The Chronicles of SneakySnake Vol III

[slowhatch]

Silva, thanks for the Xmas gift, but I know you're just trying to slow me down with increased rotating mass;

[slowhatch]

Love your posts! This car is screaming for an ACR diffuser, would look so badass on this car....

So speaking of Gen 4s, and Cable's comment, I always thought the Gen 5 lacked a little something down low on the factory diffuser. Even after my Agency power carbon unit dressed up the rear a bit, I really wanted more.

My goal here was to modernize the classic 4 vertical strake approach from my gen 4. I initially considered, but quickly came to the opinion, that the OEM ACR-E diffuser looks bottom heavy when fitted to a wingless car. Cost also played a huge role in me staying away from the ACR one, if memory serves me it was almost 6k for the parts, nuts! I've seen owners just bolt multiple sheet metal fins in, but again, that wasn't for me. So we set out to make something custom, a middle-ground of sorts, which is what you'll see below. Its an aluminum panel, with welded aluminum strakes, powder coated. 4 Strakes, with the outboard pair canted out at 15 degrees to match the outermost non vertical edges of the AP carbon unit. It bolts into the AP carbon diffuser and also bolted down by the oem under-car aero panel.

Things rarely come out exactly as you envision, but I can say after staring at the back end of the car for a few months, no regrets. Big thanks to Morgan for his patience and attention to detail on the install. He knows how OCD I am about symmetry, alignment, etc. Also big thanks to my buddy Randy for answering my questions and pointing me in the direction of the guy who actually made the strakes in California.





Mocking it up and aligning;







You can see the leading edge (about 4-5 inches worth) of the strake panel is curved up and is slid under to be sandwiched by the oem aero tray;




Bolted down;

[slowhatch]

I still need to buy black rubber caps to cover the exposed stainless hardware, but otherwise

Final product;

[viperBase1]

..Riding around with him in the Gen 4 really made me miss my old car.

beach_drRear1.jpg

Hey Alex, rest assured your old GenIV is still doing beautifully and driving stronger than ever.
Especially with the TKO Max Throttle device.. she's downright edgy all the time!
This morning she gets a fresh oil change after less than 4K miles on some RedLine.
Still less than 30K on the ODO but that'll change soon.
We've been hunting C8's.

[slowhatch]

Hey Alex, rest assured your old GenIV is still doing beautifully and driving stronger than ever.
Especially with the TKO Max Throttle device.. she's downright edgy all the time!
This morning she gets a fresh oil change after less than 4K miles on some RedLine.
Still less than 30K on the ODO but that'll change soon.
We've been hunting C8's.

Couldn't of gone to a better home. I got a video from your neighbor when you were showing off the cayman to him of my ol girl sitting in the garage, made me smile

[slowhatch]

I was saving "spring cleaning" until after the car got back from Florida for NVE4. But, since no more NVE4, and I had all the free time in the world, no time like the present. Phase I is cleaning the engine bay. Nothing fancy, just 80/20 water/de-greaser and microfibers. Then detail spray and microfibers on the exposed carbon underside of the hood. Entire bay was filthy with a layer of grime, looks new after.

BEFORE






AFTER

[slowhatch]

Phase II, I can't lie, was a pain in the rear without a lift and only spray bottles. Did a wheels off suspension/brake detail. I typically do this once a year to keep things looking nice and keep silt and rocks out of seals and bushings. Just used the same 80/20 water/de-greaser, an agitating brush, a water only spray, and chemical guys wheel cleaner (stuff is magic on brake dust/calipers and stubborn grime). I'd spray the entire well down with the de greaser, agitate everything, then go over the stubborn bits with the wheel cleaner and more elbow grease. Then spray liberally with water and finish off with (throw away) microfibers. Got the fronts/rears done, moving to the interior...

BEFORE;














AFTER;

[slowhatch]

Interior was cake compared to the back breaking wheel well work haha.

All leather surfaces sprayed with Griot's leather cleaner, agitated with a brush until lather, and then mitted with a microfiber. Finished with Griot's leather conditioner. Carpets and Lloyd's mats treated to Dyson's finest. Alcantara headliner passed over with a lint brush.

[slowhatch]

Last step was to give her a nice exterior bath, and enjoy

[Vipes]

Easily one of my favorite gen V’s, well done!!

[slowhatch]

How the gang has been social distancing as of late...

[slowhatch]

So, now that we are all caught up on past events lets get back to real time. A few weeks ago, I was headed south with the gang to take our usual stroll on the wide open freeways of Mexico, when an unfortunate incident occurred.






