Potential Riv owner long time l67 geek

So lets start off with I don't own the car yet but I am in talks and things look good for me. I found a 97 l67 riv that has seen better days but is not beat to complete hell. I was working one day and saw this riv and I have always loved the look of the rivs but have always had the cousin the regal. So on my way to leave I saw the owner and asked a little about it and she was like well would you want to buy it. I said I need more information before I say yes or no. turns out to be a 97 l67 car bone stock with 118k on it and the best part is that she always used premium so the motor should have had a decent life not a low octane knock machine. The caveats are it has minor paint/body issues and its a smoker's car. However for 500 its really hard to say no to a 118k mile l67 car that runs and drives.  

If any of you are on the regal board you know what I am capable of and what I enjoy. I finally have a 8-8 job that has weekends off so I can wrench with friends and go racing. I have 3 regals as of now but one is on the chopping block to get demoded and sold to a buddy in stockish form. Ill list the cars and mods.

2003 GS
thrasher shift kit (hard setting)
Gen V with FSIC and ported LIM with upgraded gaskets
N* & Lq4 maf
4 in intense intake tubing and 9 in cone filter
42.5 lb injectors in prj fuel rails and AN6 lines to replace stock plastic lines 255 lph walbro pump
Pacesetter headers with a PLX wideband and Hogan cat back exhaust with a flo pro muffler
1.8 HS RR and ly7 springs
06 impala ss brakes, stainless lines
GMPP F&R sway bars and rear trailing arms with all poly bushings and front and rear STB
poly dog bone mounts and Hbody tensioner with the l36 upper mount drilled into the head
17 in rims in 5 spoke design.
Tinted taillights and headlights sound deadening throughout the car
Infinity kappa speakers in the rear deck.
She has rust forming and I think it hit a deer before I owned her from the way the clear is peeling looks like a respray not prepped right.

1997 GS
I rescued this car from the reaches of the Junk yard. Guy had no Idea what he had. Trans had started to slip so he was dumping it cheap. Trans worked well enough to get it on the trailer and back off and then into the garage. The car has 205k on the body and everybody swears its a < 60k car not a spec of rust. This is my true baby, no hail damage like the other 2 regals I have.
to start off I got a 108k motor and trans out of a 98 GTP from a buddy

This car has
Aluminum cradle, front and rear impact bars, calipers off a grand am and Fbody brakes up front all of which are polished to some extent.
ported and polished LIM that has the coolant holes plugged and the coolant crossover block all but removed
polished and modded gen 3 blower that has been ported and polished with a 3.0 mps
fed by a shined up n* Tb with a lq4 maf  and a 4 in intake tube with a cone filter.
This all feeds through a ZZP FSIC which is cooled by a Frozen boost 101 FMHE and is circulating the coolant with a bosch cobra pump  
All of this work dumps into a set of home ported heads that are not a wild port job but more of a polish and remove casting flaws.
Then those heads have a set of 1.84 YT RR on it with LY7 springs
This all dumps into
SSAC headers that are coated and wrapped to minimize heat and fitted with a PLX WB
to fit these headers the radiator fans are from a 99+ GS as they are more slim lined.
All of this is held into the engine bay by a poly lower mount and poly dog bone mounts but stock rubber round mounts on the dog bones. Hbody tensioner with l36 alum mount drilled into the head
the fuel that lights this beast is fed from a 255 lph walbro knockoff with a rewire kit ran in a custom location to a plastic tank that was out of the 2001 regal I parted out then the hardline to the PRJ rails are connected by AN6 lines. feeding into stock injectors for the time being but I have 60# injectors waiting to go in when I convert to E85.
The suspension is all poly and has a dorman front sway bar that is on par with the GMPP bar and a GMPP rear sway along with dorman boxed trailing arms new dorman problem solver front LCAs with KYB GR2 struts at all 4 corners
the body roll is controlled even more with F&R STB
noise and rust are held at bay by using bed liner as an undercoating and in the trunk to reduce the metal on metal rattle that the stereo I installed will cause.
Infinity Kappa 6x9 in the rear and 5.25 up front with a Android head unit with DVD player all feeding a 600 watt single 12 in infinity reference sub through a infinity kappa amp.
The rear seats have been converted to the 2001 style full fold down.
Trans is stock for the time being minus the DIY shift kit
all of this running on stock 6 spoke light weight regal rims
And all monitored with a 3 guage pillar, torque which is put on the headunit and on the second plug for the splitter I have I have hptuners cord routed under the center console and into the middle arm rest storage area.  
I have the GTP drivers side exhaust hanger ready to go in when I get a dual setup, Spoiler from another regal, and a modified shifter that shortens it significantly in the queue for this winter to keep me busy in my basement workshop.

The last regal I have is a disposable ls that I picked up to deliver pizzas in. I am sticking a 3.29 geared trans and a set of headers in this weekend to let it breathe. I will put a l26 upper intake and a n* tb with a port matched lim on later this year or next spring. The goal is to gut it and drive it into the ground and tune it so that 20 mpg in town is possible since that seems to be the bragging point when it comes to mpg at work unless like a couple coworkers they have little econoboxes that suck in anything but dry weather. I have a couple other rides but no one cares about trans ams or gtos right this is a buick board lol. I will post pics when I am not at work and blocked

Welcome to the forum

If you're used to the Regals, the Riv is MUCH easier to work on. However, modding the car isn't all that easy. Yes, you can transfer/buy engine and trans parts for it, but everything else is completely different, and it seems like every month another needed part gets discontinued. "Performance" parts, aside from engine/trans internals and bolt-ons are nil. Sway bars are about the only thing one can buy. Even the I/C setup needs to be fabricated to fit.

The Riv rides nicer and is way more comfortable than a Regal, but if you're looking to make a Riv fast and handle as good as a Regal with the same mods, it's not going to happen. All of us morons are constantly making our own parts and modifications.....

I'm not too worried about speed but I do want something that handles relatively decent not on rails that is what my gto and TA is for. The goal is 13.9 back home at 2100 ft elevation and 14.5 or better up here at 6100 ft. If speed becomes a need I have a stg 3 set of heads and xp sitting on the shelf and that along with the gen v and IC from the 03 will make a perfect setup with a 2.8 or 3.0 on it... Im not greedy I just want 320+ whp ... its ONLY a Buick lol

If everything checks out looks like I will have a riv tomorrow