Hey all I recently bought a 73 Riviera, wanted a boattail for years now as my great uncle drove a 72 around when I was kid! I'm fairly inexperienced when it comes to working on cars. I had a 75 olds 88 that I did all my own work on but never had anything too bad go down on that. I have torn down the quadrajet to rebuild because it was not performing well, it appears to be from a 72 and was a rebuild. Got my kit from Cliffs and will have that done in the next day or two as the power piston spring somehow went missing. The car seemed to be running hot before I took off the carb and I noticed some tiny boiling bubbles where the intake manifold and head meet up on the driver side so I ordered a new gasket for that and valve cover gaskets. I'll be replacing those soon. When I took the valve covers off one side was missing 6 out of 8 rocker arm retainers and the other side was missing just one. I got new ones and will be putting those on tomorrow. I guess I started rambling a little bit but I guess my biggest question was is there anything else I should be looking for/doing while I have the carb/intake manifold/ valve covers off? Also, replaced the spark plugs and the thermostat the other day as well. Thermostat was not opening up before. I have a chassis book on the way and have accessed the online version psoted here. Any other advice for the car in general is greatly appreciated!
I would recommend to replace the timing chain as well and check the oil pump. Always good to see a '73! 81.1 % of the 1973 model year Rivieras came with a vinyl top. And most of the cars that I came across had the windshield antenna.
How many miles on the engine? If you take the intake off and pull the front cover for a timing chain, you might as well check the cam and lifters. If they didn't use a decent oil for flat tappet cams, it could look like my 350. It ran but had no power after about 4000 and died out pretty hard at 4500.
Welcome! It sounds like you are on it. I would go ahead with what you have in mind first and see if the carb/tuneup/gaskets help. Adding a real oil pressure gauge is also a good thing to do. I have that and a real temp gauge too.
Interesting stuff! I'm glad this one wasn't a vinyl top as I've seen on here that it leads to a lot of rust. This was a texas car the majority of its life it looks like. Not too much rust throughout but I will have to do some small patches here and there when it comes time for paint. The antenna motor is not working so I'll have to dig into that eventually too but it's pretty low on the totem pole!
I believe it's 117000 miles on the engine. Heads were rebuilt 2-3000 miles ago I was told. But the man I bought it from got it from his deceased friends wife. He said he'd try to get paperwork on the head rebuild for me but couldn't make any guarantees. So this is where I'm inexperienced, I know how to pull out a cam shaft. But I wouldn't know what to look for once I have it out. What should I keep my eye on?
I used "Autometer" but there are a lot to choose from at various price points. The mechanical style tend to have a longer sweep, so perhaps more accurate and easier to read? I like electrical style as I am a wiring guy.
You can check for slop in the timing chain without taking much of anything apart. You have a 50 year-old car there; I would check anything that moves and/or rotates for condition. I would also very carefully check every inch of the brake lines and brake hoses. Check the brakes for wear and for leakage at the drums or calipers. Basically I would check everything on the car that if it failed, could leave you in an accident or walking.
Have looked over all lines already and they're in good shape, also breaks were done all the way around by previous owner. I got under it today with a flashlight just doing some exploring. Looks like I'll need to replace the power steering pump soon or at least the lines going to it
The other day another white 1973 Riviera (a GS, with the optional sun roof)), also without the halo vinyl top, popped up for sale on Hemmings dot com Click here for a thread about that car
I did see the other post was wondering how much that ended up going for because it the time I saw it the posting was removed!
You can still view the photos in this advertisement on Hagerty. It says sold, but no price listed: Click here And here's another listing, saying that the car wasn't sold at an Hemmings auction on March 19th, with a highest bid of $30,000: Click here
