Picked up a gen 3 coupe **arrest me red**

[FLATOUT]

Very cool I pass by KP every day on the way to work. Thats right around where my Gen III dyno'ed stock as well. Full boltons with no cats it made 500rwhp with 3.73's, just to benchmark.

[VYPR BYT]

LOL
Tell him to paint his car red and retake the pics!

That's wild because even the keyholes are lined up in the back.

[viperj]

I have a GEN 3 comp hood primed still brand new if interested as well... PM Me... I also have custom seat covers I ordered to protect the seat from The Viper Store (Black/Red) with viper logo...And Door Sill Protectors that Say Viper... Let me know...

[slowhatch]

A few shots from cars & coffee this past saturday;

[v10tt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Ls5in6V24

[slowhatch]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Ls5in6V24

That was quite possibly the worst movie ever made. Snake looks familiar though

[slowhatch]

Did a bunch of things to the car in the last week or two, not the least of which was removing the 4x4 status. More in depth posts to come, once i get some downtime to shoot pics and write it all up;

[Redx]

Did a bunch of things to the car in the last week or two, not the least of which was removing the 4x4 status. More in depth posts to come, once i get some downtime to shoot pics and write it all up;

How do you like the ride with eibachs and spring caps?

[FLATOUT]

How do you like the ride with eibachs and spring caps?

Bouncy

I ran that setup on my gen III and it looks great but it always bothered me how unstprung the chassis felt.

Looks great though!

[slowhatch]

Bouncy

I ran that setup on my gen III and it looks great but it always bothered me how unstprung the chassis felt.

Looks great though!

This is what I heard from everyone before hand. I spent all day driving the car around yesterday, and I can say with 100% honesty I can't tell the slightest difference between now and stock. It seems to ride exactly the same. I even tried to specifically go over bumps and dips to gauge a before and after and couldn't place a difference. Maybe the guys that track their car a lot can notice a difference in the chassis loading and unloading; and the spring rate/dampening differences in slip angles and under power on uneven surfaces. As far as I'm concerned, on the street, it seems the same.

[FLATOUT]

That's good news. Maybe mine (old 2003) reacted different. I was always concerned at triple digit speeds that the car was becoming too unsettled. Looks better lowered.

This is what I heard from everyone before hand. I spent all day driving the car around yesterday, and I can say with 100% honesty I can't tell the slightest difference between now and stock. It seems to ride exactly the same. I even tried to specifically go over bumps and dips to gauge a before and after and couldn't place a difference. Maybe the guys that track their car a lot can notice a difference in the chassis loading and unloading and the spring rate/dampening differences when slip angles and under power on uneven surfaces. As far as I'm concerned, on the street, it seems the same.

[slowhatch]

Figured i'd update the thread with some progress on 'big red'. Things I've done over the past month, in no particular order. Lets begin;

First off, dropped the car off at KP racing to get the rear end done. I went with the OEM 3.55 Mopar gear set from the 2013 SRT viper. The new ring and pinion is lighter than the earlier generations and is redesigned to be quieter in operation. My god what an amazing difference this swap was. I can't tell which part of the improvements, makes me more happy; the fact that the car is faster, or the fact that the entire drive line feels like its finally operating as a solitary unit. All the gear whine i had at freeway speeds from the rear is completely gone, the diff is whisper quiet, and at low speeds in 1st gear I no longer get clunks and the feeling that there is an inch of slop between the rear, transmission, and motor. The car just feels tighter--and how it should be from the factory. Its also made 5th and 6th gear useable on the freeway at sane people speeds. 6th was really reserved for 80mph+ as around 60mph in 6th the car used to turn 1250rpm with the 3.07s. You could use it, but it generally felt like you were lugging the car unless you were around 80+ and spinning around 1500rpm. Now, 80mph turns 1750rpm, and 6th gear feels usable even down to 55-60mph. Which is great, as it doesn't necessitate a downshift to 5th when traffic slows down from 75 to 60 like it did with the old gear set. 5th gear is now an acceleration gear as well and 1st gear isn't awkward in parking lots. It used to be too tall, so you'd either have to fly around parking lots at 20mph to not lug the motor, or you'd constantly be riding the clutch to keep things smooth. Now, you clutch out in 1st and just let go of the accelerator and the car will pull itself around at idle, no nucking and bucking, for as long as you want. Its awesome in traffic when you don't want to keep getting in and out of the clutch and wishes of torque converter creep flood the imagination. Its now a non issue. As far as speed, its even more of a beast. It was almost impossible for me to complete the 3-4 thermal cycles needed before you can beat on the car. It was worth the wait though... Feels even torquier around town--if that's even possible--and i still can hook up 1st gear, i just have to be a little more mindful with throttle inputs. All in all, my favorite mod to date, hands down






