Gonna buy it

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
08/19/2016 at 20:44 • Filed to: None

My friend with the $1000 Bonneville and I did some diagnostics on the Bonneville. The problem was the 87 octane fuel, go figure. Put some 91 in it and it made a calculated 270 crank horsepower with the clogged air filter removed (based on the MAF sensor’s readings, which allow math to be used to calculate roughly what the engine is making for power). Transmission shifted beautifully so that’s nice.

So the plan is to pay my friend $1000 for this ‘02 Bonneville. We will then use his two 2-post lifts to lift up the Riviera and Bonneville, drop both engine cradles, and swap them. We will then use HPTuners to put a ‘97 supercharged Riviera’s tune on my car so it can use the new engine, and put the naturally-aspirated broken drivetrain into the Bonneville. This will fix the following semi-broken items on my car:

Engine (leaks coolant)

Transmission (slips)

Power steering (randomly changes how heavy the steering is for no aparrant reason)

Struts (totally blown)

Sway bar (not broken but the Bonneville one is significantly larger and stiffer)

At this point I’ll have a supercharged Riviera and a naturally aspirated very ugly Bonneville. My buddy and I recon if I plastidip the peeling-paint hood and paint the foam headliner (the cloth having vanished), give the car a half-assed detail and thorough cleaning, and sell it as “cheap around-town transportation” I could get $1500 for it, which doesn’t seem terribly ridiculous considering how quickly any running car for under $2000 disappears off of Craigslist. Even if it’s less, I should be able to make up any further money-delta by selling the Nissan. Regardless, it seems like a fair price to fix 99% of the issues with my daily driver.

AND

Since we have tuning abilities, the L67 engine can run on E85 with stock everything due to how much injector overhead there is, which means I can buy super-cheap E85 at a loss of 20% efficiency but a 30% HP gain.

DISCUSSION (7)

crowmolly > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/19/2016 at 20:51

Sounds good, but can the fuel system handle the E85? Like the lines and hoses? Not talking about injector volume.

random001 > crowmolly
08/19/2016 at 20:52

This! You will blow up the fuel system if you run E85 without a conversion.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > crowmolly
08/19/2016 at 22:02

Most cars made after 1995 can run ethanol, I believe. I’ll have to confirm.

Deep. > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/19/2016 at 22:36

Doo it!

Let us know what happens.

shop-teacher > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/19/2016 at 22:46

Nope, special fuel lines and fuel pumps, etc. I know a couple guys in the industry who recommend buying flex fuel vehicles for their beefed up fuel system, but then just running good old fashioned gasoline.

Good luck with your swap!

crowmolly > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/19/2016 at 23:21

Maybe E10 or E15, but not E85. Make sure you check that.

I also didn’t ask- is the Riv fuel pump the same as the bonny’s?

Boxer_4 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/20/2016 at 13:15

E10, usually not E85.