Chronicles of SneakySnakes | Vol III

[ssj4sadie]

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.

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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.

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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;

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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;

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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.

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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

That engine out pic looks awesome! But please tell me there was a second bucket?!

 

[Serpent]

I bet you will beat Flatout's NA record if you have skinnys up front. R888 is too much grip for the front for drag racing.

 

[Recon]

Such a shame what happened to your engine, but that new one looks fantastic! I’d like to hear your review on those tires once you get some road course sessions in. I planned on R888’s now they’re being replaced. Those yellow seat belts are a nice touch.


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[paintless302]

And thus began the beginning of a long, disappointing day...

I knew the stock clutch would be a pain, but I arrogantly thought I'd be able to make it work. Between the length of time it took between passes, someone blowing up and oiling the track down every other pass, I was only able to make 4 passes in the 8 hours I was there (9-5). Not a single of those 4, was I able to get the car to shift into 2nd gear after the launch. I was varying launch rpm between 4.5-5k and quickly slipping the car out of the hole. This led to a tormenting amount of clutch smoke, and a glazed clutch which would refuse to disengage and allow any shifting directly following the launch. I was able to whittle the car down into the 1.5s in the last 2 passes but each time the car had nothing but a rev-limiter for me on the 1-2 shift. I was literally fuming inside my helmet after each pass--compounded by the fact that it took about an hr or two between each attempt to agonize over what I could do differently to get the car to cooperate on the next attempt.

My 3rd pass was my only semi-clean run; I launched the car too soft (around 4250) and actually bogged on the roll-out, but the reduced amount of slip contributed to less heat, and a clutch that semi-cooperated on the subsequent shifts. I went to grab 2nd and got nothing but rev-limiter again, but I pulled back one last time and to my surprise she fell into gear. Stayed in it and she delivered clean 3rd and 4th shifts.

[video=youtube;rdkqiymLFFc][/video]

Will never get used to returning in the same lane....

I made one more pass after this thinking it'd be the "one", but I was rewarded with a completely blown clutch, and a car that refused to shift into any gear, period. Splendid.

I limped the car back into the pits and thought it may get better after I let things cool. While she sat fuming and stinking of clutch, I swapped back to the street tires and crossed my fingers that I could make the trek home without a flatbed.

All in all, I was disappointed, and pissed off at myself for breaking a car that I had spent months getting just right. But, that's the nature of the racing game! Looking back at it now, I'm actually quite impressed the car was able to run a low 10 with a missed shift. I have no doubt in my mind that with leveraging the learnings from those passes and an upgraded clutch, I will be able to run the 9.9-10.0 number I was looking to find that day. The car is a full weight, fully loaded GTS (as heavy as a gen 5 can get), with aero. She's still a beast:thumbup:

I was able to limp the car home with rolling through a few stoplights and stop-signs (luckily it was late on a sunday and there was hardly any traffic). She would only allow me to shift with exact rev-match, pretty much back to the stone age of un-synchronized manuals. Back to VE for a new clutch!

 

[paintless302]

I’d like to hear your review on those tires once you get some road course sessions in. I planned on R888’s now they’re being replaced. Those yellow seat belts are a nice touch.

They are absolutely incredible in my opinion, just like the old R888s were. I haven't tracked on them yet so I cant say anything in regards to lateral grip levels but the straight-line grip is phenomenal. Its almost dead hooking 1st gear which is impressive at my power level. Car feels planted and stable from roll-ons in any gear, at any speed, a marked improvement from the wheel-hop laden spin fest of the stock Pirellis. Surprisingly, they also ride twice as nice as well, there is a marked suppleness going over expansion joints, bumps, etc, that wasn't present on the oem tires.

 

[paintless302]

That engine out pic looks awesome! But please tell me there was a second bucket?!

Second bucket?

 

[ssj4sadie]

Second bucket?

For the car wash.

 

[paintless302]

Went with another stock twin-disc. I got hooked up big time by another Viper owner, and I just wanted the car back on the road ASAP. I know the nth triple is the bees-knees I'm just not convinced that I need to put that kind of clutch in the car at my power level. The majority of this car's time is spent either in Mexico or the road course, or auto-x events, and the stocker is more than suited for that task with zero driveability compromises.

Car was dropped off at VE, and they had the new clutch back in the following day, along with a trans and hydraulics flush. Back on the road!

 

[paintless302]

For the car wash.

Ohhh, of course man. Haha you must be crazy to think otherwise.

 

[ssj4sadie]

I only saw the one bucket and was

 

[paintless302]

One more fun little upgrade.

