exhaust replacement

the headaches of owning a 25 year old car, driving to work yesterday my I heard my exhaust leaking and on my way home it feel off  at the Y,so on rock auto the resinator the y pipe 2 mufflers( all ap piping) came to 310.00 plus 200.00 to ship(i have to buy the tips seperately) all aluminized steel..but seeing i dont have a garage and the riv is my daily driver . I opted to go stainless steel from the res back which will run 1500.00 with a lifetime garantine, so far i replaced tranny waterpump shocks all around new fuel lines brake lines,wires plugs coils pretty soon i'll have a new car that is  25 years old. thanks for reading any comments are welcome. stay healthy .... o yeah i forgot undercoating also

Some of us have new cars that are 50 years old . . .

Not me though, but I'm getting closer one expensive part at a time!

I'm still happy with the Riviera. I see pony cars all the time but never another Riviera.

don't get me wrong the riv is my guilty pleasure, I will keep the beast running as long as I can!

After watching through Buick's electrical problem vids, I'd hate to drive anything with more electronics than the Riv has.

Rivieraz wrote:

the headaches of owning a 25 year old car, driving to work yesterday my I heard my exhaust leaking and on my way home it feel off  at the Y,so on rock auto the resinator the y pipe 2 mufflers( all ap piping) came to 310.00 plus 200.00 to ship(i have to buy the tips seperately) all aluminized steel..but seeing i dont have a garage and the riv is my daily driver . I opted to go stainless steel from the res back which will run 1500.00 with a lifetime garantine, so far i replaced tranny waterpump shocks all around new fuel lines brake lines,wires plugs coils pretty soon i'll have a new car that is  25 years old. thanks for reading any comments are welcome. stay healthy .... o yeah i forgot undercoating also

Are you getting that exhaust from NeverRust in Avalon? Just curious.

that"s the one ohio river blvd

www.never-rust.net

Right.  Good guy.  He made an exhaust for my '98 several years ago. It had a nice burble at idle and a snarl when you stepped on the loud pedal...  However, I sold that exhaust to a friend of mine for his '95 -- the exhaust had a drone -- it was kinda cool for the first 25 miles but very tiring on highway trips.  He did not drive his Riv on long highway trips, and he loved the sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlhoW4BWgHs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ClrUs29qS0

Those two youtubes give you an idea of the fun part, but don't show that in the range 1000-2000 RPM the exhaust had a nasty loud drone.  Consider telling your guy in Avalon to tune the exhaust so it does not drone at highway speeds. And maybe play the clips for him from mine to give him context.  He made the exhaust for me between April and June ( I think) 2009 (def on the year).  

For comparison, my current exhaust.  I don't have a drive-by video of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPA48B-oYMo

It is the exhaust from the Park Avenue Ultra 2004, which (just) fits the Riv. The mufflers are not the same size nor are they placed the same as on the Riv standard exhaust -- they are HUGE and sit just inside the rear bumper fascia side fairings, on install you actually have to pop them into place by flexing the fairings outward.  It *might* even pay to get a Park Ave Ultra exhaust complete from an area junkyard and take it to the guy in Avalon and ask him to use it as a model. The only change will be to move the catalytic converter bung a little.

thanks albertj ,i will mention the drone sound, it gets done this thursday,

dropped off the beast,exhaust will be done 2marrow,pictures coming later.thanks for reading stay healthy!!

i mentioned the drone sound and rob said the mufflers are different... we will find out 2marrow.

Rivieraz wrote:

i mentioned the drone sound and rob said the mufflers are different... we will find out 2marrow.

You'll be alright.  Rob's a good guy & you can tell him I said so. When I need another SS exhaust, I'm going back. The exhaust I have is a GM factory exhaust, I painted it with silver engine paint and it looks about like it did when I put it on (almost a decade ago), except for the cat. The other thing is the SS exhaust will tend to quieten over time, after some (fairly large) number of heat/cool cycles.

If you don't change the downpipe, you'll likely avoid the drone anyway. Too bad about the drone, as you can tell from the movies, it sounded classy but strong otherwise.

got the beast back with the new exhaust its quiet while cruising and has a little growl on the highway. i kept the original downpipe and didnt notice till 2day that my inspection is up at the end of the month,anyway when i get the inspection done i'll take some pics.Have a gr8 day,stay healthy!!! o yes before i forget rob mentioned i might need a mount, he wasnt sure which one? he said when he put the car in reverse to listen for a clunk....albertj would you know which one to check i believe there are 5 mounts 4 trans 1 motor?

Rivieraz wrote:

got the beast back with the new exhaust its quiet while cruising and has a little growl on the highway. i kept the original downpipe and didnt notice till 2day that my inspection is up at the end of the month,anyway when i get the inspection done i'll take some pics.Have a gr8 day,stay healthy!!! o yes before i forget rob mentioned i might need a mount, he wasnt sure which one? he said when he put the car in reverse to listen for a clunk....albertj would you know which one to check i believe there are 5 mounts 4 trans 1 motor?

Check all of them; don't forget the one in the drivers wheel well and the one on the front of the engine that bolts to the passenger side box member.  For either one of those, good used replacements would be OK.  The rest are available new from rockauto.com, NAPA, and other places.

For a clunk like you're talking about, typically the front and rear transmission mounts that bolt to the subframe are the headache.  The mounts that bolt to the box members, however, last a very long time if you keep the lower transmission mounts good.  My passenger side  engine mount is still fine; I replaced the drivers side mount just last year because the rubber split - dry rot I think.

gr8 thanks for the knowledge maintenance is the key! goes in the shop 2marrow. looking through FSM are there part numbers in some where in the books?

Rivieraz wrote:

gr8 thanks for the knowledge maintenance is the key! goes in the shop 2marrow. looking through FSM are  there part numbers in some where in the books?

You can buy a parts microfiche and a reader:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1995-BUICK-RIVIERA-MASTER-PARTS-CATALOG-MANUAL-MICRO-FICHE-SET/391739583595

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Visidyne-Portable-Microfiche-Viewer/233691081699

Offer maybe $20 plus shipping for the reader.

You can also get many/most GM/Delco part numbers from rockauto.com

thanks again!

Rivieraz wrote:

 thanks again!

You're welcome. Rockauto has the GM cross-reference part numbers for the parts they carry. I was sharing a fiche with another local enthusiast -- it came in handy for when I needed some part that Rockauto didn't carry and I had to find it on line or get the counterman at the dealer to locate it. They could check Vintage Parts (specifically, https://www.vpartsinc.com/) and sometimes get them that way. After the mandatory 10-year availability period, GM turns lots of parts over to Vintage Parts, Inc. and makes them available for sale through their dealers, depending on the location / product of interest and GM availability rules. You can hunt around their web site to see what they have and if you notice a product not available for direct purchase, they recommend that you record the part number and contact your local dealer. They say that the dealer will be happy to process the order have it drop-shipped to your location. In reality, the more experienced parts counterpersons will do that for you especially if you wrench on the car yourself and it's not your first visit to the dealer's parts desk. If not it gets a little tough, I suspect because there's extra effort involved in getting Vintage Parts. I routinely buy supercharger oil and stuff like that from the GM dealer, and sometimes check on price and availability of other parts from them.