FAQ: Series I Performance Mods?

For your suspension. I would put urethane bushings in the A-arms and also the sway bar mounts. I have done this to many other cars and this did wonders! If you want to go slightly faster, if you can, get a cold air intake. (I think one from a bonneville or a grand prix would work.) If you cannot find one, gut your airbox and get a K&N filter for it. (Your local parts store can cross reference a filter if one cant be found for a Riv.) I just gutted the airbox in my '90 and I have improved my throttle response and fuel economy. Good luck!

ok i'll put pics up soon once i get it down to my house i plan on getting it repainted soon and my headlights restored cuz i have xenon hid 12000k's and i plan on making a custom box thatll fit in my trunk

My 96 riv died so I bought a 95 SC.... After reading a bunch of post on this site I'm thinking of doing some modifications to get a little more performance out of her. Any ideas where I could start???? Bang for buck is where I will start!!!

Redline

Obviously the main starting point should be normal tune-up things: Plugs(AL 605 or 104's work well) , wires, Fuel filter, Oil change/filter, check the PCV, change the SC fluid

From there, the most cost effective thing is to fire in a drop-in K&N filter.. as far as gutting the airbox is concerned, you really don't have to do much as the 95 is rather "pre-gutted", there is a bottem baffle that can be removed to make eaiser breathing.

Then I'd add in a 180 deg t-stat since its cheap and relativly easy to do
leaving you with only to make a proper FWI before dropping the pulley to a 2.5"(of course after scanning for KR)

IF there is lots of engine knock either before or after the pulley drop trouble areas are: Cracks in teh exaust manifolds, dirty/bad MAF, old/dying fuel pump, dying idler and tensioner pulleys

from there we begin to enter the world of ported LIMs and SC's ...

Karma, thanks for your help. I did have wires, Fuel filter, Oil change/filter done... How do you check the PCV??? and as far as changing the SC fluid what type of fluid do you use???

I just replaced my therm because the old one was stuck open and was only getting to 90 degrees. What advantage is there to dropping down to a 180 degree therm vs the 195 that's in there now??

On top of your SC there is a little black plate roughly 1.5" by 1.5", it has PCV carved onto the top of it. Remove the screws holding it on and pull out the old PCV, if it rattles its good and all can be reassembled as it was taken apart.

For the SC oil its best to use GM SC oil that can be gotten from any GM dealship. In a pinch you CAN use 5W 30 syntetic mixed 50% with lucas oil stablizer for the m62(i did this for a year or so), however I recomend that you go with the GM stuff as I feel it does a better job.

The advantage for the 180 therm vs the 195 is twofold. The first is that it paves the way for dropping to a smaller SC pulley by having the engine run at a lower temp and reducing engine knock that may arrive with the extra boost of the smaller pulley. The second thing it will do is help keep your transmission from suffering the results of the extra power you will be making. The 95 has a transmission cooler mounted inside the the front rad of the car. By keeping your coolant at 180 vs 195, you will be doing your part to help keep the transmission happy with the mods you are doing to the engine.

Excellent thanks.... I will go with the GM oil. I prefer doing things right the first time if at all possible. Where is a good place to buy the pulley?? By the was great WARNING TAG....

cheapest place for the pulley would actually be a junk yard, any m62 that was from the years 93 and below has side ridges that go all the way down their sides, and since they are not as efficent, they have a 2.55" pulley.

Make sure you scan your car for engine knock before and after doing the pulley, also be sure to check that you have good fuel pressure too. Our stock fuel pumps can handle the extra boost no problem, but at the age of most 95's if the pump is the origional it may be woren and not providing consistant or enough pressure. Can't afford to go lean under boost...

sorry for asking a stupid question but... how do you scan for knock with OBD I? Also, can OBD I programming be tuned for performance just like OBD II can? All the cars I've ever owned had OBD II or no computer at all. And to save me from asking more stupid questions in the future... what do STB, FWI, and LIM stand for???

