Chronicles of SneakySnakes | Vol III

MinGrey02Stg2 · Oct 25, 2017

bullitt2735 said:
Nice! Will VE check the bearings while the motor is out? Looking into getting a gen V next year possibly. That's the only thing that has me nervous with the gen V's reading up on VOA. What's the fix? Is it blown out of proportion?

The fix is an engine replacement. There are two recalls on potentially affected cars- R28 and R29. Make sure to buy a car with both of these performed. If they have been performed, then the car will have an additional 10yr/100,000 engine warranty. I have heard of warranty denials on modded cars, but then being covered since the bearing failure is a known issue and was not caused by whatever modification.

paintless302 · Oct 25, 2017

AustinJ427 said:
What are the cam specs? How will it idle?

No specs given as it is proprietary. It will have some chop to it but overall this package was designed to have 100% oem feel just with a lot more power. It's not going to sound like a donkey dick lsx cam if thats what you're wondering. Will have vids up soon.

bullitt2735 said:
Nice! Will VE check the bearings while the motor is out? Looking into getting a gen V next year possibly. That's the only thing that has me nervous with the gen V's reading up on VOA. What's the fix? Is it blown out of proportion?

It's completely blown out of proportion. A plant manager once told us off the record the number of motor failures for gen 5s outside of the recall window was less than any other previous generation. It's just a bunch of people regurgitating info from vendors who make a living selling you "a fix". Nothing like getting your customers to believe bearings are necessary in every build, and then have an easy way out if any motor failure occurs. "Hey bud, you know SRT, its those damn bearings!". Brilliant on their part, and people are too ****ing stupid to see the trees for the forest.

In reality, the problem has been one of contamination, bearings have nothing to do with it outside of being the affected component of that debris. SRT had a very big problem with new vendors who lacked the process control and QC to deliver them turnkey parts devoid of contaminants. There was a batch of blocks delivered with trace amounts of casting debris still present, which went un-noticed for quite some time. Additionally, by some stroke of shit luck, after that was rectified, another vendor dropped the ball on the oil coolers. Machining debris was present inside of the coolers that wasn't caught during inspection, and the additional QC process designed to catch the block debris didn't catch this issue because the coolers were mated to the car on the assembly line, and the engines were run in on Arrow's dyno's with the dyno room's accessories (and tested perfect). It was a mess. Overall, I think SRT handled the issues quite well, given that plenty of other manufacturers know of catastrophic engine failures and do nothing (ie. go ask some GT3 owners about engine replacements). SRT issued a R28 recall to blanket the affected VIN ranges, which meant one of two things. Either you'd pass the oil contaminant test and receive an extension of your powertrain warranty to 10 years/100,000 miles for peace of mind; Or, you would get a crate motor replacement free of charge if debris/bearing wear was present in oil analysis.

My car is an R28 car, which means it was part of the affected VIN, yet its perfectly fine, no issues, I drive the balls of of it, and my oil tests that ive done come out squeaky clean. I had no reason to even look at the main bearings during this build. Many of the same people that complain about engine failures are the same idiots who cant be bothered to check oil levels on a 700hp NA car before they beat on it, and answer with "well why should we have to", after the fact.

We did inspect the cam and journal bearings and everything was ship shape. I have no concerns, and to add, this package comes with a warranty.

paintless302 · Oct 25, 2017

Motor has been inspected, cleaned, and re-assembled with the Stage II build. Engine has been re-installed in the vehicle and is a few accessories short of firing and break-in. Here are the additions;

-CNC ported heads (larger valves, upgraded springs & retainers)
-VVT Delete (Fixed cam with higher lift/duration)
-Upgraded pushrods & lifters
-Stage II tune (re-flash Arrow PCM)

The turn-around time on this has left me speechless. I dropped the car off 24 hours ago.

bullitt2735 · Oct 25, 2017

^ holy crap they did that quick! Appreciate the info, love this thread

My94GT · Oct 25, 2017

Quality work with them. Not sure if it was mentioned but what power are you looking to make with the new set up? Look forward to seeing your new rolling pulls to compare to the previous times.

You really have me wanting to forgo building a kit car or anything of the sort and just going viper hunting this coming spring. The car just seems so capable.

WIST2013GT · Oct 26, 2017

I'm excited to see the gains with the H/C setup!

AustinSN · Oct 26, 2017

The porting on those heads is beautiful.

Serpent · Oct 26, 2017

Awesome Alex, I was looking up the 9L +H/C package. It’s over 30k! Lol

paintless302 · Oct 26, 2017

Serpent said:
Awesome Alex, I was looking up the 9L +H/C package. It’s over 30k! Lol

Go price out a forged crank for a Viper and you'll see why LOL

paintless302 · Oct 26, 2017

My94GT said:
Quality work with them. Not sure if it was mentioned but what power are you looking to make with the new set up? Look forward to seeing your new rolling pulls to compare to the previous times.

