Riv finally back on the road

Thank you Timo! I have always loved your rims and car. Im not currently ready to invest in a set of rims but maybe in a few years! This would definitely be the way I would want to go. Love the Tomason rims like yours!

Well, it was close to 50 here in Buffalo today and the roads were dry so I took the Riv out for the day! Ran wonderfully and loved the weather. My spring break officially started today and if everything goes to plan, we're gonna get the chance to do some more work on the car over the next week. We are hoping to install the Yella Terra 1.8's, 2.5" S/C pulley, AL 104's and maybe replace the EGR valve. If everything goes well, Ill be saving up for a tune from Sinister in the near future. Summer cannot possibly be here soon enough! Quick picture from when I visited my friend at work today...she drives the Cavalier next to me!

Hey what color is your car?? Well white but what kind of what. I tell ya what I like those tn1 wheels I few comments up, wow

His car is the original color, bright white. Can't remember the paint code. The roof is black GM code WA8555.

Very nice

Ever consider blacking out the mirror bodies?

We considered a few things like that before we painted the car. Like painting the pillars black and we even painted one of the OEM rims black but eventually decided on the way the car is now and I dont want to change anything! I think for blacked out mirrors to look good, there would have to be more than just the roof painted black with it!

A pretty exciting start to my week as the last 2 days alot has happened with the Riv!
We started by temporarily setting up a boost gauge for now so we could see how the mods affected boost levels.



Sunday, when we put in the gauge, the car was reading between 6-7 psi on a couple of WOT runs. It was 60* outside at the time.

Last night and today, we put in the AL 104 plugs, swapped to the 2.5" S/C pulley and installed the Yella Terra 1.8:1 Roller Rockers and took in out for a ride this afternoon. I ran it light for a bit and everything was very smooth! Eventually took a few WOT runs and saw close to 11psi! Very noticeable increase in power and stong much higher into the RPM band. Temperature was down to 45 during the runs. Going to scan to make sure theres no KR tomorrow and get the car cleaned up as it definitely needs it after doing the RR's!



Not sure whats next. Need to look into a tune in the near future and we would like to buy the software to tune the Series 1's and learn to tune ourselves eventually. For now, we're just going to look into having sinister tune the PCM for a bit until we're looking to do more with the car. Definitely a good feeling to hear the car turn over and run well after spending some time hunched over the motor! Certainly not the most comfortable position working in the back of this motor!

th3fr4nchi5e wrote:

A pretty exciting start to my week as the last 2 days alot has happened with the Riv!
We started by temporarily setting up a boost gauge for now so we could see how the mods affected boost levels.



Sunday, when we put in the gauge, the car was reading between 6-7 psi on a couple of WOT runs. It was 60* outside at the time.

Last night and today, we put in the AL 104 plugs, swapped to the 2.5" S/C pulley and installed the Yella Terra 1.8:1 Roller Rockers and took in out for a ride this afternoon. I ran it light for a bit and everything was very smooth! Eventually took a few WOT runs and saw close to 11psi! Very noticeable increase in power and stong much higher into the RPM band. Temperature was down to 45 during the runs. Going to scan to make sure theres no KR tomorrow and get the car cleaned up as it definitely needs it after doing the RR's!



Not sure whats next. Need to look into a tune in the near future and we would like to buy the software to tune the Series 1's and learn to tune ourselves eventually. For now, we're just going to look into having sinister tune the PCM for a bit until we're looking to do more with the car. Definitely a good feeling to hear the car turn over and run well after spending some time hunched over the motor! Certainly not the most comfortable position working in the back of this motor!

oh wow! did you use the stock springs and everything with the Yella Terras?

robotennis61 wrote:

oh wow! did you use the stock springs and everything with the Yella Terras?

Yep! Reading around, the 1.8's dont usually cause issues on the stock valvetrain as long as everything is still in good working order! No problems on our setup. We'll see how everything holds up moving forward but the car revs strong at WOT and right into the next gear!

Holy shit. you were running 11psi without scanning? WTF, man?!

