I'd be happy to help. Overall, in all my car ownership I'd have to say that when stock, these cars are pretty dam reliable actually. I was suprised. If you took care of them they were solid like safes. The engine is build like a brick shithouse. The transmission (when stock again) is smooth and quick to shift, but when you start modding, the diff and trans become the weak link. There are two known diff replacements that we were aware of back then (5 years ago) the Quaife from the UK, and GM torsen. From my understanding the Quiafe is still procurable but it's like a unicorn. The torsen if I can remember correctly ceased production for some reason. You can't really buy them anymore. The transmission that most of used did indeed come from Triple Edge, and I
believe their main supplier was Intense Racing out of Ohio.
Like our G bodies, these cars had weak links from the factory as well. If you're going to own one just to drive, do the aluminum coolant elbows, true cai, U-bend delete, a 160 thermostat and go. These cars weren't intercooled, and their factory blowers kinda heated up that air pretty bad. If you run her a little cooler like this, along with 93 octane in it, they'll run nice. But remember, they're more of a roll racer car than a stoplight car like our g bodies. They have ZERO traction, and will require true slicks to do that with. But then now you're going to be dealing with transaxle problems again. I've run the widest, softest tires I could get on the stock rims, and it did nothing-235 wide Nittos. Made no difference. They are definitely traction limited. Torque steer/bump steer. You have no
clue about what you
think you know about torque steer until you drive a modded W body lol. There are ways to help keep it under control but it was still horrible in that car. I'm super anal though, and if you're not, it may be ok for you. The other weak link was the exhaust manifolds. They really restrict the car, and make it heat up too because of that. Headers are nice not only for performance, but to just let the car do what it's supposed to do. The U-bend underneath the car where the oxygen sensor sits is also a massive restriction. Super cheap and easy to replace that with a straight pipe though. The little mods here and there really let the factory 3.8" supercharger pulley do what it was designed to do, without all the restrictions. I had pretty much all the bolt ons you could bolt on to this car, and had pretty much the two best tuners in the state tune it, and they still couldn't tune it with no knock. Then my 2nd gear went out, then the dreaded switch over to water based paint in the mid 90's paint flaking debacle started and that was it for me. I put in a new trans and decided to keep on keeping on, but when the paint started I was done. I won't drive a ghetto looking car & I wasn't going to paint it.
Other than being wrong wheel drive, I miss that car bad. Even moreso now after driving 5 more cars past that. That Regal, despite it's shortcomingings, was soo much better than these new Toyotas, Taurus, Impreza, Chrylser 200s et. al. It was quieter inside, MUCH faster throttle response/shifting (NOT ACCELERATION, throttle response) more solid, and more comfortable. It was better looking to in my opinion. It was classy and aerodynamic. And suprised a LOT of people on the highway lol. To let you know what they're capable of, I was at the track for the last time of the year this year, and my tuner Ryan Carter was there with one of his buddies, coaching him on how to track an old beat up 98 gtp. This car had a lot of miles on it, was rode hard and put away wet. BONE stock. Ryan threw one of his tunes on it, and on street tires, I've no idea how, that kid was running 14.2 quarter mile times. I've no idea how, but he was. You throw the bolt ons on, and this car will suprise the shit out of you. For how long? Only the crystal ball can tell you that unfortunately.
So, weak links that I can think of off the top of my head are coolant elbows, running a little hot, transaxle/diff, torque steer, lower intake manifold gaskets, U-bend, and paint. The elbows, t-stat & u-bend are super cheap & easy. The rest? That's on you.
p.s. had to add this in here. when i met my wife, she thought "o god, a buick. granpas car." she thought it was a really nice car, but that was it. then one day I told her i'm going out on the local strip & she said to do what? I said to race honey lol. she said in what? my gs lol. she was like ok. I hit the gas & she almost shat herself lol. i'll never forget this. she said she had no CLUE what happened lol. one minute were doin 30, the next minute she hears the supercharger wine & shes pinned to the back of her seat freakin out lol. she's like what the hells in this thing??? I said it's supercharged man lol. you think i'd drive a non forced induction car? you kidding me lol? nooww you know what a sleeper is.
this was mine.
It's too bad because they're solid cars, and really good looking too.
