Cruising the Riviera- 1998 Buick Riviera Challenge Build

Bummer about the set-back with the door handle....

About the thoughts of selling the Riv: Keep in mind you got into this one (and the Park Ave before this) to explore the powerplant as a possible donor for the DMC. I'd suggest you focus your attention on power modes to the engine, skip any suspension or wheel/tire upgrades and just focus on the drag portion of the Challenge. Have fun and learn/discover what you need to about whether or not to stuff this engine into the DMC.

After the challenge, sell all unnecessary stuff and focus on the DMC.

In reply to Indy-Guy:

The Riv was indeed chosen because it could serve as a test-bed for mods for putting the L67 into the DMC- but honestly lately I've been leaning more toward putting a Renesis in the DMC instead of the L67. I'll have to see how things shake out...

A rotary in a dmc just seems wrong to me for some reason. But a supercharged v6 seems so right.

Id reccomend that you carank the boost until a rod goes searching for daylight at the challenge, and then back it down 3 psi on the dmc.

In reply to Dusterbd13:

Interesting bit of DMC trivia: they were originally supposed to come equipped with a rotary engine. DeLorean had partnered with a company in Europe that was working on one concurrent with the car's development- but like so many other things with the car, that fell through and they had to source an alternate power plant that would fit and it ended up with the PRV it got.

I wouldn't be pulling half of the mods on the DMC I'd want to do on the Riv for the challenge- honestly, the L67's stock power (and that of a Renesis) would be more than enough of an increase- going too far would make it difficult to drive on the street and cruise with...

Well, got into replacing the broken door handle yesterday- that was easy enough- but after re-installing the new handle it still does not open the latch properly. As nearly as I can tell, something in the door is bent such that the throw of the handle mechanism isn't pushing the rod down enough to actuate the latch. So, I went out to Lowe's and got the closest diameter rod that I could find so I can bend up a longer one. I'll have to try and get that taken care of this afternoon if I can... hopefully it will work and I'll be able to get into the car normally again.

Finally got the door handle fixed... the handle design is QUITE crappy- and the replacement part was actually crappier than the original and required some work to behave properly even with the longer rod. But now the door not only opens but also doesn't require pushing on the door when pulling the handle up like it did originally.

Have gotten essentially nothing done over the last few weeks on the Riviera besides driving it around. To my annoyance the spring on the pedal-operated parking brake has broken, but all it really means is I have to pull it back toward me with my foot after disengaging it.

Once the Jeep's transmission is out of the car I'll be tackling a few things on the Riv. First order of business will be to pull the passenger seat- I'm unlikely to need it during the Challenge anyway, and it will make it much easier to transport the Jeep's transmission to the junkyard and the new one back (it should fit into the trunk, but will be a pain to get in and out). Will also likely see about pulling the carpet at the same time if I can (don't particularly want to get transmission fluid & such all over it).

Hopefully will be heading up to eastsidemav's place this weekend for a group work day where I'll likely be trying to get the strut bars fabbed and welded up.

Not sure at this point just how much I'm actually going to get done in the way of performance improvements. I really do need to tear the top end of the engine down and replace gaskets and such to make sure it runs properly and will survive the drive down, racing, and the drive back (assuming I don't sell it while down there :P). While doing that I'll likely install the Plog and hopefully re-weld and grind the rear manifold as well to improve flow. Will probably install the interchangeable pulley system while the blower is off the car. Don't know if I'm going to be able to pick up a tuner to be able to make the best use of the pulley system, but if I can I probably should.

Will have to see whether I think installing the new cam will be in the cards or not... would likely help, but also may not be in the budget or worth the time. If I go with the L67 for the DMC though it will almost certainly go in there.

Well, berkeley. There's a very good chance that I'm going to have to give up on the Riviera going to the Challenge.