Next i tackled the suspension (well, KP did this as well, but i bought the parts lol). Did eibach pro-kit springs on the factory coilovers and additionally did custom lowering caps (imagine thinner spring perches for the coils) in the rear to make it level (the rear sits really really high stock, and with just springs it still leaves a lot of gap). I love the way it looks it now, however, the lowering has made it rather obvious the higher offsets of the factory alcoa wheels leave a lot to be desired. To remedy this, i have custom spacers and adapters coming to make everything flush. I think this will do as much for the look of the car as the lowering. It will give the car a wider, meaner look from all angles. The company making the spacers is Motorsport-tech out of Reno, Nevada. I went with 3/8" up front, and 3/4" in the rear. I will post pics of the spacers installed when they come in. I waited 2 weeks for everything to settle and put around 300 miles on the car (hopefully i didnt ruin the tires too bad). I figured the induced camber wouldn't be be as bad as toe wear and i didnt want to align it and until it settled to its final ride height. Got the alignment done at a local shop called B&B Automotive, whom i will highly recommend from here on out. They were very knowledgeable straightforward gents, and they did an outstanding job getting the car dialed in. My caster was out up front by more than 2 degrees, and my camber and toe needed work front and rear. They also verified the suspension geometry and front/rear sub-frame alignment on a laser rack. They assured me everything was laser straight and that the car has never seen an accident (good news ). Car really does drive better after a proper alignment. I didnt think i would notice a tenth of a degree here and there but its a night/day difference. Car feels more on center, tracks less over uneven pavement, and generally feels a lot less twitchy.

[slowhatch]

Stopped by a friends house to do a few simple tasks. Car had developed a slight squeak on cold starts that would disappear as soon as it hit operating temperature. I figured it was a belt or idler, so i decided to change both.







Upper CAI off



Lower cover off, and the intake moved to the side



Belt and subsequently, idler pulley, coming off...



New idler pulley, tensioner, and belt.



New belt and idler back on. To remove the tensioner we had to back off a 15mm nut off of the rear of the tensioner body. The access to this nut in the bay was absolutely nill and we couldn't find a way to get it off. All we could get on it was a smaller crescent wrench but it didnt provide enough leverage to break the mating torque. I whimped out and decided to tackle the tensioner another day.



Everything all buttoned up. I now moved to re-aiming the headlights since their levels had changed with the lowering.



Dodge makes this task easy and hides the adjustment nuts for the up/down leveling behind these little covers.




My buddies pulley/tune '12 Shelby. Makes 500whp. I still walk away from him




She's all buttoned up and ready to hit the road.



This picture illustrates exactly why i ordered spacers. I cant wait to get them and bring everything flush with the fender.

[slowhatch]

Lastly, some cosmetic touches.

For some reason, the first owner, decided to enable 'day time running lights' offered only on the Canadian spec vipers. This can be done with a ecu flash at the dealer, and basically runs the fog lights as DRLs whenever the vehicle is running and the handbrake is off. This never really bothered me--it did strike me as odd however--but what did bother me was the ugly yellow output of the stock bulbs. I figured if they are going to be on all the time, they may as well look good. So i ordered 5k temp H10 LED fogs from VLEDs.com along with replacement led bulbs for all the interior 192s and the license plate lights. In the future i would like to also do the dash cluster leds, front and rear turn signals, and the rear taillights and reverse lights. All in due time. The interior leds look really really good. It really gives the car a more modern appeal at night. The fogs also look great. They are crisp white output, and match the factory xenons at night. I also replaced the stock foot long shifter with an MGW unit, and threw in a MGW trim ring around the cup holder to spruce the place up Shifter is miles ahead of the stock unit, direct, short, and snicks from gate to gate with ease. Finally, i threw on the aluminum viper sills for a little contrast upon entry. I like the way it all came out.

