FAQ: Series I Performance Mods?

I'll assume you have a 95 since this was posted in the series 1 section.

There are not many mods for the 95 guys. Best things you can do are 1.9 rockers (a few are made for the series 1 motor), port and polish the TB and S/C (heads too if you have the ability)
Then with a tune you can swap the pulley and make a little more boost.
Cant do a cam with rockers, they dont make TB's or headers for your car and i dont know of a bolt on i/C kit so you are really restricted.

275hp crank is probably possible with the 95's but that is with all the bolt on you can get. Maybe karma can lend some better insight into the 95 mod world. (haha karma posted while i was typing this)

Best bet is you get a 96+ riv or do a motor/trans/pcm swap from one of those year cars

As mr. Riviera said, cant do a cam and rockers without some head work, and even then its not recommended. IIRC zzp has rockers for the series I, and by the information karma posted rockers sound like the way to go.
If you want more aftermarket options i would say your best bet is swapping a series II/III engine into your car.

Thanks every on for the help... glad I have 2 motors im rebuilding one so im really not in no big rush anyobe know of the australia website where I can get the lifters...

lifters? don't you mean rockers? or a cam? which do you want?

Hello I have just purchased a 95 Riviera in excellent condition with 125000 miles. What performance mods are available to me?

Oh I would also like to know if anybody out there has put a swan racing stroker crank in their car. They are available for Series I or II engines. They'll up your displacement from 3800 to 4200. Thank you for any help you can give me.

95 powder blue 108,000 -been reading posts on series 1 good info. gettin pumped..

I recently purchased a 1995 Riviera with the supercharged 3800 engine. I am looking for a package that I can install and still drive the vehicle daily without having to always make adjustments or change out pulleys etc. I am looking at plugs, wires, smaller sc pulley, cold air intake, exhaust and things of this nature. I am not ready to do any modifications to the heads or engine block yet, mainly just looking for a decent upgrade package from stock without having to make major changes. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

fiveauto wrote:

I recently purchased a 1995 Riviera with the supercharged 3800 engine. I am looking for a package that I can install and still drive the vehicle daily without having to always make adjustments or change out pulleys etc. I am looking at plugs, wires, smaller sc pulley, cold air intake, exhaust and things of this nature. I am not ready to do any modifications to the heads or engine block yet, mainly just looking for a decent upgrade package from stock without having to make major changes. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

WELCOME!

Sell it and get a 1998-99 riviera with the s/c series 2 motor.. Way easier to mod and much much more you can do to mod them.. If that isn't an option for you.. do a quick search on the forum.. Most guys with the Series 1 s/c rivs do a gutted air box or go right to a FWI (fenderwell intake) as well as some spark plugs and wires. That should be some good starting info for ya.

Welcome Jeremy!

A good start would be to do a thorough tune up with good quality parts. It is always a good idea to get your car running well before modding. Unfortunately, not much is available for the '95s so we have to be a bit creative. A FWI(fender well intake) is a good first mod to wake it up a bit, along with a 180* thermostat and Autolite 104 spark plugs. Beyond this you will want to be able to scan for knock retard before dropping pulley size.

Few scanners will read our '95 Rivs. It is referred to as OBD1.5. I use an Actron 9185. There are other less expensive scanners but don't know which ones off hand work on OBD1.5.

For now spend some time reading on this forum and you will learn a lot. All the guys on hear are helpful and pretty knowledgeable. Good luck to ya, Dave

Thanks for the info, do you know of anywhere I can purchase the smaller pulleys or will I need to have one custom made?

fiveauto wrote:

Thanks for the info, do you know of anywhere I can purchase the smaller pulleys or will I need to have one custom made?

http://www.pulleyboys.com/store/product.php?productid=39

the stubby snout on the gen 1 blower is so cute!

Us series 1 guys don't need to compensate for other shortcomings with a big series 2 snout!!!

It’s true; it’s a cute little blower. But nothing screams like it. I have both the ability and the parts to swap on either a ford m90 or Jaguar m112, but honestly lately I've been enjoying the banshee so much I've been tempted to stick with the less efficient hotter blower. Only other thing on the road like it for sound is a KB supercharger on a mustang.

I guess I'll just have to see what I can do with my next m90 overhaul to make it sound similar.

What about the M62 on the Cobalt SS/ Ion Redline? I know it has a longer snout but how much different are they otherwise? Im mostly interested because they were factory intercooled.

Riv M62:


Cobalt SS/ Redline M62


At least in this picture the bolt pattern for the snouts look like you could swap the smaller snout right over!