On Saturday morning I took the Riv on a drive to go pick up a non-cracked transmission for my $300 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was about 80 minutes each way, and a reasonably nice (warm, but not oppressively hot) morning. Mostly state highway driving, so not a whole lot where I was really pushing the engine too hard and getting it out of bypass and really using the supercharger. When I got back and backed it up to the garage so I could try and get the transmission out of the trunk ('try' being the operative word here- it's still there because I can't get it out myself without putting the engine hoist together...) I noticed that there was fluid dripping down from the right side of the front bumper, so I investigated- and quickly determined that it was indeed coolant.

Popped the hood and tried to figure out where it was coming from- realized that it was coming from the lower rad connection, so I grabbed a screwdriver and tried tightening the hose clamp up. That did the trick stopped the leaking- but it did lead to me wondering what the heck had happened. Looking at the other hoses, I could see that they were a bit ballooned up. So since I had a flat screwdriver anyway from tightening the hose clamp, I cracked open the bleed valve on top of the thermostat housing and was rewarded by a LOT of (likely very hot, I didn't stick my hand in the way to find out) air escaping- it was well over a minute before any fluid at all started sputtering out the valve.

When I went out the following morning after it had (obviously) cooled down completely and went to check the coolant level- and it was VERY low. In addition, there was light-yellow 'paste' on the inside of the coolant cap that is an indicator of it overheating. So- it looks like the coolant system is getting pressurized, which unfortunately immediately makes me worry that (like the last L67 I had) one of the heads has a crack between a cylinder and a coolant passage. This unfortunately jives with what I know of its history too- remember, when I test drove it one of the rad hoses spring a leak at a hose clamp. This would be consistent with the hoses getting pressurized and the hose clamps digging into them where they swell...

If I'm right this could pretty much either completely blow my budget or make it such that I have essentially no budget for any performance improvements. The cheapest way of doing it remotely right would cost about $400 for reman heads & the gaskets needed- I could get junkyard heads for far cheaper but more than half that I've gotten and had checked have also had cracks, and having JY heads checked and gone over at the local shop costs more than just getting reman heads (I know this from experience). Sure, I could just roll the dice- but given I will be needing to drive this car from Kentucky to the Challenge, run it all-out at the competition, and (potentially, I would be fine with selling it there...) then back home I don't want to take the risk of blowing it up on the drive down or during the competition.

So, if I'm right about the heads/head gaskets my options are:

1. Do nothing and just keep it full of coolant. Not the best of ideas as really pushing the engine at the competition may cause it to blow.
2. Grab some heads from the junkyard and swap them on. Still be around a $200 hit for the heads and gaskets, which would at least leave me some budget for other stuff.
3. Do it right and take the $400+ hit to get the reman heads and drop some of the go-fast/turn-better things from the budget. Would make the car less fun, but far more reliable.
4. Clean the car up, put the trunk lining and such back in, and put it up for sale and get a different car/do a parking lot build. There's a '95 Riviera in FAR better cosmetic shape that I could get for very cheap, but it has the older Series I supercharged engine and little to none of what I have in the way of enhancements for the engine would work on it.

This afternoon I plan to use my cooling system pressure tester on it and see if I can track down where the leak is (I have no doubt there is one unfortunately), and go from there.

Worst case, you can join up with our team effort. Heck, if we're lucky, the as yet unacquired backup car and the S10 will be ready.

eastsidemav wrote: Worst case, you can join up with our team effort. Heck, if we're lucky, the as yet unacquired backup car and the S10 will be ready.

That's definitely an option. I do need to figure out exactly what's going on with the hotel rooms soon too...

So dug out my HF coolant system pressure tester (honestly, I think that like 2 of the dozen or so coolant system adapters will ever be useful- how many cars these days still have a screw-on cap? Most of the adapters are for those...) and hooked it up to the Riv. Ended up tightening pretty much ALL of the hose clamps on the system since at some point every one of them started to release the pressure. Once I got all of them tightened and not leaking... the system still dropped from 15psi to around 8psi in half an hour or so.