You really have me wanting to forgo building a kit car or anything of the sort and just going viper hunting this coming spring. The car just seems so capable.

Its an extremely versatile car. Having a car able to run 9s NA with a wheel/tire change, hit the road course all day in 100* heat without skipping a beat, and take your girl to dinner with all the modern day luxuries is what it's all about. My car still has cats, runs on pump gas, drives like stock, absolutely zero sacrifices made to get this performance level. It's not cheap, but nothing worth having is.

Don't know about power level, don't want to count my chickens before they hatch. I will dyno in a few days after break-in and post the numbers.

My94GT · Oct 26, 2017

paintless302 said:
Its an extremely versatile car. Having a car able to run 9s NA with a wheel/tire change, hit the road course all day in 100* heat without skipping a beat, and take your girl to dinner with all the modern day luxuries is what it's all about. My car still has cats, runs on pump gas, drives like stock, absolutely zero sacrifices made to get this performance level. It's not cheap, but nothing worth having is.

Don't know about power level, don't want to count my chickens before they hatch. I will dyno in a few days after break-in and post the numbers.

Yea it really does seem versitile. My original plan was a factory five kit car with a fun blower build but I think the fiancé would hate it so that would ruin it as like you said I still want to be able to go to dinner in something fun. So I ditched that idea.

Currently the debate while two different cars would be gt350 with a turbo set up or just spend the extra and get a viper. Really depends on what the viper market looks like come next summer. I just want a fun car to tool around with on the weekends, I don’t do track time any longer so no need for a crazy build.

Serpent · Oct 26, 2017

^ why not wait for GT500?

My94GT · Oct 26, 2017

Serpent said:
^ why not wait for GT500?

I’ll likely keep that in consideration. Has there been anymore info or teasers released for the gt500 like when it’s expected to be unveiled or sold?

That aside I just really like the style of the viper. I feel like it’s going to be one of those cars that just has a timeless look to it at least the gen V like OPs

Serpent · Oct 26, 2017

My94GT said:
I’ll likely keep that in consideration. Has there been anymore info or teasers released for the gt500 like when it’s expected to be unveiled or sold?

That aside I just really like the style of the viper. I feel like it’s going to be one of those cars that just has a timeless look to it at least the gen V like OPs

Yes, if Dodge doesnt make a Gen VI this V will definitely go up in value and remain timeless (no more big displacement manual cars!

). I've noticed they have not dropped in price either. I used to watch prices like a hawk!

My94GT · Oct 27, 2017

Serpent said:
Yes, if Dodge doesnt make a Gen VI this V will definitely go up in value and remain timeless (no more big displacement manual cars! ). I've noticed they have not dropped in price either. I used to watch prices like a hawk!

yea they look to hang in the 70s-80s which may be tight on my budget unless I wait till 2019 as I just bought a house and have to shell out some coin come spring for a deck and fence project I have planned haha.

I feel even if they make another viper, which I hope they do, this latest body style will remain timeless looking much like the 96 body style. it just has nice sleek lines that will stay relevant for years. the other thing is you don't see vipers often, while I see plenty of mustangs of all variations regularly at least being in the area I'm in.

all that said ill still watch the market and keep an eye out for more gt500 info as I'm in no rush per say for a novelty item in my garage.

cant wait to see the results of the work on OPs viper. sorry to hijack the thread man lol.

paintless302 · Oct 28, 2017

Also have these guys going on soon as I have some free time. No use in wasting the added power to wheelspin--big thanks to DV8Motoring for hooking it up.

paintless302 · Dec 24, 2017

Lots of updates, pull up a chair.

So after getting the car back together with the heads/cam install it had some weird hesitation at the upper rpms on their break-in/test-drives. We thought it was something non-mechanical by the nature of the stumble but it seemed to get worse with subsequent drives and with a weeks worth of diagnostics and throwing simple parts at the car (coils, plugs, fuel filter, etc), we were getting nowhere. The decision was made to pull the motor and go through everything. It didn't take much past the timing cover to find a camshaft which was getting ready to seize up, and a scored cam journal. I would imagine that whatever debris made its way through my motor almost a year ago to cause the lifter failure (flip back to the beginning of the thread), had also left its mark on the cam area. Seeing as vipers don't use cam journal bearings (its just a high polished area of the block itself), the entire motor would have to be disassembled to attempt a repair. The ability to perform said repair would depend solely on how badly the journals were damaged, and could lead to a new block altogether (ie. tons of downtime). Instead of making me wait for weeks/months while the motor was gone through, VE/Arrow worked out a deal (for which I was very grateful) where they took my old motor in as a core, and gave me an entirely new long-block complete with a fresh heads/cam build. This entire ordeal really validated my decision to go with them for the build in the first place. They had tons of opportunities to leave me out to dry, but instead, they honored their included warranty and made everything whole for me. Motor arrived in a week or so and was promptly re-installed.

