Help Tuning for 3.5" Pulley

Hi all! I'm relatively new here, and to the car scene as a whole. I used to drive a 2002 Olds Bravada and (amazingly) picked up a 98' Riv from a family friend around June of last year with around 160k miles on it for 600$! No rust, no problems. Really awesome!

Since then I've been really getting into this little community of passionate people we have here. After months of researching and learning, I'm finally ready to drop a 3.5" pulley in my Riv. I run 92 octane, have Autolite 104's, a 180* stat as well as a custom FWI that I made from posts I saw here! (Thanks again guys!)

Upon more reading I learned that I really should tune my car after I drop the pulley in. I do have a ScanGuageII for measuring knock, and right now I don't have any. At least not that I've been able to detect.

What are my options for tuning? Bringing it to my local performance stop and having them Dyno/tune it there? I'm a freshman in college, and I'm not too versed in doing the tune myself, although it would be fun to do so.

Let me know, I'm very eager to make more boost but I don't want to push my car too far without taking care of the important things first!

Welcome to the site

The reason you aren't "seeing" any knock right now is because it's cold outside. The very second the temp and humidity go up, you're going to start knocking, especially if you haven't opened up the exhaust at all. You're going to need an HPT (tuner) or buy an old DHP (one for sale on this site) and some of us can help you through the tuning process.
If you don't think you'll be able to tune it yourself, I would jump up to a 3.6" pulley and leave it alone. With a bigger throttle body and a higher flowing exhaust (along with your current mods), the factory "tune" will accommodate a 3.6" pulley by itself. That being said, a good tuner (person) can suck some more HP and Torque out of a stock engine.
Yes, tuning is absolutely preferred, but sometimes isn't very cost effective....especially for a daily driver.

I think I’ll just run a 3.6 then, that sounds a whole lot less stressful, especially for a freshman in college since I don’t have a whole lot of spending money yet.

As for exhaust mods, what do you recommend? I’ve read here that a 3” downpipe is one of the best things you can do for these cars, but I’m not super versed on brands. I know ZZP makes one for our cars, but I dunno. I’m free to hear more recommendations!

Personally, if on a budget, I'd install the downpipe, and then take out the factory resonator. Just put a plain piece of exhaust pipe in its place. It'll give you a little more sound without sounding stupid. The factory exhaust flows pretty well.

You can't go wrong with ZZP anything, really. They've been around the block a few times.

Welcome! Maybe this thread will give you a few ideas:

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

Hi Tyler,

I can tell you that I've had my brother's old commercial Snap-On scanner through a lot of miles and while I bought a reprogrammer, I just have never had the time to concentrate on doing it right - always afraid I'd lose my original programming.  

Also, at this point I mainly just want to drop the fan temps and raise tranny pressure - I'm tired of this 4T65 taking longer to drop into gear than a 4T60 or even an old Turbo 325...

As such, I did the 180-185 stat, the 3" downpipe, gutted the ridiculous crap in the airbox, and have done just fine with a 3.5" pulley on the blower...  I tell people that "the bottom of 2nd gear, getting on the highway, went from a V-6 to a small-block V-8".  80)

ALSO, when I lived in the Bay Area and did a lot of level-road driving from Marin/Sonoma to San Jose or Sacramento, I actually GOT the (old system) EPA 27 MPG Highway mileage!

Mark