I was leading the pack, merging on to the freeway and kicked the tires in 1st gear to get some heat in them. At high rpm I felt a shudder, some hesitation, and some nasty puttering noise coming from the passenger side bank. I immediately look at the engine vitals, all good. For context, for 2 months prior, I had been battling some exhaust leak issues on the Belanger merge collector/mid-pipe area. They had been leaking and giving me a nasty fuel smell in the cabin and VE had tried multiple times to remedy the issues unsuccessfully--with the latest effort being custom gaskets for the suspected problem area. So initially, when all of this occurred, I was biased to believe that I'd blown those gaskets out, or I blew a header gasket. That being said, the car felt immediately down on power and felt rough even part throttle from 1-2k rpm. I pulled over on the side of the road. Oil pressure is good, temps are good, no CEL. I get out of the car, pop the hood and listen to the passenger bank. I for sure, had a really nasty exhaust leak coming from somewhere, that I could hear. I thought I could also hear some valvetrain noise from the passenger head, but imagine trying to diagnose noises on the side of the freeway, tucked up against a concrete barrier, cam chopping, amplifying my exhaust and leak. After checking the engine vitals again, I decided to limp the car home. I figured if I'd lost a lifter or the like, it wouldn't be the end of the world. It was probably just a nasty exhaust leak. To be honest, any other car, I would have towed home just as a precaution, but the Viper, I just don't trust anyone to tow it. Its low, its my pride and joy, what if someone damages it loading it or transporting it, etc. In hindsight, I don't know if that was the right decision, but its what I commited to in the moment. On the drive home, feeding the car part throttle at low rpm I began losing confidence in my initial assessment. It felt like I was down a cylinder. Then I started to hear the popping, BAM, backfire, right bank. A few miles later, BAM, another backfire. Ok, we lost an intake valve somewhere. I got a cylinder loading up and spitting unburnt fuel onto the primaries.



I get home, park the car in the quiet garage, and then I could really hear valvetrain tapping. I could also see light smoke from exhaust on the passenger bank, unburnt fuel. At that point I was irritated that I would be inconvenienced by a trip to VE and associated expenses. I didn't really think much of it. If you've been following the thread over the years, you'd remember I actually had 2 valve train failures on the car very early in ownership--both instances being fairly rare failures on Vipers, I guess I'm the lucky type. The first was a lifter failure, just clogged with debris, collapsed; and the second, a very freak occurrence, the trunion cap on a rocker arm cracked, and spilled the needle bearings into the motor. Both times, no damage, no issues, replaced the failed components, fished out the needles from the oil pan and lifter valley, changed fluids and was on my way. I expected the same here.



Next day I had a good buddy come by with a trailer and we loaded the snake up. No the irony of the Ford V10 pulling the Dodge V10 isn't lost on me here It's actually a badass little pedo van, an old Budweiser delivery truck that's been repurposed as a camper/hauler for my buddy Zack's SCCA addictions. Big thanks to him for helping me out.






Car dropped off at Viper Exchange. I was convinced it was either a lifter, a valve spring, or rocker arm;

[slowhatch]

So the car sat at VE for about a week or so while they tied up other projects. Finally, they had time to peek into the heart of the beast. Initially, everything went as expected, pulled plugs and valve cover and you could see a wet over fueled plug on the #5 cyl. Rockers, springs, and pushrods were fine, but since there was play in the rocker we knew we'd lost a lifter. Whew, what a relief, exactly as I suspected.




So, lets get the heads off, pull the lifters, hopefully no cam damage, wham-bam-thank-you-mam, I'm back on the road by the weekend. I even went as far at the time as making some meme-like posts on social media saying all is well, and we will resume our regular scheduled programming momentarily.




Unsurprisingly, when you open your mouth ahead of time, you usually end up with your foot in it. When that head came off the little engine that could, the lifter wouldn't budge. Likely egged, or mushroomed, it meant we almost certainly had material transfer onto the cam, or a wiped lobe.




Then we pulled the pan...




So, with that, I knew we were in for at least a cam replacement. Trans came out;



Followed by the motor;

[slowhatch]

So, the poor, engine-less car was retired to the vault, and motor tear-down began;



Starting to dig into the motor things became very clear (and very depressing), very quickly. The cliff notes are a $50 lifter killed a $25k motor. My (uneducated) assessment is the needle bearings on the lifter deformed/seized, roller jammed, lifter disintegrated, debris got circulated throughout (can see rollers chewed on 3 other lifters), damaged the cam journals on the block, damaged the lifter bore, killed the cam, killed the oiling system (lines, cooler, pump, etc), on and on.