Thought this was a very cool pic, my old hurt motor (left) next to a gen 3 motor with the rare-as-hens-teeth Stryker aftermarket heads (right). Notice the exhaust port differences.

With the motor in and the car getting broke in we switched gears to adding some goodies. Started with getting the new tires mounted, no use in wasting that new found power

Went with Toyo R888R's all around--I loved the first gen R888s on my old gen 4 coupe, and was excited to get these mounted.

275/35/18
345/30/19

Down 20 and 10mm in width, respectively, from the OEM sizes; but honestly, either the Pirellis run narrow, or the Toyo's run wide because they actually sit wider on the wheel than the OEMs. I'm very happy with the way the new 35 pro fronts fill out the wheel well compared to the rubber band 30s on the oem pirellis. Just looks much better in my opinion. A much needed bath, before the showing off;

Next up was swapping the seat belts. I wanted to tie the yellow calipers into the interior without going overboard, and figured this would be a great way to do it. I got in touch with the guys from www.seatbeltplanet.com, had VE pull the oem black units out, and sent the full pre-tensioner assemblies off for them to get re-webbed. They had everything turned around within a day or two and back to me (would highly recommend them!).

Old yellars back in hand;

Everything came out better than I even imagined, it really looks nice in person. The whole time I had them on order I was going back-n-forth in my head whether the yellow would look tacky. I mean, its yellow. First time I opened the door and peeked in all my apprehension melted away.

A few additional days of break-in and I made some 60-130 hits to see the difference with the added power utilizing the Racelogic PBOX. Ran consistent back to back 6.40s (with 2-shifts), an improvement of around half a second from the best bolt-on run I had made previously. I was very impressed, and to be honest, I think there is another tenth or two hiding there with some additional tweaks/seat-time. Stay tuned

13COBRA · Dec 24, 2017

Looks good Alex, glad you got it sorted out!

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

CobraBob · Dec 24, 2017

That was awesome that VE/Arrow worked out a deal with you on replacing the motor. You have on heck of a gem there. Looks great! Runs great! Life is now good, ain't it?

paintless302 · Dec 24, 2017

The new build's break-in was over just in time to hit a dragstrip rental I had purchased a spot in a few months back. I had procured a set of 18x13 OZ's and 26" Hoosiers (thanks Bernie and Andy) to try to increase my final drive ratio, and combat the tall 1st gear in these cars. I knew I would have my work cut out for me trying to 60' the car on a stock clutch but I was ready to give it the 'ol college try.

Still remembering the last time that a set of 18s didn't quite fit (on my previous gen 4), I decided to mock-up the rears so there are no surprises the day of.

I'm glad I did, for if I didn't have a set of spacers that I run on my SW2's on hand, I would have gotten an unpleasant surprise in the staging lanes. It seems the e-brake cable was just barely brushing the inside of the barrel, and only after I had mounted the .450" spacer with the OZs did it move outboard just enough to get a hair of clearance.

With that sorted I was ready to drop off the assemblies to get the real tires mounted;

Hoosier daddy?

We arrived the morning of to Royal Purple Raceway, to find everything but the main dragstrip lanes themselves had been absolutely destroyed by the heavy machinery roaming about the property. Royal Purple was officially closed since Harvey hit (only allowing private track rentals), as they struck a deal with the local insurance companies to store all of the flood vehicles on their (quite expansive) property. But, after months of moving cars about the property with huge front end loaders, the parking/staging/return-lanes looked like they had seen a WW2 strafing run. Broken concrete everywhere, return lanes completely unusable with a gaping hole in the turn-off, and mud everywhere. After driving through a mud pit to even get to the track off the main road, we were informed that all cars would have to make passes AND return down the main lanes. Obviously, this pissed everyone off, as the whole reason for a track rental vs just going on a test/tune night is proper seat time with the opportunity for hot-lapping. Not only would this effectively quadruple the time each person needed to make a pass, but there would be no way to immediately re-stage after a pass to get dialed in. I think had everyone known the situation going in, we all would have saved our money/time for another day. I kind of felt bad for the organizer, as he obviously wasn't told of the stipulations up front, and had to endure everyones bitching for the remainder of the day.