If you could swap the snout over, then what? The bolt pattern to the LIM isn't the same. If you made an adapter then you would end up with the bolt pattern for the aftermarket MP62, so you might as well use that.(its wayyy better) And you are stuck with the crazy long inlet. Also to point out that the factory intercooler isn't in the blower, its in the cobalt intake manifold.

And since I know someone will ask, no you can't swap in the rotor pack from the cobalt m62 into ours.(Yes it has a much better rotor coating.) Its like trying to put a genV pack in a gen 3 m90.

Thanks Karma, thats exactly what I wanted to know! I was thinking the intercooler was integrated into the outlet of the blower. I wasnt sure about the bolt pattern to the LIM. It looks like theres less bolts but I wasnt sure if you'd have to build an adapter for it. I agree too that the inlet shape is a bit much and then the CAI/FWI wouldnt look as good either!

I still think a great mod for the Series 1 would be Meth Injection. I would like to eventually attempt it and from what I read, injecting pre-blower and post-blower is ideal. Going to have to see about the effect on rotor coating and such. With a dialed in tune, you could run a pretty small pulley with a good P & P as well. 2.0" maybe?? Imagine the sound! Oh the fun of modding a series 1.

Meth WILL peal the m62 rotor coating. We have the same coating that the Ford supercoupe guys had, and they found meth ate the coating. But, you could just strip it off. Injecting pre-blower helps the rotor tip seal anyway so it would negate and then some the loss in rotor coating. Add to that the cooling effect and it would be pretty nifty.

Ok so I think I am going to start out with the Autolite 104's and the 180 degree thermostat. I am also going to fabricate a custom FWI with air temp monitoring. I am not sure which type of exhaust sound I am going to like so for now the exhaust will stay stock. I am not sure if I should get a smaller pulley for the SC since I don't know enough about KR and I am basically looking for something I can bolt on and drive without having to monitor or make changes all the time. So my 2 questions are.

1. What do you recommend for spark plug wires? Ive looked at GM Performance and the ZZP so far.

2. Is there a "mild" pulley upgrade I can do with these mods I am planning without having to scan for KR?

Hey, welcome! The Series 1 is quite limited in aftermarket availability but there are still lots of ways to make power safely on a budget. If you're only looking for a bit of extra performance, I dont think the stock exhaust will cause any problems for you. The plugs and T-stat along with the FWI are always a good start to prepare for more mods and add some nice supercharger whine!

KR is the PCMs compensation for potentially harmful detonation (knocking) during the compression of the fuel (before the spark plug ignites!) caused by high temperatures. This is why mods like the 180 t-stat are necessary to fight KR. Even a totally stock motor can see some level of KR in certain conditions.

More on KR here:
https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t28-faq-what-is-spark-knock-what-is-kr-knock-retard?highlight=Knock+retard

It is important to be able to scan for KR if you plan on performance modding, especially in a warm climate area like Texas. It is a worthwhile investment to find a scanner (there are a few available!) that can both read trouble codes and monitor KR for the 95. This way, you can be sure your set-up is safe.

If you were to drop from the stock 2.85", a drop to 2.6" would be the safest while still being noticable in increasing power. Or you could find a 2.55" pulley off an early Series I motor. There are a few years of Bonneville and Park Ave Ultra that I know of with the motor and are pretty common in local pick and pull yards.

If you are serious about adding performance, then looking into some breathing mods at the exhaust end will eventually be necessary.

For the plug wires, I would recommend staying with the OEM wires as some people have had problems with the aftermarket ones. The OEMs are more than sufficient for the capability of this motor.

More on plugs and wires here:
https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t26-faq-which-spark-plugs-ignition-wires-should-i-use?highlight=Spark+plug+wires

This site is an excellent resource for anything you would want to know. The Series 1 is a dying breed and we are more than willing to help answer any questions you might have to keep this one going and strong!

Good Luck,
Dave

This is a great discussion. I too am a fan of the 80/20 and KISS principles. So to figure out the highest bang for buck modificagtions that have the most impact and don't unreasonably decrease reliability or MPG, those are certainly the first I'd consider.

That being said, even though the 95 is down 20HP compared to the Series II, I have been pleasantely surprised at how hard this car pulls even stock.

To me the best immediate and most noticeable modifications would be suspension related. That made a huge difference with my Roadmaster, so much so I've never modified the engine.

Al

^this
If you're really looking for performance modding to make your car a faster/more agile driver, look at how well its doing in braking and cornering as much as you do acceleration. Suspension and Brake mods are next on my list.