Hey, Newbie here.

Hey guys. I just got a 1997 non SC Riviera as a hand me down from my step dad. He bought it for $750 about 10 years ago or something, and recently, I helped him replace the tranny, spent 9 hours taking apart the entire front subframe of the car and learned alot. But there's still massive amounts of information I still don't know. I'm 20 years old, and actually plan do something automotive some time soon with college , either community college or UTI or something combined with FASFA maybe.



This is me and my Rivvy a couple months ago, before I even had my license, lol. I have about 12 hours total driving behind the wheel as of now, got my license after only 6 hours of driving.. I want to do a good amount of small easier upgrades to it sometime in the near future as well as other things that are harder. Can anyone fill me in on the sqrivi bumpers? does he sell actual molded fiberglass sets, or must I fabricate it myself?

http://www.fiberglassforums.com/automotive-exterior/10990-front-rear-bumper-mod.html

Anyway, my planned upgrades are:

getting an m90 or better supercharger, flushing bumpers, new exhaust and intake, interior cleaning up and sound system, turning my ipad into my head unit and make it electable, repainting the car, and eventually new wheels, probably 18's to go perfectly go with the new paint and flush bumpers, I'll be repainting when The bumpers get done, new halo HID lights, and sequential lighting/ blacked out tail lights. Currently it has chrome Pontiac GTP wheels I got from creigslist that came with a tranny for $50 or so. Car has around 208,000 miles on it. engine works like brand new =]

Current;y, it's at my ste[ dad's towing shop with the entire console ripped out, he's trying to find time to fix the AC actuators, then I'll have it again. This car is pretty EFFing awesome IMO. It looks great and unique, and drives really smooth, very comfy, great gas mileage, and has more torque than my friend's 2010 v6 mustang, looking better while doing it, lol.

my only few gripes with the car are the size, terrible weight distribution and body roll as a result, being front wheel drive and torque steer, all in all, very minor issues considering this is my first car. I never realized just how nice of a car it is until I had to drive my brother's Cavalier, and the Really crappy Saturn for the one driving instruction class I had.

So I'm guessing I'm gunna get some crap for barely having any driving time and having plans to upgrade a 14 year old car and I know nothing... But I actually plan to have this car as a daily driver until I'm at least 25. Those are the full extent of upgrades I'll ever do to this vehicle. I'm not some idiot trying to do a 9 second quarter mile thinking I can boost the 3800 series II motor 35 PSI and blow it up, then complain when I can't even find the right turbo..I'm not interested in straight line performance anyway. Iv'e driven my step dad's supercharged rivvy and I can tell you for a fact that the extra torque really helps in city traffic for tight merges in a 17.5 ft coupe compaired to my NA 3800 II engine.

Anyway, I'm here to learn mostly and say hi

WELCOME !!!

Hello and welcome, and good eye on choosing the Riv for your first car!

Welcome, you'll learn plenty with the Riv. If you supercharge your engine, you'll notice a lot more power than a factory supercharged Riv since the N/A engine has a higher compression ratio than a supercharged engine without its supercharger.

Really? I didn't even know that. is the stroke different?

Yay! another young guy with a riv for his first car! Welcome to the club. We should start our own to shake off the old-man stigma these cars have

Welcome!

Throwing either a GenIII or GenV M90 on the L36 block will wake the car up a lot. I suggest seeing if you can get a 4.0" pulley for the setup while you dial the car in. Probably would want headers and a few other things. But I caution that it's not as simple as just bolting one on. All things to pick up as you go along.

So what's the compression ratio of NA motor vs the supercharged motor? And the only way I see the NA pushiglng more compression ratio is with a longer stroke which will push the cylinders down longer, compressing more air into the combustion chamber, making more pressure.

So.one mind filling me in on that, and about Tue sqrivi bumpers? Do I need to fabricate my own, or does he sell them?

Welcome sir!

The static compression on your N/A motor is 9.4:1 Supercharged is 8.5:1
The compression ratio difference comes from the pistons. The higher compression pistons basically just occupy a little more space inside the top of the combustion chamber, resulting in less combustion volume/more compression. The crank & connecting rods are the same between the two motors.

Oh. So instead of 240 HP, 280 torque, what would I expect with a good m90 supercharger?

c0reyl wrote:

Oh. So instead of 240 HP, 280 torque, what would I expect with a good m90 supercharger?

In very simple terms, it could make about 20hp more with high compression and a stock supercharger top-swap, but only if measures are taken to prevent knocking. Obviously high compression + a supercharger means your pushing the engine harder and making it significantly more detonation-prone if care isn't taken.
Depending on your overall power goals, it can be a very good way to go, despite the extra care needed. I'm doing a build like that myself now.

Whoah, so I could make around 300 ft lbs of torque with minimal mods? :O

c0reyl wrote:

Whoah, so I could make around 300 ft lbs of torque with minimal mods? :O

Very easily.

Awesome so premium fuel alone wouldn't prevent engine knocking or would more mods be needed?

c0reyl wrote:

Awesome so premium fuel alone wouldn't prevent engine knocking or would more mods be needed?

Nope
The supercharged models require "premium" gas and that's on lower compression. So it's a given you want to run the highest octane you can in the interest of performance, 92-94 depending on your gas stations. There are a few basic modifications that will go a pretty long way in reducing knock but, regardless, I would definitely start out on the safer side and begin with an underdriven supercharger for the swap. That is, use a bigger pulley on the supercharger than what comes with it from the factory to reduce boost slightly. It's one thing to increase boost a tiny bit on an engine & computer that's already set up for dealing with boost. It's another story when you're suddenly throwing boost at a motor and computer that's never seen anything more than atmospheric pressure before. There's some serious adaptation involved.

c0reyl wrote:

Whoah, so I could make around 300 ft lbs of torque with minimal mods? :O

Now he can see the beauty of the 3800.

Well, I wasn't expecting to gain that much power from just an m90 supercharger

I know it's not a massive power boost but have you considered building up the 3800 as a free-revving NA motor instead of doing a SC conversion? When I was autocrossing my monte, one of the big advantages I had was a very quick response to my inputs thanks to a very free flowing exhaust and intake. I didn't have massive power or torque like the SRT-4s and M3s but it was quite amazing to see just how well the engine responded to inputs despite being the lowly 3.1L V6.

You also get two other HUGE advantages - 1) You can run on pretty much anything that comes out of a gas pump except for diesel (E-85 should be fine for the series II....I think....do a few minutes of research before trying). 2) Parts and maintenance are CHEAP. Save for the head gasket replacement at 100k if you run DEX-Cool, my mom's monte carlo SS with the NA series II has been an absolute tank in terms of performance. 140k miles since new in 2002 and aside form the headgasket replacements and new pulleys and belts there wasn't really anything out of the ordinary for repairs.

If you swapped on a more aggressive exhaust and a solid CAI along with maybe a better intake manifold/throttle body and an ECU, you'd probably hit around 215-220hp and around 240-260 lb/ft of torque. I know it's no replacement for the SC but it'd be a lot simpler and more cost effective. Plus it's a really easy engine to work on as a shade tree mechanic. I <3 the 3800s. I miss them