I always felt like the catted Belanger setup was amazing in tone, and the perfect sound level at WOT. The only thing I wished was that it would give me a bit more chop at idle now that the car was HC (the cats really mute out the idle chop). That, and I've always wanted the possibility of spitting flames on fools on the freeway LOL. So on a whim, we got Lou to ship out their new 3" catless setup to replace my existing 2.5" catted system.

I've run Belangers on my last 3 Vipers and no other exhaust sounds like it on these cars, just really enjoy their smooth bellowy sound. After pulling the new setup of the box I could see there had been some worthwhile improvements to their kit. First off, they've really stepped up the overall build quality of the system, and I particularly like their novel secondary 02 bung placements--right at the tip exits. They did this for 2 reasons; (1) it is the only location that welding a bung into the free stream doesn't take away the cross sectional area (still full 3" there), and (2) It let's you tuck up all of the 02 extensions up into the chassis and keep them away from the high heat areas, only getting anywhere close to the exhaust at the outlets. Secondly, I like how they've integrated the mid-pipes into the catback itself, just one less connection to make/worry about.

In for surgery;

Existing header-back removed;

Look at that pickle!

Onto the goodies;

Laying out the new 3" (left) vs the removed 2.5" catted setup (right).

2.5" vs 3" outlets

Perty muffler, er, resonator

New tips, notice the secondary 02 bung placement;

Very nice flow area even with that bung;

All buttoned up, here's a quick vid, the car is still not warmed up so its on a high idle (hasn't settled into the full chop yet). A few quick revs to 3k rpm. Car is MUCH louder, but still maintains that belanger tone that I like. I didn't get an opportunity to drive it yet as a storm rolled in directly after we took the idle vid. Will report back on whether its obnoxious or not, and whether or not I can actual smell the loss of cats (which is honestly my largest concern).

 

[JD03Cobra]

That sounds really good! Nice

 

[Recon]

They are absolutely incredible in my opinion, just like the old R888s were. I haven't tracked on them yet so I cant say anything in regards to lateral grip levels but the straight-line grip is phenomenal. Its almost dead hooking 1st gear which is impressive at my power level. Car feels planted and stable from roll-ons in any gear, at any speed, a marked improvement from the wheel-hop laden spin fest of the stock Pirellis. Surprisingly, they also ride twice as nice as well, there is a marked suppleness going over expansion joints, bumps, etc, that wasn't present on the oem tires.

Very cool. I’m hoping for 600/600 out of my 3V Roush and it’ll be a road course car for a few times a year. Looks like I’ll add the new R888R’s to the tire list. Are they still the 10,000 mile thread rating? Sorry haven’t done any research on them yet.
Also not trying to derail you thread either, just curious about the tires.


Pick your poison.

 

[paintless302]

Are they still the 10,000 mile thread rating? Sorry haven’t done any research on them yet.
Also not trying to derail you thread either, just curious about the tires.

I have no idea, I never look at tread ratings. I can tell you I squeezed about 10,000 miles out of my R888s last go-around with A LOT of racing (but no burn-outs, dumb shit, etc).

 

[BLOWN9646]

Can you get tuned E85/E50 to help cat-less

 

[paintless302]

Can you get tuned E85/E50 to help cat-less

During the packages development they tested a "race gas tune" with c16, and only picked up 8 peak, and 10ish through the curve. Was deemed not worth it, and wasn't offered as an option on the commercial product. I'm sure it would be the same story for E85. Not worth it to half your gas mileage for meaningless hp.

 

[gofast15]

During the packages development they tested a "race gas tune" with c16, and only picked up 8 peak, and 10ish through the curve. Was deemed not worth it, and wasn't offered as an option on the commercial product. I'm sure it would be the same story for E85. Not worth it to half your gas mileage for meaningless hp.

E85 is like half the price of 93 . My brothers Z06 with an aftermarket cam and no cats smells horrible running 93. I bet the Viper is even worst heaving exhaust coming out right below the windows .E85 will get rid of 90% of that nasty smell

 

[paintless302]

E85 is like half the price of 93 .

The gas mileage comment had nothing to do with cost. Its a matter of being annoying. Case in point, me and few friends go for a cruise/fun-run. We can't go more than 100 miles with cruising/playin-around because all of my buddies in the E85/Meth Z06s physically run out of fuel. It gets annoying have to fuel the car up twice as often and also to be tied to ethanol, which isn't as widely available as people may think.

 

[Zemedici]

Can understand wanting to stay away from corn when N/A, gains are not worth the costs, and fuel consumption is an issue.


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[BlksvtCobra01]

Can understand wanting to stay away from corn when N/A, gains are not worth the costs, and fuel consumption is an issue.


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This. I always understood as well you see more benefits from Ethanol on forced induction.


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