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Nothing really. Nothing of that sort is absolutely necessary for a manual swap. All that is necessary is to get rid of the trans stuff so you don't have a constant 6+ error codes and MIL light. Even that isn't really necessary as you can drive fine with no tune changes as long as the PCM is wired to think it's in D at all times. I'm going to leave fueling and timing up to a ZZP remote tune once I switch over to E85, no sense in messing with it now. Other than that, I think the F23 speed sensor is slightly off from the 4T65E as it would read 70 when I was going 73-74, so I adjusted that to match GPS speed. On a side note, I have been looking into extending the clutch master cylinder rod about 1" behind the clutch pedal as the pedal hits the firewall before it's fully pressed, so it might only be 90% released each time which I hope isn't causing extra wear.

What they liked the best: The brakes. What folks complain about the most on this site: The brakes. I've said it before, I'll say it again: The biggest problem with Gen 1 brakes is not the brakes per se, it's the brake booster.

"Automatic shoulder belts"

Gotta love that quality 80s GM fit and finish! And that Regal is very oddly equipped. Bench seat, manual locks and windows, no rear reading lights.....but it has alloy wheels. Then there is this: That cluster must be from a pre-production vehicle, as the tach was never red like that on any of the production ones. My old 88 Regal was a November 87 build, and the tach was green like the rest of the cluster.

I don't believe those have the manual release button. IIRC, there is a mechanical over-ride with the key. In the event of a failure, you turn the key to the "Off" position, which allows you to shift into neutral, then start the car. The 2nd gens respond in a similar manner, however I believe the console shift interlock on those is fully electric, hence the need for the emergency release button.

The Monte. This was a long time ago and it's putting out less now for sure.

3.5l LZ4 with an F23 in a FWD race car. Port work, WOT-Tech VVT Delete with Big Race Cam Kit. 75mm Throttle Body, Megasquirt MS3X. All credit to Dan @ R&R Motorsports for putting this together and sharing the results.

Its stupid and absurd.... therefore I kinda like it

This is the formula I used to get the basics for for I wanted....in hindsight it is a bit too stiff, on the highway the springrate is great, car does NOT float, corners reallly well, but where potholes are concerned its a bit harsh. My thinking now that it's been 2 years since I installed it the springrate could be dropped to perhaps 280lbs per inch. The shop owner who fabbed this up did it from the original *high arc* leaf. He used regular *shallow* arc leaves (blank leaves are all arced to a basic curve) to start with, cut them to the length as per the formula, then put each one thru the *hammer* to together match what the ride height the car is at when the glas leaf was in place with the cars weight on it. Of course I had him reduce the arc as the car sits approx 1.7" lower. That means you have to get under the car to measure the curve of the glas leaf when it is under the vehicle weight. Do so from the ends of the leaf to the centre section. I just used a long straight edge, laid it up under the spring ends & took a measurement in the centre. Since I was doing all the *bull work* I had to install, test the ride height, uninstall, go back a couple of times to have him *fine tune* the arc to get all where I wanted it. One has to fab up their own rubber bushings for this.......not hard to do, just takes time cutting them to fit. *Note* to do this the exhaust has to be out of the way.

When I first saw this I was wondering why this logo was placed on the door handle.

I saw that as well. From what I have found, the original air date of that episode was the week of October 7th, 1987. Highly likely that those are pre-production Cutlasses that were filmed. The Regal footage is likely a production model since they were the first to go on sale in October. That Regal digital dash footage has to be from a pre-production car though. Either that, or GM made a production change extremely early in the product run to change the tach from red/orange to green.

Never seen that olds logo on the b pillar like that, and on the SL too

that's likely what's causing your issues. that solenoid can fail, happened on my 03 GTP. Does it have a neutral release? If it does try pushing it down and see if it will come out of park. that solenoid has a little plastic disc on it that comes out, and pulls a rod that releases the interlock, when you push the emergency park release, its just manually releasing it. not a super bad part to replace if you end up having to, just not sure about finding one.

No shift release and rocking doesn't help.

I can't remember but do 1st gen cars have the shift lock release like 2nd gen cars do? If so you could try that. If not that solenoid might actually be bad. If I recall something about the brake light switch can cause the car to remain in park. I had that issues on my CSC. If the car was parked on an incline I would try rocking the car back and forth a bit then try to get it out of park.

I so very much hate these cross-era mashup cars, but my retinas are burned so I thought I'd share. https://www.junkyardlife.com/2015/11/luminac-repurposed-1958-cadillac-fins.html

I love '58 Cadillacs, but Luminacs are a hard NO.

This aged well;)

It was the 60's, you had to be there

I always used Permatex Die-electric Grease, which is just a silicone grease. I'm guessing whoever used Gummi Pflege doesn't frequent the forum any more. Sounds promising. Couldn't find any actual tests or comparisons. This was the closest thing I could find to a test: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1687676-Annoying-Door-Creaks-Gummi-Pflege-Test

I just figured it out! Got the GXP brackets and calipers from NAPA. They cut the mounting part off and drilled/tapped new mounting holes.

Yeah, some states even require headlights on when it rains, and sometimes it's still quite bright out when that happens. Anytime I've turned on my lights during the daytime, the dash is too dim to see.

Actually its been holding up great. I've got over 20k miles on the swap now over 2 years. Nothing major, a couple ripped cv boots which may be because they were junkyard sourced. I highly recommend adding a HTOB spacer. ZZP sells them for around $50. Sits behind the HTOB and moves it closer to the clutch by 1/4" for earlier engagement and longer life. Aside from engineering the trans mount, the hardest part is getting the clutch pedal mounted and situated. The pedal arm needs to be cut & welded into proper position as well. As far as the mount, the low-profile mount I fabbed up works great. Only modification I made was adding rubber bushings under the nuts at the bottom to further insulate the mount from the frame. On an aluminum subframe, it might have to be done a bit different. Might be able to drill two holes and bolt it in the same way, but I haven't been hands-on with an 04+ subframe so I can't say for sure. I'm not a fan of the modified 4T65E bracket method that requires tubular control arms as the mount sits outside the frame. An extra $650 that could be spent elsewhere. There really are half a dozen ways you could fab up a mount but I can say for sure the one I made does the job. 3/16 steel plate holds up well so far. I have also just finished taking the time to document the changes to the tune that are highly recommended for a manual swap: Idle speeds in-gear changed to match P/N as its going to be wired to be in D at all times now. ( I actually added a toggle switch to change between forcing it in D or P, since P is needed for a crank relearn procedure if you need it) DTC codes changed And finally zeroing out all the auto trans stuff: