'86 regal needs some help

[612 David B]

'86 regal limited
Picked up the car few weeks ago, has 305 out of a early 80s monte and a manual 5 speed Borge Warner from a mid 80s mustang (supposedly). I drove it home roughly 180 miles with a decent rearend shimmy at speeds over 70. Figured maybe tires outta balance or driveshaft.
Following day i started going over the possible causes and found that it had been missing 2 bell housing bolts and that there wasn't even a top housing bolt hole to line up with. And also that the homemade trans crossmember was failing horribly. Causing major stress on the rearend and motor mounts.
I'm hoping i can be provided with some insight on what my options to make the vehicle road worthy might be. Im well equipped with parts and tools around my shop just not sure what direction would be best... possibly just replacing the trans with a GM automatic if so what will bolt right up? The crossmember has been hacked up pretty bad(I'll post pictures). Is there any chance i can find a suitable replacement? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I've attached cross member and motor mount photos. The motor mounts where welded really far foreword. I'm assuming to accommodate for the trans. But the welds are being stretched to the max

 

[L05edSS]

'86 regal limited
Picked up the car few weeks ago, has 305 out of a early 80s monte and a manual 5 speed Borge Warner from a mid 80s mustang (supposedly). I drove it home roughly 180 miles with a decent rearend shimmy at speeds over 70. Figured maybe tires outta balance or driveshaft.
Following day i started going over the possible causes and found that it had been missing 2 bell housing bolts and that there wasn't even a top housing bolt hole to line up with. And also that the homemade trans crossmember was failing horribly. Causing major stress on the rearend and motor mounts.
I'm hoping i can be provided with some insight on what my options to make the vehicle road worthy might be. Im well equipped with parts and tools around my shop just not sure what direction would be best... possibly just replacing the trans with a GM automatic if so what will bolt right up? The crossmember has been hacked up pretty bad(I'll post pictures). Is there any chance i can find a suitable replacement? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I've attached cross member and motor mount photos. The motor mounts where welded really far foreword. I'm assuming to accommodate for the trans. But the welds are being stretched to the maxView attachment 238506View attachment 238507View attachment 238508View attachment 238510

dont know why posted before typed anything. 1st figure out what transmission going with.. mikes montes has new/ used stock and jegs has a selection of their own brand cheap that will work with various combos to work with dual pipes.

 

[buick7332]

You need a G-Force crossmember. I bought mine from Summit. Also the bell housing, clutch fork, linkage, and pedals are all G-body specific. Someone else on here can probably post the part numbers. I'm not sure about your trans. I used a Saginaw 4- speed in my Grand Prix.

 

[airboatgreg]

It is obviously the wrong transmission and maybe bell housing.

 

[stew86MCSS396]

The frame mount pic "almost" looks like where they suppose to be for a SBC. I'm not oppose to welding them in except for the issue of replacing the rubber insert when they wear out. I take that back...I wouldn't weld on something that has a rubber insert. At the very least, I would've used bolts in the original holes to index the frame mounts to where they should belong. Visit link for reference...

Bbc sbc mounting points

I have a bare 454 bbc bolted onto the TH400 i will be using in my car and i have it mocked up so i can fabricate my crossmember for the trans and weld on my motor mounts to the frame. i will be running a sbc 400 in this car and i want to know if using the bbc for mock up with change the location...

gbodyforum.com

This may be a little of an exaggeration but Borg Warner T5s have been put into everything A to Z. Chances are you may have a GM flavored one under there. Perhaps a pic would shed some light on this. The crossmember trans tab/mount oddly looks like a...crossmember transmission mount!!! If the bolt spacing measures 5" across then it's a Ford mount and 3 3/4" for a Chevy. The butchered crossmember also looks like it used to be OE for TH-200 4R which I would presume 27" from the bellhousing to the crossmember mount but modified to accommodate the 5 speed which GM T5s are ~22 1/2".

If it's a GM T5 from a 3rd gen camaro and considering keeping it, it may be just a matter of getting the right crossmember for the swap. I'd make double sure that the engine mounts are where they need to be then address the crossmember location.

OE Regal gears are probably in the 2.41 range and if they haven't been swapped out, I'd consider 3.73 gears from a Monte Carlo SS to make that trans more fun!!!