Only put my foot down twice just to see how the rockers were running. Wouldnt have done it if the car was warm, we've been plenty careful! Tomorrow we shall scan and see exactly how everything is looking!

th3fr4nchi5e wrote:

Only put my foot down twice just to see how the rockers were running. Wouldnt have done it if the car was warm, we've been plenty careful! Tomorrow we shall scan and see exactly how everything is looking!

i know i have a computer in front of me but..wtf do Yella Terras do for the car? i mean,the oem rockers are roller bearing too!? right?

The OEM rockers are roller pivot but not roller tip. The YT's are designed to reduce the friction and keep the temps down. They're also claimed to be much stronger and quieter. They most definitely arent louder but the OEMs never made any sound so I dont think theres much difference there. Then the power comes from the increase in the higher lift duration. The installation was also a good chance to clean the pushrods which gather quite a bit of junk over time. Not sure if this affected performance at all but didnt want any unnecessary friction!

You can see the tips in the picture above. The OEMs were solid tips!

th3fr4nchi5e wrote:

The OEM rockers are roller pivot but not roller tip. The YT's are designed to reduce the friction and keep the temps down. They're also claimed to be much stronger and quieter. They most definitely arent louder but the OEMs never made any sound so I dont think theres much difference there. Then the power comes from the increase in the higher lift duration. The installation was also a good chance to clean the pushrods which gather quite a bit of junk over time. Not sure if this affected performance at all but didnt want any unnecessary friction!

You can see the tips in the picture above. The OEMs were solid tips!

wow! the rockers in my 95 come with roller tips? is that what you mean by solid tips?

I think I explained it a little funny. The 95 OEM rockers do not have roller tips! Just the pivots so gm GM called them factory roller rockers but they are not true roller rockers because of the solid tip. Thats one of the upgrades with the Yella Terras. They provide the extra lift and are true roller rockers. Not sure how much friction the OEMs were creating but the tips do move across the top of the valvesprings so I do believe that the roller tips would have an advantage in addition to the higher lift.

I can take a picture of the stock rocker arms tomorrow and post it so you can see the differences!

th3fr4nchi5e wrote:

I think I explained it a little funny. The 95 OEM rockers do not have roller tips! Just the pivots so gm GM called them factory roller rockers but they are not true roller rockers because of the solid tip. Thats one of the upgrades with the Yella Terras. They provide the extra lift and are true roller rockers. Not sure how much friction the OEMs were creating but the tips do move across the top of the valvesprings so I do believe that the roller tips would have an advantage in addition to the higher lift.

I can take a picture of the stock rocker arms tomorrow and post it so you can see the differences!

yes yes yes! i gotta see that! ..went over to rockauto, and they dont even offer the rockers anymore!? wtf!

but ya know,a few years back i was under the car with my cousin ,we were replacing the oil pan gasket,the car was on a lift,and he pointed out the roller tipped rockers "those are performance rockers" he said. i wonder if the previous owner swaped em out? if memory serves me correctly,they were most definitely roller tipped.

Unless your cousin is Superman and has x-ray vision, he would not be able to see the rocker arms from under the car. I'm not 100% sure but with the oil pan off, he may have been able to see the roller lifters.

And I know he's not Superman, because I am!

bigdave wrote:

Unless your cousin is Superman and has x-ray vision, he would not be able to see the rocker arms from under the car. I'm not 100% sure but with the oil pan off, he may have been able to see the roller lifters.

And I know he's not Superman, because I am!

ya know, that might have been it come to think of it.damn!

WTF ROBO!?

Stock 95 rockers:


The tip is rounded for a bit less friction when dragging across the valve stem. The 96+ are a more harsh edge. The advantage of moving to full bearing roller tips is a bit negligible on engines that only rev as high as ours, but the move to 1.8 ratio is noticeable.

charlieRobinson wrote:

Holy shit. you were running 11psi without scanning? WTF, man?!

Haha, Charlie, I've been running 11-12 PSI for years!


th3fr4nchi5e:
Nice install, You will feel the 1.8s, and love the blower sound with the 2.5".

Welcome to the rocker club!

is there an actual HP gain?

Thanks Karma! Cant wait to do some more driving with them in!

And Robo, sites that sell the Rockers claim roughly 20hp but I would say it would need to be tuned to see quite that much. I think it just holds peak torque for a bit longer and thats where the power is added. A good tune would probably give you decent numbers!

I'm super Jealous! I can't wait to do these mods myself one day, but I can't keep my car running in perfect order!