STB= Strut Tower Brace, FWI = FenderWell Intake, LIM = Lower Intake Manifold

I don't know what you can do with OBD-I computers. You can't reprogram them at all. The chips are burned externally, not like the flash memory in OBD-II. I looked around a bit to find a scanner for my '95 van but didn't find anything easy...

apparently ive had bad spark plugs for a while...i jsut got a tuneup..runs better than the day i got it...theres just under 60k and after my trip ill have just hit 60k miles...
im wondering exactly what mods i can do myself...im not smart with cars but i know what an engine is. lol i know some very basic things..im thinkin an air intake thing...but again...id need literally exact numbers and stuff to do it..like 3" pcp pipe and model number XXXXX air filter. what else is there to do that i CAN do..thanks Rivs

Should be able to do This

ZZperofmance.com and look up the powerlog. That should be easy enough as well. Also a pulley swap is a piece of cake if you have the puller tool.

TonySmooth89 wrote:

Should be able to do This

ZZperofmance.com and look up the powerlog. That should be easy enough as well. Also a pulley swap is a piece of cake if you have the puller tool.

No Plog for '95! Series 1 also doesn't need a pulley puller.

Everything is different...

deekster_caddy wrote:

TonySmooth89 wrote:

Should be able to do This

ZZperofmance.com and look up the powerlog. That should be easy enough as well. Also a pulley swap is a piece of cake if you have the puller tool.

No Plog for '95! Series 1 also doesn't need a pulley puller.

Everything is different...

I had a long day yesterday...

A FWI would be a good first item.



You can purchase the tubing at intense-racing.com. 3.5" tubing ... I bought 3 feet and it was more then I need. then get a K&N cone filter and some rubber coublers and your all set.

my mods So far:)
K&N ram intake
Dual Cherrybomb Exuast
2.3 inch pulley/ no KR
High Ratio rocker arms
My questions would be?
1st how much HP do you think im making with this set up?
2nd What other mods can i do next?

contact sinister performance. he can deliver to you a reprogramed pcm module,or something like that, email him. delete all kinds of things like egr. speed limiter, allows you to take advantage of your mods. as soon as i do my springs,going on two weeks now as i was told, ill dig out my comp and send him my info. he sed he can deliver a plug and play eprom. hope i get it right the first time.............

Please put _AT LEAST_ the year of your car in your signature. I can't answer any of your questions without knowing the year.

Its a 1995 series 1

Seriously though, how bout some pics of your current setup for inspiration?

riv416 wrote:

my mods So far:)
K&N ram intake
Dual Cherrybomb Exuast
2.3 inch pulley/ no KR
High Ratio rocker arms
My questions would be?
1st how much HP do you think im making with this set up?
2nd What other mods can i do next?

Get more air in and out, and you can make more power. At some point you'll need some retuning, but you need to know how your mixture is at full throttle. I suspect you could use an AFC to modify your mixtures, but I can't a link to it, and not positive it would work on a S1 engine.

How are you scanning your setup? How do you know there is no KR? Can you scan for other parameters? You should keep an eye on IPW to make sure you aren't maxing out your injectors. Watch your O2 readings at WOT or get on a dyno with a tailpipe probe and you can make some fueling adjustments with the AFC...

I read somewhere in here that someone ordered a 700HP 3.8supercharged engine from the GM. Does anyone know what's the strongest engine I could get for my 95 riv? and the price as well if possible

Thanks

You can't order a 700hp 3800 from GM, at least not that I've ever heard of. And it's a discontinued engine. If you want to order a "crate" engine, look at ZZP and Intense Racing for a performance engine. It's not quite a direct swap into a 95 though. They would likely only offer a Series II engine.

What are your plans and goals for your car? IMHO, 300-350 HP in a street 3800 Riv is all you have any real use for.

If you do find a crate engine with that much power output, you will also need to find a built transmission to install with it.

well I just want it to be as fast as it can be I read it somewhere so that's why it got me interested... coz a 3800 with 700HP thats pretty good work and I wanned to know more about this... right now i do 100km in around 9seconds... and im not very happy with that I was thinking of upgrading something