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98 Regal GS bad tranny.

GTByron

GTByron

New member
Hello all. I have a friend selling a 98 Buick Regal GS for $400 but the tranny is bad. Now my cousin has a transmission from a 98 regal LS that he will sell me for $50 and install for 150. My question is will that transmission work in the GS since it came out of a LS? He says the pin codes on the transmission are the same but will it shift properly? Any info will be appreciated.
 


it will fit but the gears are wrong. the cars pcm would need to be re calibrated for the gear change.

your better off finding the HD tranny. thats in there already.
 
LS transmission not likely to hold up to the GS torque. The GS transmission don't even hold up:)

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So will it shift properly or what problem will I have? I'm not worried about speeding in it. I just want to get it up and running because its going to be a gift for a family friend. And what's the difference with the HD tranny?
 
it wont shift right and can damage the ls tranny if its not tuned for the gear change.

if the car is 400 and a used tranny can be found for 3 to 400, whats the big deal? find the right tranny. its a 800 dollar car now thats worth over 2 grand if the rest of its in good shape. no way your loosing any money really.
 


Ok then just checking. Actually went to a few junkyards today and no luck finding the HD tranny. All the ones I found were broken.
 
try craigslist, look for grand prix gtp part outs and regal gs part outs. same tranny. or just search the tranny. 4T65E-HD
 
Or you could just swap the hd dif onto the ls tranny. And hds arent that much tougher. To get it to shift decent youd have to get the cel to come on, otherwise the car will act retarded.
 
The differential. Really its not a "heavy duty" tranny, its just a regular 4t65 with a heavy duty differentialThe
GTByron said:
So will it shift properly or what problem will I have? I'm not worried about speeding in it. I just want to get it up and running because its going to be a gift for a family friend. And what's the difference with the HD tranny?
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So how hard is it to swap the diff? And would I still have to recalibrate the pcm if I swap the diff? Also no luck with craigslist in my area. Every gtp or gs has a broken tranny but the engine is still good. I don't have the money to get the transmission that's in it rebuilt either.
 


Never having done a dif swap myself, cant really tell ya too much. Theres a thread on how to do it around here somewhere.....

If you swap the dif, no you wont have to program it.
GTByron said:
So how hard is it to swap the diff? And would I still have to recalibrate the pcm if I swap the diff? Also no luck with craigslist in my area. Every gtp or gs has a broken tranny but the engine is still good. I don't have the money to get the transmission that's in it rebuilt either.
Click to expand...
 
Let me ask you this what do you plan on doing with the car afterwards? Are you gonna keep it or flip it? If it's bein flipped just get the trans that your cousin has and then have your PCM reprogrammed with the correct gears. If your keeping it you can either get the trans and PCM updated And drive it like that and not dog the car and it should last then plan another trans swap down the road.
 
The car is actually being gifted to a family friend. And how much is it to update the trans and pcm? What does that mean? Lets just say I don't do any of that and drive it with the ls tranny will it jump into gear? Will it slip? What will be the shifting symptoms? And how long will it last without reprogramming the pcm? I don't want to give them a broken car but at the same time I'm on a budget myself. If its within my price range I may get the pcm reprogrammed.
 
you cant use that tranny unless the pcm is programmed for it, like i said many posts ago the new tranny will be damaged from hard shifts, late shifts and so on.

if you can find a local maybe 50 bucks, if you need to send the pcm out to be tuned its gonna be a 100 easy. zzp intense to name a few vendors who do canned tunes.

gifts are fine, but if you were getting said gift would you want a gift thats working right? or one thats gonna blow up soon? your choice.
 


Ok I understand what u are saying. I will contact that seller. Its a bit risky because I don't know if that transmission works/shifts properly but maybe I can talk him down a bit. Thanks for all the help.
 
250 for that tranny is spot on. (its worth more) all the leaks on it were from the engine, oil leaks aka valve covers leak right onto the tranny.

used is always a risk, but if the seller says its a working trans it should be working, if not you know where he lives now lol

search around CL for part outs, a lot of the time the cars still whole and runs and drives, so at least you can warm it up and test it some. if you remove the used tranny yourself im sure the price will come down at a part out.
 
Even swapping the differential you'll still need tuned for the different gear ratio. The gs has a 2.93 gear ratio where the ls has 3.29
 
Are you sure about that? I thought only grand prixs had 3.29 gears. The reason I say this is because at 60 mph my 99 GT sits right at 2k rpm but my cousins regal sits at 1.2
-1.3k rpm. Can u explain why?
 
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