Not mine. Nice looking car! What motor did GM use in 79 for these cars? https://www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars/guelph/1979-buick-riviera-all-original/1476785667
First year for these and you could get a 350 V8 or turbo V6 I believe. In 198o switched the 350 with 304 I think.
I had an 83 and 85, liked them, not bad looking and very quiet comfy cars. GM had numerous worst misses in those days. Aztec, J bodies especially the Cimeron, any model that had diesel, just to name a couple. Edit: Forgot about the Vega, Saturn, and on and on!
I heard most mechanics just disabled the cylinder deactivation and made it a V8 only. Then it was OK.
None the less it's a nice looking car and I'm sure you could put a 455 in it It's not fwd is it like the tornado's?
I had a 79 with the turbo v6. My understanding was that if the car had a padded vinyl roof (Landeau) it would have been the 350 version that year. I think the V6s were termed the "sport coupe" without the vinyl roof. Some also had the sun roof. They were comfortable driving cars (front wheel drive) with air shock leveling system (rear).
The 1979 - 1985 Rivieras were the first Buicks to be be pulled by front wheel drive. Jim Vesely ROA #7437 BCA #39477
I just looked on-line at a different '79 Riviera and it had a gas Olds 350 engine ... confirmed by the valve covers and oil add tube ... and a gas engine confirmed by the distributor and the emissions label. I know that '79 was when GM was deep into sharing the Divisions' engines across Division lines. I thought I had also previously seen a Buick 350 in a '79 Riviera. Were there TWO different gas 350s ?
My folks had a 1982 Cimarron. All the electrical stuff shorted out, horn sounded like a dying horse...would overheat & break down all the time. I recall driving it when the door locks shorted out & all 4 doors would be locking/unlocking themselves...
