Matt's SC 97 Riviera

With stock valvesprings, just be aware and careful about higher RPMs. Avoid redline if you can. The additional lift requires a little additional force to get the valves closed in time, so your redline should be a little lower than it was before.

What would you say my max safe RPM would be then? 5500?

Mattwa wrote:

What would you say my max safe RPM would be then? 5500?

It's impossible to know how worn your OE valvesprings are, or at what RPM they may start to float. I have heard of others installing 1.9s on stock springs, so you aren't the first and maybe you'll be fine for a while. Just be aware that you could be _very_ close to float at the stock redline.

that said, 5500 should be plenty safe.

I found when I was on 1.9s with a 3.4 that it didn't pull so hard at 6000 anyway, so I set my shift points to 5700 (I did have the 90 lb springs), preferring to keep the engine closer to the torque peak.

Agree with deekster. My dyno graph peaked around 5300 RPM and stayed almost flat to 5700. No need to rev much higher unless you add more breathing/exhaust mods. Shifting from 1st to 2nd gear puts you around 3500 RPM, where there is plenty of torque available from the 1.9s. Mine is set to shift around 5700-5800 depending on the situation. Holding shifts to 6k might give a slight hpower advantage from running out the gear, but not worth the risk for wear & tear, imo. Not without beefier springs, anyway.

Since this car is a daily driver, I rarely go past 5K anyway, so I hope I'm good for a while. 5500 is fine with me for now. I can tell my exhaust is holding it back somewhat, so I'm looking forward to seeing what my headers will do for it. I'm not exactly looking forward to installing them. Haha. I would be with a lift.

Nearly hit WOT today. WOW, I can not belevie how fast this car is now, it's unreal. I did hit around 5900RPM and I didn't notice any valve float. I was seeing 9PSI at that time. But I find it unusual that not once since I started scanning a few months ago, have I seen any KR show up. Nothing.

Not doing the calipers.

Nice. It's coming together very well.

How were the price on those calipers and how do they perform compared to the stock riv? I was always very happy with the stock braking performance of my riv

Also I'd love to see some numbers on how fast at thing is some time lol

Info on F-Body calipers can be found here:

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t2310-write-up-f-body-brake-mod

Please read and feel free to post any questions or opinions in the thread.

.

Friday was the first day of snow on the ground here. I quickly found out that I had zero traction with my cracked/dry rotted and pretty worn tires. I knew I needed new tires, I was just trying to wear them out some more before I replaced them. Well today I went straight to BJ's and bought 4 new tires and had them installed. They are Michelin defenders, 90k mile tires. Expensive but top of the line tires. Drives better overall now slightly, and huge improvement in the snow/ice. Before If I tried to stop any faster then slowly, the tires would instantly lock up in the snow. Don't have that problem now.

.

Belt issue fixed.

This car is now up for sale, as I have bought a new car and I'm moving on.

after all of that work your selling it?  

Mattwa wrote:

This car is now up for sale, as I have bought a new car and I'm moving on.

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t10598-putting-up-my-97-riv-sc-for-sale

whud ya buy?

"I have bought a new car (2012 Cruze ECO)"

Didn't see that the cruze is a nice car I just couldn't Imagine getting rid of my riv with all the money I put into it so far

tz.....

Yes I have alot of time and money into it, MUCH more then it's currently worth, but in the end it's still an old car that doesn't have much value. What would I do with it? It would just sit. It'll need more money put into it to make it really nice again, and assuming I put a few more thousand dollars into it, I would still end up with a 17 year old car with bad gas mileage.

Well looks like you have a it figured out, good luck with the sale I bet your gonna miss the power of the riv though

Thanks, no I won't miss the power once my current project is finished (another reason why I don't really have a use for this car anymore). I'm building a Turbo 3800 with a 6-speed manual in my 1986 Pontiac Fiero. 500HP is my goal, 400WHP should be an easy start.