Thread: Goldgp's 5 speed swap

Hello all! Now before you get too excited, lets get this out of the way... This is not a big bad Getrag 284 swap, think of this as more of an experiment of longevity

This swap is with the weaker little sister of the 284, the 282, found in fieros, cavaliers, sunfires, older grand prixs, low torque stuff like that. I may be wrong here, but i believe the rated torque on the 282 is right at 200 ftlbs MAX. So heres my thought process. I wanted to go manual with my GTP, not because of any issues with my auto tranny, i just decided it would make it a more enjoyable experience to drive. I knew that i did not want the headache of A: Finding a unicorn 284 in good condition, and B: not being able to ever rebuild it or get any parts. Also, damn that clutch cost alot for the 284! Now, my mods are in my signature for my GTP, i knew going into this that the chances of nuking this thing the first pull were really good. Im not breaking the sound barrier performance wise, but i knew with a cam and 3.4 gen v the odds were against the 282. This thread will be continuously updated as to issues and mileage of the swap, to kinda see if this is a viable swap for people that have lower power builds. As i type this 9/14/17, i have 12400 miles on the build, roughly 500 of those are easy miles for clutch break in, the rest are not easy. So far this swap has done great, no issues, super fun, and is taking my beatings. This wont be a super detailed thread yet, but i will edit and add too it.

As a note before all the pics, If you ever plan to go turbo of do a max effort blower build, this is not the tranny for you, dont even bother.

So, this is the donor car. Shes an 89 grand prix coupe, rode hard, put away wet.


And heres the recipient of the swap, my 98 GTP.


See ya later you boring bastard


The teardown starts


4 speeds taking a vacation untill it goes in my 2000

The dirty 282 temporarily mated to my motor ( my gf photobombed my pic with her upper intake she just painted for her turbo 90 foxbody)


So after getting the motor out, i started on the interior, which is the hardest part of the swap.


Then the dash comes out


Just so we can get to the pedal box


89 pedal box on the left, 98 on the right. And no, the 89 box will not just bolt in, wish it would.

Now for me, adding the clutch pedal to the 98 pedal box was the hardest part of the swap, I just used the measurements off the old box , and started copying that with a piece of angle. Its crude, but i dont fabricate often. lol


Here is the general idea, just making the pivot point with the angle. It gets a little prettier as it progresses, but not much.


My puzzle pieces laid out


Basically, 1 and 2 are the pivot point for the pedal, and 3 bolts to the existing brake pedal bolt. It also is held by a bolt between 3 and 2 into the box.

Another pic of it


Also, before that i cut the existing 98 brake pedal down


So, then there were 3


I used the brake light switch from the 89 as my cruise control disable, i will post better pics of it at some point, this is primitive compared to what i have now. Does work tho.


Next order of business was the clutch master cylinder firewall placement. Now, there is a hole under that piece of cardboard were the factory loom goes, there also happens to be a hole beneath that. The hole under the factory placement is unused and with a little adjustment will fit the factory loom.


Before


This is looking at it from in the car, i cut the area out that the cardboard was covering, and bolted my plate that i cut from my cardboard template. I already have the square for mounting the clutch mastercylinder cut in that plate. I then bolted it to the car, seam sealed it, then primed and painted it.


How it looks from the outside.


When you do these swaps ( 282 or 284) the clutch mastercylinder rod wont be long enough. So i welded an old brake booster rod on to it to get my length and angle right.

The shifter install is pretty straight forward, the front bolt goes in the factory location. For the rear, you use the auto shifters bracket, and enlarge two of the holes.( the slots by the black bolts)Perfect height.


Now the fun part of the shifter install, the cables. This is were i screwed up at first, i found a factory half knocked out hole in the firewall (engine bay side) and thought "huh, must be a carry over from the first gen w bodys, this must be the factory cable spot. Damn im lucky!" Well... it wasnt, i was an inch too short of my cables reaching once the drivetrain was in. Soo this actually got moved farther right after this pic.


This interior hole got moved slightly as well.


And all together shifter wise.


Now with carpet


And interior installed ( This is actually out of sequence, once it was done and driving, but before i shortened the shifter 2 inches.) The oil pressure gauge is temporary.

After i shortened the shifter a little.


So next up, was the drivetrain side of things. The first task was securing the driverside axle tube to the engine. Now, instead of using an aluminum oil pan from an 05+ , i just decided to make my own bracket. Mainly because it needed to perform oil filter duty as well. This is a flat plate of steel that is in a c cupping the axle tube for mock up.


what it looked like before welding


Then i put a small piece of 90 degree angle behind it with holes i pre drilled to line up with the motor mount bar bolts. Tightened everything down, ready for tack welds.

Got it tacked, and ready for welding.


Got it welded, only did the backside, still had to mock the other plate getting welded onto it for my oil filter bracket.


My oil filter bracket


The other side of it. Better weld on this side, not that that 1 pound oil filter needs alot of support. lol This project was my first time welding.


And all done


Here is the bracket temporarily installed before the tranny gets cleaned and painted.


