Riv parts and mods

i got a 96 riv. with ported/polished supercharger, 3.4 pulley, race ready trans, transcooler, and all the little shit. where can i buy suspension parts for this car. and whats the best brand of headers to set up on it? and how hard is a cam to drop in and what supporting mods should be bought. one more thing, the cold air, where can you buy them i just have a k&n cone on the end of the stock tube and ripped out the box completly.

k first off welcome to the site now im not the only one with a polished blower. SLP are the beast headers i know of.cam work would take about a day or 2 if you have any idea to what ur doing

he means the inside is polished, not the casing

you can use the springs off a STS caddy with FE3 suspension, KYB GR-2 front struts, and Monroe max air MA822 rear shocks. cams are about as easy as any transverse 90* pushrod engine (depends on if you have done one before or not). if you've P&P the blower and LIM yourself then a cam shouldnt be too much harder for you, provided you have the right tools. you need to be able to tune the cam, but thats the only supporting mod i can think of. you need to make your own CAI b/c no vendor does. pvc and silicon couplers work well.
also welcome to the forum! got any pics?
also, what do you mean by race ready trans? did you swap the 96's for something more upgradeable?

Welcome to the forum!

TOG headers are at least as good as SLP from what I understand. Either would be an excellent choice.

Assuming you're going for the mild to moderate (generic performance / towing grind < VS < Stage 1x < XP) cam range, you'll need to also get springs (90lb or 105lb depending on cam choice), most likely revised retainers, new valve seals of course, a single drive billet timing set, the front end gasket set, and a rocker install set. Other things that would be nice but not necessarily required would be performance pushrods, upgraded lifters, double roller timing set, etc.

If you get a mild cam like the VS or even the S1X, you could get away without tuning right away but expect a check engine light to stay on. Other than that, it will run fine and will have only a slightly rough idle - nothing inhibiting daily drivability

If you are crafty enough you can supposedly do the cam without completely removing the motor but it's considerably easier if you can lift the car and drop the cradle. If you can do that, it's worth the time and work dropping the cradle.

You can also pull the motor from the top.

On the XP cam, my understanding and please correct me if wrong. You'd want 130# springs and the double roller chain automatically. The double roller requires you to double gasket the timing chain or mill the oil pump cover.

welcome to the forums. Here's some info to get you started:

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/series-ii-engine-transmission-f4/series-ii-supercharged-faq-t1585.htm

good luck!

you will not get an SES with a VS, and you can run the stock valvetrain with it if you don't wind it past 6200 or so.

Jason wrote:

you can run the stock valvetrain with it if you don't wind it past 6200 or so.

I'd be leary of doing that. I know of three guys personally that believed that and had valve springs go. One of the guys got lucky twice. I've heard of a bunch of others having spring issues as well.

Since you have to pull the rockers to put in the cam, my rule of thumb is whenever you change rockers or a cam,....I suggest upgrading the springs. It's cheap insurance.

What trans are you running. It is my opinion that to obtain the full benefits of a cam or rockers you need a 4t65E-hd. If you are not to serous about modding then is the 4t60 adequate.

I still think the Rancho rear shock mod is awesome.

Buickman104 wrote:

What trans are you running. It is my opinion that to obtain the full benefits of a cam or rockers you need a 4t65E-hd. If you are not to serous about modding then is the 4t60 adequate.

ive heard this too, but ive also heard of guys getting almost 300hp to the wheels with a 4t60 taking it in stride.

The problem with the 4t-60 is that the transmition fluid pump can only support the motor to only a little higher than stock shift points. any thing near 6,000rpms the tranny gets starved and starts to burn up. Just ask Oldsman who's fully rebuilt tranny lasted less than a year with raised shift points. Now he is upgrading to a 4t65.

Buickman104 wrote:

The problem with the 4t-60 is that the transmition fluid pump can only support the motor to only a little higher than stock shift points. any thing near 6,000rpms the tranny gets starved and starts to burn up. Just ask Oldsman who's fully rebuilt tranny lasted less than a year with raised shift points. Now he is upgrading to a 4t65.

anyone bumping shift points higher than 6K better have some money invested in the valvetrain