's but I think it might be. If I remember, they use the same gasket and part number. It's also a good idea to lay down a layer of RTV or gasket maker on the bottom edge or flange of the engine cover where it meets the oil pan. A little dab on the key for the crankshaft is also a good idea to help prevent any leakage. These tools are ONLY required when pulling the timing chain and sprockets off. Like most sprocket/chains set ups, the crankshaft and intermediate shaft sprocket and the chain need to come off in unison and reinstalled the same way.

I should update this topic for anyone in the future that also has to do this job. I didn't have to take the oil pan off, but if you do this you have to be really careful about getting debris in it. I ran about 10 quarts of clean oil through the pan to make sure I flushed everything out.

I came here to say EXACTLY this. When I first added a rear console to my Cutlass I decided to drill the floor. Yah I was pretty pissed off about that when I hit the gas tank!!!! I ended up using JB Weld to get the brackets to the floor. IIRC I bolted the console to the brackets, applied a little JB weld to the middle of the brackets and got it into position, and let it sit there in place until the JB weld dried. I then removed the bolts and applied more JB weld to the brackets at the seam to ensure they wouldn't break loose.

Whatever you do, DO NOT drill or weld on the floor the fuel tank is directly under that area.

Plasti-gauge is available in 3 different gauges.......green for .001 (1 thou) to .003 ( 3 thou), red is for .002 ( 2 thou) to .004 (4 thou) green is what you want to use. One has to completely dry off all the main & rod journal surfaces, individually remove the bearings from the caps & rods/block to clean everything & then dry them off. Because the block is still assembled one backs off the bolts on both all of the main & rod caps,tap the caps free, starting with the mains one slips out the cap side of the bearing then slides out the block side of the main bearing individually ( not all together). Dry each one off then slide the block side back into place around the journal & slip the cap side back into place. Cut a small section of the plasti-gauge less than the width of the journal, with the cap off lay the section across the width of the main journal. Do them all in this manner, when you have done all the journals put the caps back into place and without moving the crank torque all of the mains back down to spec. When all are torqued then back off the bolts again to remove the caps. With the plasti-gauge sheet place the calibrated gauge against each journal & accurately check which reading corresponds to what the thickness of each crushed plastic section is...that is what the clearance is. The ideal clearance on both main & rod is .0015 (one & a half thou), the GM manual will state that max clearance is 3 thou but from personal experience 3 thou is too loose to allow the oil pump to hold proper pressure when the engine is hot & at idle. The last bottom end I did on a 3400 we turned the crank & resized the rods to allow the rod & main clearances at .00175 thou. Of course if the crank journals are scarred then this all mute, the crank will need turning & resizing the rods would be in order.

might help if you're shopping for a click torque wrench