Thanks Tubejitsu, looks like ill be buyin a lot of parts haha
Yes, I am going to mod my 85 Riv.
Welcome to a very very small group of T Type Riviera owners of the good (84-85) fuel injected versions. There are a few owners around here who have done some mods to these cars, though not a complete conversion to the 86-87 GN set-up (not that I have seen anyway) for one complicated reason, it is not a direct bolt on as the 84-85 turbo Regals/GNs, thanks to the front wheel drive set-up. Not that it can't be done (working on doing my 85) , but there are complications that make parts fabrication necessary (mostly tubing and some brackets).
Where to start? well if you notice, our engines are mounted in the chassis off center by 2-1/2 inches to the right (passenger side) to clear the transaxle, and this is where the problems start. Just mounting an 86-87 passenger header to the right side of the engine, there is no clearance at all between it and the frame rail, so a bit of cutting and welding to the frame would be necessary, but header is so close to upper control arm bushings, even a heat sheild wouldn't save them, further, because of the Riviera AC box (all Rivs I have seen have AC) there is no place at all to run the downpipe. One more on the headers, the crossover pipe won't work either, thanks to the front axles and differential, there is no room at all under the engine for it. Sorry for the news, but that is how it is!
So far the best solution I have found which is fitting, is to mount the 86-87 GN passenger header to the driver side of our cars, this mounts the 86-87 turbo between the engine and firewall, similar to the stock Riviera turbo, with plenty of clearance to firewall and using the 86-87 turbo bracket and heat shield (slight adjustment of shifter cable bracket required). Of course the header does need to be modified to run the crossover, which is in the same place as the stock Riviera up and over the transmission at the bellhousing)
I have to cut this short here, but if you are interested, I can continue to post later with some pics to show my progress. One good thing is we shouldn't need a lot of the GN parts to convert over, bad thing is fabrication is required to hook everything up.
