A Southern Hello To All - Y'all!

Hello fellow 'Rivi owners. First time poster, first time owner. I also own a Ford Escort ZX2 and a member of the forum TEAMZX2.com. I figured I would look for a notable Riviera forum as well. I hope I found the right one!

I picked up a 1996 baby blue 'riv with a blown motor this past weekend. I was told it threw a rod in the #4 cylinder. The story for the car is that it was owned by a grandmother since new. Gave it to her grandson as a graduation present and I guess he opened it up a lil too much. Just over 66K miles on the body/engine.

My brother swaps souped up 3800 Series II L67 motors into Fiero's and just happen to have a spare 2002 Bonneville L67 with 65k miles on it, picked up from Ed Morad about 6 months ago. I plan on swapping that motor into my baby blue. The motor is bone stock but i have the following parts immediately available to me:

ZZP Modular Pulleys Used 3.1
Thrasher Modular Pulley New 3.25
OBX Header with 3" downpipe
Comp Cam Custom Grind Cam .050 - INT 210 EXH 220 .507 Lft +2deg

My brother owes me some money so these parts are readily available. So I have a couple question to all the Riviera pro's out there. Is there anything in this list I'd like to use? I would like to keep this a daily driver (decent gas mileage, I hear about 37 mpg??? is this true!?!) but would also like to hop it up to a sweet sleeper. 2nd question: is there any thing ya'll (I was raised in L.A. NOT in California, farther south) would suggest to replace/check on the new motor as preventive maintenance? Timing chain, water pump, o2 sensors ect...

I know my way around a garage. I've done/assisted in quite a few engine swaps. I cant weld to save my life, but brother can.... I think that about sums it up for now. Any advice/feedback would greatly be appreciated! Looking forward to making some new forum buddies!

(its not true without pictures right?)
Without further adieu, my baby blue 'rivi:

Welcome to the board. Nice lookin Riv! New engine looks nice and clean too!

Many of the modifications to our Riviera's are posted here:

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/series-ii-engine-transmission-f4/series-ii-supercharged-write-ups-t679.htm

I am not a mechanic, but there are many VERY qualified guys here at this site who will respond soon so keep an eye on this thread.

You may want to build a signature for your login and note details of your car, makes it easier to respond to questions...

Again Welcome!

Beautiful color, same combo as my car! If it only has 66k miles, it's more than worth it to put a new engine in there! You've come to the right forum, and nice find!


Oh, and if you're gonna drop the pulley, you wanna do exhaust and intake work too. 3" DP is common but headers can be found; they'll be pricey. I recommend building your own FWI, and once you're done with that the scream from that M90 will be so intoxicating, it'll be hard to get good gas mileage!

Greetings, From the Heart of Dixie!
Wherebouts are you located?

I would verify that the motor is really blown up before I yanked it(just ignore me if you already have, just trying to help). Sometimes things go wrong on these engiones that make them sound like they have a "rod knocking" and it end up being something else....like a bad harmonic balancer for instance.

On the question about the possibility of getting 37mpg, I doubt it. Not the way I drive anyhow. If you follow the instructions on this thread it might be possible:
https://rivperformance.editboard.com/everything-else-f9/hypermiling-techniques-t3481.htm?highlight=hypermiling

Bert

#1BearsFan, Thanks for the welcome and the great lunch reading links!

IBx1 This forum is a wealth of knowledge! Excuse my newbiness, Whats FWI? *edit* Fenderwell intake... Sorry, I'm a goob

ibmoses I'm located in Anniston AL, just east of Birmingham. I think brother and I will be pulling the motor this weekend. Hearing that information makes me hope that its something simple.. then I would REALLY have a steal! I will have to check out all those links. Thank you very much.

I am excited to get this little project rolling.

Great find- the car (even if its is blown up), and this site!
Welcome and Good luck!!!!!!!!!

Welcome! I just swapped engines on my '98 and total was about 18 hours labor with a few spent cleaning and swapping bracketry. These are nice cars, you'll be happy with the result!

is the motor seized?

harmonic balancer is in tight but pullable - you definitely have to use a puller. This site might help - you wont' be the first to rig a tool, then blipping the starter to break the balancer bolt loose...

http://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Harmonic-Balancer-from-GM-3800-Engines

but you probably already kenw/guessed that...

by the way, if your problem turns out to be a balancer don't get a cheap one, go OEM or specialty, it's worth the wait.

Albertj

curious riv wrote:

Great find- the car (even if its is blown up), and this site!
Welcome and Good luck!!!!!!!!!

I am located near Gadsden, in Southside so you are very near me.

That is one sweet looking spare engine you got there.

Bert

Welcome

Welcome what would you like to achieve with the car. i can help out with my wealth of knowledge in the L67 engines

Welcome.

Many, many of my miles were through Alabama on I-20.

What happened to the forum? i had some great replies earlier... now they are not showing up?

Welcome to the Showroom:

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/showroom-f3/slymjym350-s-riv-t5856.htm#81689

Thanks to whoever moved me. On to the build thread!