Back in Black

I never have enough of black Riv pictures. You are obliged to post pictures regularly.
I love Your parcel but it would be nice to see some shots of the riv in urban area as well.

damn i missed a lot of this.
riv looks great!
What was the deal with the lifters? You tightened the rockers down and you had lash between the pushrod and rocker arm (or pushrod and lifter same difference) - a space. And just replacing the lifters with LS7's fixed that for you?
Oh too late I know but at least maybe for assurance sake yeah I'd say you can reuse the aluminum LIM gaskets without trouble. I ended up porting my old (installed in '08 removed in like '11) GM aluminum set with maybe like 25-30k miles to match my IS3 head porting and have been running them for a while now.

Haha thanks Bullitt...I haven't taken too many pictures lately of the car but I post good ones when I can. Hopefully one of my better ones makes it into the calendar!

Codith - the lifters were a funny one. You're exactly right, there was a gap between one of the pieces on cylinder #2 exhaust valve. I'm pretty sure it was the lifter/pushrod, so I just replaced them all with the 'upgraded' LS7's. I have never heard of anyone having to do that before to get the rockers to work correctly, and I had to do it on this car AND my Lesabre T-type's Series I L67. Only on the Series I, it was EVERY lifter that was making noise - they just wouldn't pump up.

And thanks for the confirmation on the gaskets - I didn't think it would be a problem. When I took mine off they looked exactly the same as when I had installed them 2 years ago (albeit only 11,000 miles ago).

Hey all,

I've been meaning to post this for a couple weeks but I just finished rebuilding my main computer. I decided to get new exhaust tips! I don't mind the stock tips, really, but mine were getting pretty questionable as far as how long they would last (mufflers are on their way out too). I got these at Advance Auto for almost half off, so I figured 'why not?'.

They're actually not very big, about 1/2 the width of the stock tips. They're still ovals though! But better because they have a slight angled cut.




The rolled ends on them aren't particularly good, so I applied some high-heat clear silicone so water wouldn't sit in there.


Stock tips:




New tips!






I'm quite pleased. They're tucked under the bumper in exactly the same spot the stock ones are, so they don't look out of place at all, but I think they made a huge improvement to the back of the car.

Very Nice!
Those tips look familiar:

Ha! Nice!

I just ordered a 3.5" MPS! I don't really have KR day to day, and even without being tuned much my car really pulls. I hope I don't get too much KR with this but I can at least tune now if I do!

I think I've done enough supporting mods to handle it though.

Ok, I'm ready to join the MPS club!

Finally!



I'm very happy with it, but I need to tune badly. I'm getting consistent knock above 4,000 RPM, but I rarely go there. I'm loving the bottom end torque and the overall power increase and ease of driving. I have a fun time go-fast car (the T-type) so i think besides tuning, this is probably it for mods for the Riv. I'm very VERY happy with it and how it runs and drives now. Drives and handles like the GS it should have been.

EDIT: Holy crap, my engine is filthy. Damn Winter.

Knock with that big of a pulley and all those mods? Weird

Yeah thats what I was thinking. My LTFT's are at +12.5 above 1/2 throttle or more, so it's a good bit lean. No vacuum leaks that I can find, so I just need to find time to tune soon.

12.5 at heavier throttle and lots of high RPM KR? Check your fuel filter!!!

Thank you for the reminder Derek...It's likely I never would have thought of that myself lol. Luckily the fuel filter doesnt have many miles on it. Perhaps 10,000? Hopefully thats not a real issue. I just figured the high LTFT was from so much air moving through there now and the air being so cold right now.

Z-type wrote:

Finally!



I'm very happy with it, but I need to tune badly. I'm getting consistent knock above 4,000 RPM, but I rarely go there. I'm loving the bottom end torque and the overall power increase and ease of driving. I have a fun time go-fast car (the T-type) so i think besides tuning, this is probably it for mods for the Riv. I'm very VERY happy with it and how it runs and drives now. Drives and handles like the GS it should have been.

EDIT: Holy crap, my engine is filthy. Damn Winter.

I wonder if GM / Buick could have done these mods in production, and called the car a Wildcat? That 4000+ RPM knock should not be that tough to tune out with some mods to the fuel tables. And an alternate fuel mapping essentially for the EPA drive cycle should get it through mileage and emissions. That is, I am thinking you might want to check and remap the coasting/cruising maps to take advantage of the power and improve mileage when you're not whamming the loud pedal. Just saying......

Your thoughts?

Albertj

Z-type wrote:

Thank you for the reminder Derek...It's likely I never would  have thought of that myself lol. Luckily the fuel filter doesnt have many miles on it. Perhaps 10,000? Hopefully thats not a real issue. I just figured the high LTFT was from so much air moving through there now and the air being so cold right now.

Do you have a fuel pressure gauge you can put on the fuel rail? What are your IPWs at full throttle? Are you maxing out the injectors for some reason? (might point to fuel pump issue)

Albert - thats my ultimate plan, after i figure out high RPM fueling issue. I certainly want to try and maintain my good fuel mileage.

I actually did check it a couple weeks ago and it was at 47 PSI. Seemed ok to me at the time. My injectors are cleaned and flow matched, but i doubt theyre getting maxed out, looking at the way the stock MAF table is. I have a few things im going to try with the tuner tomorrow and Ill update in my tune thread.

I cant really check the injrctor pulse at WOT becaue of the knock. I dont want to get to WOT until i have a better MAF adjustment and other related things.

Maybe someone can get you the fuel mappings off a Bonneville SSE of similar vintage, to start?

I have a stock 98 Riv file from Scott, and it is clearly a better tune from the factory than the 97's already. Perhaps that might be as good a place to start? Theres so many things different about the '98 tune it just bring back the normal thought "what was GM thinking?" .

Finally joined the 100,000 mile club. Got the car nearly 3 years ago with 83,000 on it. It's bittersweet...I was getting cozy with just the 5 digits on my odometer.

Nice millstone pics Andrew, congratulations. Calendar viewing for April coming up

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii............

Haha thanks guys. I've been planning this roll-over for months JUST to get the pictures.

And yes Jim, I love flipping to the next month in our calendars and seeing who's next!

I was able to do some actual work on the car this past Sunday. Things that it needed.

Ever since I got the car the exhaust seemed a little loud and I knew the mufflers were rusty, no biggie, they sounded good. But there was always a little growl coming from somewhere up front and I recently discovered it was the catalytic converter, apparently with some sort of hole in it. On cold mornings there was always an obvious cloud of vapor coming from that area, so I decided to replace it to get rid of the noise.


I was lucky enough that this new converter slipped over the old exhaust tubing, so I could just bolt the front and clamp the back. Bingo. I COULD NOT get the old O2 sensor out so unfortunately I had to shell out for one of those, but no harm done. I also had to modify the shield for the O2's wiring but that was after this picture.


HOLY CRAP this car is so quiet now. I had no idea how bad the exhaust leak was until it was gone. What a relief.

So since it was warmish I decided it was time to get the Winter crud off the car, so out came the clay bar and wax. Unfortunately, at the time, I had to do it in the house garage which isn't particularly well-lit.


Aaaaand here's the clay bar. After the passenger door. The car was so bad...


It came out good though. It will get a proper full detail when the weather is actually Spring, and when I can put my summer wheels back on.

Thanks