Next, i power washed the tranny and painted it. Ended up painting the selector black before i was all done. Notice that big ass piece of bellhousing that has been welded back on? I noticed it after i got all of the caked on crap off of it. My guess is that someone tried tightening this thing back up after a clutch job and didnt quite get the alignment dowl in the hole. lol. At least they seemed to have welded it up true. So i got that goin for me, which is nice.


another angle



So next, i got my flywheel and clutch mounted. This is a machined down 3800 camaro flywheel, and it has been mirror balanced to my L67 flexplate.( those alighnment pins that are in there in the pic gotta come out).


I really cant remember if this is a stage 2 spec clutch or stage 2+, whatever the 400ftlb one is. Smooth engagement, no chatter, have had no issues with it. I chose this one, because the fiero guys start cracking the cases on these shortly after the 450ish mark. Figured clutch slip would be a good indicator to stop adding power instead of the tranny case giving up.

With how well this project has been driving so far, i may intercool and really see how much $hit this 282 will take, or go untill i get clutch slip. Which on a blower setup would be pretty far for 400ftlbs at the flywheel.


Next, this auto tranny mount needs to go.


aaand gone, never existed.Theres two holes under there already factory pressed for the manual on the bottom of the chanel. I will put picks of them someday.


Here she is in the car with the cables hooked up (after the whole cables in the wrong spot thing i mentioned earlier) And this is without the new vent tube and reverse lights hooked.



So, the last thing i actually installed, was the oil filter and adapter setup. I did this once it was in the car. Now, from what ive seen, everyone who does a getrag swap uses a buick reatta oil filter adapter with a filter relocation and goes about there lives. I looked, and looked and fukin looked, couldnt find one used or buy it new from gm. For those who are wondering, the factory oil filter adapter does not clear the cv axel, wont work in factory form. So instead, i modified the factory adapter to work. I tweaked the brass fittings a little after these pics, but you get the point.




So that is the neck cut off, a block of aluminum internally welded in the top port of the neck, then an aluminum block which you can see welded and tapped. I drilled and tapped the oil sender hole bigger for the other fitting, and the lowest bolt hole was recessed, and a tapered allen bolt was used to clear the cv axel with extra room.
Another angle



This setup has worked out great so far, no leaks. But i am still looking for a reatta oil filter adapter, anyone reading this that has one give me a shout. Id gladly buy it off of you. I would still rather have a factory gm adapter on there, it would look so much cleaner.

So that was that, after i got that installed i started it, did some checks. Once everything was checked and rechecked, i drove to the gas station in it. That was a fun, but nerve racking drive, thinking of all the things i could have forgotten or left loose.lol.

Its an odd experience driving a car for years as an auto, then taking your first drive as a manual. Before i was done, i expected it might feel wierd or awkward. The only wierd thing about it was that it didnt feel wierd, it felt as if it was supposed to have a manual option, it just feels right. As far as the characteristics of the setup, when your doing 70 miles an hour, your right at 2500 rpm. This swap does not affect your speedometer, im still 1 mph higher than the gps speed and i havent changed anything. First gear is really short, you can take off in second if you wanted to. I find myself going from 3rd to 5th alot. When you poke it in 3rd to merge onto the highway, you just get done with third and throw it in 5th because 4th really isnt usefull just dailying it. On my setup, it will break traction in second and third, unless you get decent tires. With my potenzas, it holds a little better in third than with my cheaper yokohamas. In the end, this thing is just awesome to drive, especially when your in boost and you shift. The supercharger whine fluctuates up and down real quick when it loses traction in a shift then regains it.

As i said at the beginning, i will update this tread, and i will get a video up sometime soon. I will wait to put a video up untill my new hood and spoiler are on tho.

I dont live on here like some of you guys do, but if you have any questions, just ask or pm me. Thanks for lookin!

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Yeeeees, manual swap. Subscribed!

Wow! subscribed

Hory sheet. Excited to see more, I'd love to have a manual swap someday and it'd be nice to see if this is an option. Looks great!

This is a great swap

Finnally got the rest of the pics up, for now that is. I will add more later on and keep this updated.

subbed as hell

Originally Posted by GT4Meee.

I admire your dedication and free time. Things like this keep the fire burning within for this platform.

Thanks, I had to do something. I hadn't disassembled any of my cars recently so I was getting bored.

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, haven't been on here much. Just rolled over another 4,000 miles on the swap, (I'm a little late on my oil change) so that's around 8k I've got on the setup now. No issues, took it to the street machine nationals in Illinois a few months ago , longest interstate trip it's done since the swap.

Bake82, The stage 2+ should be all the clutch you need for this swap, it's rated at 400 ftlbs of torque. Anyone who would have 400 ftlbs or more of torque should look for other tranny options.lol.
Honestly tho , even the 2+ is way overkill for a stock l67, but assuming everything goes well with your swap, you won't stay stock long...trust me. If you have any questions when you start this swap, feel free to pm me or just ask on here. I will try to get on here more often and check in. I may be able to help if you need a measurement or something.

Thankfully, grand prix forums is still alive, so I will keep updating this thread on mileage and any issues that I encounter.
I guess I need to stop being lazy and get a vid of it up too like I promised forever ago.lol
Good to be back!

5/27/19 update
5 speed swap is still kicking. No issues, just been enjoying it.