hey guys new here

well i went from a 6 speed t/a to an riv, now i can say im all about impressed it may not be as fast but it sure is a torque monster and will challenge alot of the ricers, for right now it's stock but i was wandering ive seen a couple of posts but my car has 168k on it with new radiator new pulleys and fuel injection kit, few other things but those are the biggest, the guy left the recepts in the car and thats how i know this but its been taken real good care of only thing thats a bummer are the lights for the climate control dont work., main question is if i were to do the new plugs, 180 degre thermostat and a scan would i be able to run the 3.4 pulley and how much torque would that make? ive seen 25 horsepower but not torque ratings. thanks

Don't assume you can run a 3.4" SC pulley with just a t-stat & plug mods. Scanning is good, but you'll see significant KR with a 3.4", which is bad. Read these links before dropping pulley size:

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t23-faq-modding-101-how-to-increase-acceleration-performance

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t3656-faq-smaller-sc-pulley-what-size

Mods that add boost tend to create all their HP in the form of low-end torque, so if you use a % proportion, a good guess would be 10% based on a 25 HP gain. So your torque would be about 308 at the crank. That might sound nice, but to be honest our cars have plenty of torque for being FWD. Any breathing mods you can do to increase air flow is going to help shift your torque curve higher up in the RPM band - creating HP where you can actually use it!

Welcome Zach! I agree with AA. Being FWD, you get to a point very quick where you're spinning the tires and cant really do too much else on street tires and stock suspension off the line. Its more beneficial to work on freeing up the power up top. Both of the links he posted are great reads and help out alot deciding what to do when in the performance mods department.

Welcome. What year is your new Riviera?

Al

Welcome Zach!

Hey, new guy! Get a scanner and get a signature! Those should be your first two upgrades!

Charlie out!

thanks for the welcome everybody, and i was overlooking this before i sighned up and i should proly do some exhaust work as well?, so would a 3.5 make more sense then? and i was surpised about the torque this is my first v6 ive owned and it's not disappointing. Al it's a 97 all its missing is a dang moonroof lol, but im a big fan of roadmasters i had a 93 so it wasnt the lt1 but how are the lt1's in that big ole sedan? kinda curiouse since you own both i know Statistics say the roadmaster is faster but what do you think? can you tell the diffrence in acceleration?

I wouldnt go any lower than a 3.6" without supporting mods.Still would want to get cooler plugs and cooler tstat.
Just remember, support mods are safety mods. And safety always comes first!

Personally, I would go with:
Gutted airbox/Fenderwell intake (Do this ASAP. It's cheap/free and makes a subtle but noticeable difference)
6 Autolite 104 Copper plugs ~$15
180* Thermostat ~$20 including gaskets
OBD Scanner (I use a bluetooth one with an Android app called Torque. Check it out, it's pretty sweet) ~$10 for the bluetooth, $5 for the app
Modular pulley system (You can get away with a 3.5" at this point, but if you want to play it safe I would get a 3.6") ~$90 for the MPS+$$ to buy/rent the tool. USE THE SPECIAL TOOL. I can speak from experience that a 2/3 jaw pulley tool will F$%@ everything up.
Since you have a 97, you can do the F-body brake mod pretty easily. ~$200
ZZP Downpipe

As far as aesthetics go, get a woodgrain kit for the interior. It changes everything. ~$130+
Sequential turn signals ~$100
Factory-looking wing ~$100

You don't have to do any/all of this. It's just a list of nice upgrades that won't kill the bank. Anything more than these will start to cost much more.

thank you guys ince again for the helpfull info kinda cool that you guys dont live to far from where i stay this may sound strange but in the ls club we use to have alil cook out and what not, do you guys do the same here? i mean it would be pretty cool to get a bunch of sleepers together, and for the AA why does you're riv weight 4k is that with you and a full tank? and matt thank you for that it helps on what to get and price, but would a wing look good for the rear of a riv? o and for the sig i think ill wait till i get some of these parts done lol. but with the gutted airbox will it make the sc wine alil bit more?

Quote :

and for the AA why does you're riv weight 4k is that with you and a full tank?

Curb weight means just the car with standard equipment. Any optional equipment adds weight (example: supercharger, moonroof, On-Star, etc.), and the driver adds weight of course. My car's gross weight of 4087 lb included me in the car, but with less than 1/8 tank of gas. Curb weight is kind of misleading because every car on the road weighs more than the manufacturer's curb weight might suggest.

Please read when you get a chance: http://rivperformance.wikispaces.com/Welcome!

Leave the Riviera wood free! Unless your grandpa rides with you every day lol.

AA wrote:

Quote :

and for the AA why does you're riv weight 4k is that with you and a full tank?

Curb weight means just the car with standard equipment. Any optional equipment adds weight (example: supercharger, moonroof, On-Star, etc.), and the driver adds weight of course. My car's gross weight of 4087 lb included me in the car, but with less than 1/8 tank of gas. Curb weight is kind of misleading because every car on the road weighs more than the manufacturer's curb weight might suggest.

Please read when you get a chance: http://rivperformance.wikispaces.com/Welcome!

Thats so heavy! I can't believe you're nearly 4100. My car weighs 3780 with a big heavy sub box in the truck. With me, it weighs 3930. I wonder where the extra 160lbs is coming from? Have you ever confirmed with a different scale?

A gutted airbox would make it whine more, and give you a bit more HP and better fuel economy. The numbers and noise aren't that much better than stock (not really that noticeable), but hey. It's free.