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Thread: 1982 buick rivera 307y FWD wanna do a 403 swap what tranny should i pair up

  1. #1

    1982 buick rivera 307y FWD wanna do a 403 swap what tranny should i pair up

    i want to do a 403 swap in my rivi what tranny should i get with the motor and is it possible to change gear ratios on a fwd car?


    and also does any body know how to fix the pillar lights on these cars or wheres the wiring for it

  2. #2
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    Smile

    Std. Catalog of Buick list 82 Riv as a RWD with a 252 V6, 305 V8, 350 V8 or 350 Diesel. That means you could put virtually any engine including the 455 in this vehicle as well as change the axle ratio too.
    Norman A Lutz

    1965 Gran Sport Conv (455/200R4)
    1969 Riviera
    1972 Centurion Conv.

  3. #3

    thanks for the reply

    thanks for the reply not being rude or any thing but i have the 82 fwd i wish is was rwd but its not. just want to know the best route for a little bit more quickness you know trough shifts and what not its a slug right now . just want a little bit more life not spending a whole lot lets say 3000 on engine and parts and things what would you do i love the car body style (etc.) just want it to move a little quicker. thanks
    Last edited by 82rivi307y; 06-21-2009 at 04:05 PM. Reason: left some details out

  4. #4
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    Your car should have the Olds. engine in it and you can use a 350 Olds eng. and up as long as it's an Olds engine , but you would need the oil pan and pickup tube & etc. for the FWD eng. and try to get close to same year or up . Check that the eng. mounts on your replacement are the same as your org. eng. before you buy your replacement eng. The Pass. side drive axle goes in front of your org. oil pan and that is why you must use it on your replacement eng.
    Your Trans. should be a TH 325 and will work for the replacement Olds eng.
    The Diff. gears can be replaced ( It will cost a good bit to replace the gear set ) But what you have in there will work with V8 Olds engs.HTH
    John
    Guyopel
    The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse always gets the cheese.

  5. #5
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    The 403 Olds is a pretty straight forward swap. That modification by itself should provide a huge improvement. I would not buy a lot of trick parts for it. Build it for torque and save the money for the highest quality machine work you can get. An Oldsmobile site would probably have the best info on what to do for engine mods. But if it was me I'd buy the best low rpm torque cam I could find and if you absolutely have to have it look like a performance engine then you could put an aluminum intake on it. The intake won't add much in the stock rpm ranges, but it shouldn't hurt either. It's hard to beat the stock intake for fuel distribution at the lower rpms. You really don't have any piston options other than stock replacements unless you want to spend the coin for custom ones that are usually about $100 a hole. There are no headers for this application. Build it mostly stock and leave the transmission alone unless it is in need of repairs. A sharp tranny guy can probably figure out how to modify it for harder shifts if that is what you're after. There may be other gear sets available but I seriously doubt they are worth the expense of adding. The existing trans should take the extra power ok. One other thing you might do is swap out the computerized carburetor for an older one. Preferably the one that came on your core 403. If you are exempt from emissions testing you could probably talk an exhaust shop into building you a better exhaust system. Good luck, I think this engine swap is an easily do able and worth it modification if you really like the car.

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    I will add that I don't know much about the pillar lights. You will probably have to get ahold of some kind of shop manual that has a wiring diagram in it. I think that they are 110 volts and somewhere on the car is an inverter that changes it from 12v to 110v. That may be your problem, or the bulbs themselves may be burned out. Check the sockets with a meter and see if your getting power to the fixture and go from there. Again, good luck.

  7. #7
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    straight 8

    As old as I am, I seem to remember that the lights are 110V [ac-dc ? not sure]. I also seem to remember that the inverter is in the trunk. Damn, It's Hell to get old. Hope this helps. Doug

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