A buddy of mine is wondering about the 79-85 Riviera engines. Does the diesel 350 swap out with the gas 350?(besides wiring harness) Can the the 231 V6 swap out with the V8's? What modification need to be made. Can a 3.8 V6 be taken from a Grand National and put into a Riviera? What things would he need to change? And isnt the 79-85 Riviera a front wheel drive car? If so, how come the engines still face forward? o No: Thanks in advance for any advice. :TU:
I had an '85 Riv. The gas V8 offered in them was the 307, but whether the diesel and that 307 share many/any componants is beyond me. There was also the 231 V6 Turbo (Riviera T-Type) offered, so the parts should be out there for any of those swaps. The 79-85 are FWD cars with a weird Transmission/Transaxle setup. My '85 has the 307 with well over 200k miles and still ran strong (even though the body was falling apart and the transmission had been rebuilt twice) Wish I still had it
A gas olds v8 will bolt right in. Of course you will have to change all of the "plumbing" over to gas, and mont likely find a wiring harness from a gas riv/tornado/eldo with the appropriate engine. A big potential concern may be the emissions stuff, that is, if your state still does testing. A word of caution however, the tranny in that car is driven off a big chain, and it cant handle very much power, also the car performs quite poorly with big HP increases due to torque-steer... The FWD layout on that model is a very poor design, but it does just fine with a low power engine.
we need to know the VIN # from the 79. there's a good chance it's a buick engine but it also might be chevy or olds. 5 digit is: L = chevy R = olds X = buick