But... unfortunately while this tells me that it's losing pressure somewhere in the engine, it doesn't tell me where- and these engines are notorious the original-style LIM gaskets failing at the coolant passages.

So... I have to figure out what to do now. I can move forward with things and pull the top end apart and replace the gasket to the tune of $100 or so- at which point I'll be able to do a leakdown test on the cylinders and figure out if there may be a leak in the heads or not... or try and find something else...

So, not a lot of updates here on the Riv because I've been more focused on the Jeep and I've been trying to sell the Riv so I can get a turbo-swapped Dodge Rampage.

However, over the last week or so I've noticed that the driver's side front wheel bearing is squealing- and I'm also worried that the CV axle is going out. Since I need to either have it gone and working on a new car for the Challenge or be getting it into shape, I ordered the new bearing over the weekend and it should show up today. Though I've not had any luck in selling the Riv yet there's a good chance that I'll actually be able to work out a trade for the Rampage- but the Rampage's owner (who would be getting the Riv for his neighbor who is interested in it) asked if I'd install the bearing, so I'm going to tackle that this evening and see whether the axle needs to be replaced as well.

So, got into this last night... and I'm less convinced that the bearing really was going out- it looks like it may just have been a shim/shield behind the rotor that was rubbing against the rotor and making the grinding noise. Have to put in the new bearing regardless though, since the old one came apart when pulling it out.

Pretty certain that the CV axle should be replaced too... but on the fence about spending the $50 or so to get the new one (plus re-filling the transmission). Suppose I really should, since if I do end up taking it to the Challenge I should really not be risking a CV joint failing in the middle of it... but it will suck either losing (in effect) the $50 in the sale (if I sell it and buy the Rampage) or out of my Challenge budget...

After a quick jaunt with the slightly limping Jeep to the parts store for the CV axle, I got the new axle & wheel bearing installed and the hub put back together without incident. There's still a bit of a clunking noise on the side of the car, but it sound a lot more like it's coming from the suspension, and the grinding and clunking when turning hard are gone- so at least the effort wasn't a waste.

In reply to Ashyukun :

Sway bar links or bushings?

or upper strut mounts.

Links are brand (well, months-old) poly ones but bushings & upper mounts haven't been changed as I hadn't decided what all I wanted to do with them yet- with a FWD car like the Riv there's apparently some advantage to the front being less stiff than the rear in getting it to rotate through the turns. At the moment I'm not worried about it- will worry more once I (hopefully by the weekend...) know whether I'm going to be moving forward with outfitting the Riv for the Challenge or if it will be with a new owner. First thing I'll be doing though will be getting into the engine and replacing the intake gaskets and anything else I run into...

Man... You really want to trade this for another Chrysler product? LOL

Crackers said:

Man... You really want to trade this for another Chrysler product? LOL

Heh- yes, one nearly twice as old and with a third or more less power (though at the same time likely solidly lighter...) and that will need a fair bit or wiring work to get running and drivable.

And I thought I was a glutton for punishment.

Well, the Riviera left yesterday afternoon on the car trailer that the Rampage arrived on. Probably a bad move in terms of likelihood of making it to the Challenge- but hopefully I'm wrong on that count...

Get it there one way or the other and we will help you out

Dusterbd13 said:

Get it there one way or the other and we will help you out

I'll be doing my best to... it appear it's mainly going to hinge on whether I can get the wiring sorted out- in theory everything else is pretty much sorted for it to at least run. Will be starting a build thread on it shortly. Unfortunately I think it will need to get there under its own power... unless I manage to get the Jeep's issues sorted and drag it down there using it (not wholly impossible- but getting both the Rampage & Jeep working in a month will be a minor miracle...).

I'll do what i can from here!

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

Thanks!

I have some harnesses and ECU's from my Turbo-Dodge days, if you need anything, I can dig through the pile and put together a care package.

I might even have some factory service manuals.

I really need to clean up that stuff anyway, so that could be the kick in the butt I need to get on that.

Good luck!