Front cover off;



Oil rotors chewed to pieces, cracked, and have embedded needle bearings in them, insane!! I never saw oil pressure dip, no alarms, nothing.








Debris in pan;



The responsible party;






Lifters with normal wear;



Lifters that had seen circulated debris;



Damaged cam;





Debris in pickup;

[slowhatch]

Oil filter cut open, and prospectors gold found;






Cylinder heads looked fine, although you could clearly see where you were down a cylinder;





Damage to the shortblock at this point looked like some scoring in the cam bores and some damage in the lifter bore (raised metal visible at the bottom of bore);




Shortblock teardown was next;

[Martyb]

Sorry to hear about this, what brand lifters were in the car?

Hope it’s back up and running soon.

[slowhatch]

Shortblock dis-assembled, rotating assembly out;




I have almost 15k miles on this setup since the previous build (did H/C 3 years ago in 2017). This includes road racing, drag racing, auto-x, cross-country trips, and many many trips to Mexico. Much to my surprise (esp after all the hoopla surrounding main bearings), that mine looked almost new;






My rod bearings did show some wear though (maybe a result of the factory cross drilled crank?), but nothing remotely catastrophic;





Rods and pistons themselves looked perfect, but the machine printed graphite coating on the piston skirts was chewed up from debris;




Cam was chewed, as discussed earlier;



Crankshaft looked (visually) perfect;




Cam bores (the deeper journals) had some light scoring;

[SRT_BluByU]

Can you tell us more about the engine? What kind of oil (wt and brand)? Also do you use a catch can? Tops of pustons looked clean for a gen v. Seems odd youve had So much lifter/valvetrain issue.. any speculation as to why? Running HP Tuner tune or arrow PCM? How many miles total on the mill?

Such a bummer to hear of this damage.. sorry man. It really sucks..

[slowhatch]

Can you tell us more about the engine? What kind of oil (wt and brand)? Also do you use a catch can? Tops of pustons looked clean for a gen v. Seems odd youve had So much lifter/valvetrain issue.. any speculation as to why? Running HP Tuner tune or arrow PCM? How many miles total on the mill?

Such a bummer to hear of this damage.. sorry man. It really sucks..

Yeah it sucks, but it is what it is. I'd do it all over again without hesitation. The life experiences, friendships, and overall driving pleasure that these cars has provided me in the past 8 years were well worth the price of entry.

This motor had around 17k miles on it, Arrow Stage II heads/cam, Arrow tune on oem ECU, pump 93. Always ran Mobil 1 15W50. Oil changes at 2.5k-3k, or after each track day. Sealed catch can used for 90% of those miles. No clue why the valvetrain issues, luck of the draw I guess.

[slowhatch]

Because I have great friends (thank you Andy!), it made the decision of whether to repair the old block or get a new one, a short one. I was able to score a new gen 4 block from him and started mulling over the direction I would be taking. For those that don't know gen 4/5 blocks are dimensionally identical, but the 4s were cast with the original OEM supplier, before a process change created all the casting debris issues. Makes those older blocks more desirable in my opinion.

There's a special tickle I get from fresh components, look at this beauty...

[FrgMstr]

This motor had around 17k miles on it, Arrow Stage II heads/cam, Arrow tune on oem ECU, pump 93. Always ran Mobil 1 15W50. Oil changes at 2.5k-3k, or after each track day. Sealed catch can used for 90% of those miles. No clue why the valvetrain issues, luck of the draw I guess.

Long time, no talk, sorry to see your pain, brother.

Green Meanie gave up the ghost a couple months ago. #9 compression ring decided it wanted to be free of cylinder. We need to get a race together once we both get rebuilt.

IMG_20200518_203029.jpg IMG_20200518_203848.jpg

[Gen5snake]

Honestly, I always wondered when something was going to happen. That thing took severe punishment for years. Its always that 2 dollar part that pearl harbors everything. That was a complete metallurgical failure. Any thoughts about aftermarket lifters?...or does anyone even make them for us? I wouldn't want to put that crap back in there...I would also avoid the lifters too.

I had these Isky rollers in my 427 Foxbody....outstanding.

Isky Ez roll.JPG

[TrackAire]

Damn....so sorry to hear this. I've always loved your posts regarding the detailed mods and travels you've done. Lifters must be this cars Kryptonite...didn't you lose a lifter around 3 years ago? There must be a better solution.

[SRT_BluByU]

Are these failures the stock lifters? Any word from Dick Winkles on maybe the ramps on the cam are too aggressive for the stock roller lifeters?

[ViperNC]

Wow. Disappointing for sure. Makes me want to have my lifters checked every 5000 miles. Hope you are back on the road soon.