So the last pics depict;

Interior led conversion
Led fogs
Led license bulbs
MGW 'Gripper shift knob'
MGW Short throw shifter
MGW Cupholder trim ring
Aluminum 'Viper Sills'

[johniew398]

Absolutely beautiful car.

[swexlin]

Nice writeup. So, did changing the belt stop your squeak, and maybe you wont have to change the idler pulley after all? I guess that nut can be accessed from underneath with the car on a lift. My 03 has an MGW shifter, and it really does make a difference. The gearset change is very tempting, I just don't have the extra coin to do it right now. THanks for posting, you have a gorgeous car.

[DreadLox]

Dude, what camera are you using? Those dark shots came out practically professional! Love all these updates and PIX, thanks for sharing the journey man!

[slowhatch]

Thanks for all the kind words! It hasn't gotten cold enough to see if the squeak went away but on a cold start this morning I didn't hear anything. When I had the belt off I spun all the pulleys by hand and discovered they were all silent except the water pump which was silently squeaky. So it may be the water pump needs replacement. I'll see after the car sits for a few days if it's still making noise.

As far the camera, it's just a Nikon D5100 with the kit lens (18-55mm). I use 50mm 1.8 prime sometimes as well.

[Creatre]

Great job with the car man, it looks beautiful.

And great pics too!

[slowhatch]

Took a stroll through the park yesterday;

[AaronFL]

Nice pictures! I enjoy watching this thread. Thanks for the updates!

[Austin]

Both car and pics look great. Looks much better lowered, for sure.

[MtnBiker]

Nice work Alex. Great photos too.

[slowhatch]

Made some more progress on 'big red'. Forgot to bring the SLR so only sh*tty cell pics this time.

Took off to Bill's place to wrench. We started off simple, a transmission flush. Every single person you ask on the viper forums will give you a different recommendation when it comes to fluid, so after a chat with a tremec engineer i decided to stick with OEM. If its good enough for the race teams, its good enough for me. Stopped by and picked up some 75W-85 from the local dealer. $25/quart made me :what:




Got the car in the air and the underbody aero panel off. Yes, there is a jack stand under the front hard-point, you can see the yellow mount. We also slid a race ramp under the rear tire for S&Gs. I hate being under any car, it just makes me so paranoid.



Transmission drained.



Everything refilled, and the car back on the ground.



Went out to do a thermal cycle on the transmission and grab some food. Couldn't really tell a difference in shifting, still kind of crunchy when its cold and the rpms are low. Shifts like butter when it gets really warmed up or you're beating on it. Guess that's just the nature of the beast. New fluid definitely didn't hurt anything and was probably the first time it was changed. Leaving the neighborhood we ran up on a 458 and i kept trying to entice him to play with us a bit. He goosed it a little here and there (car sounds incredible), but we didn't have room to play until we turned off the road onto the feeder. No clean runs, just him in front of me going WOT a few times. He'd get on it, i'd get on it, no one would go anywhere, and he'd let out. I did start running up on him when we hit it from a lower roll, but who knows what rpm range/gear he was in. On paper he should pull on me, i've seen 458s trap from 125 to the low 130s in the 1/4 depending on DA. Either way, it was pure sex:thumbup:



Back from lunch, feeling like a fat pos from eating a pound of fajitas, the real work began. Finally got exhaust for the car;

3" Corsa Track catback
3" Midpipes
3" Random-tech HF Cats

Wish i could of got some long-tubes as well, but another 2 grand was not in the cards. For anyone that has never seen a stock gen 3 viper exhaust this is the mess thats under the car. 3" Vband exits to a flex pipe, 2 cats with 2.5" piping on either side, into a 2.5" stock catback and cross-over. Most people assume that the exhaust gasses from the left bank exit on the left side, but in fact they turn right in front of the tips and exit out the opposite side. The majority of the cabin footwell heat is from the 4 cats, and the cross-overs do a nice job of being seat warmers.



To remedy this heat issue, ditch the x-overs, lose around 25lbs, and pick up around 25-30hp, its being replaced with this;






The job starts with taking off the side sills on both sides of the car (since the underbody aero tray has already been removed). The sills are held on with numerous phillips headed fasteners and are easy as turning a screwdriver to remove... with the exception of 1 MFer of a bolt. Everyone had warned me that its a bitch and a half to get the last bolt inside the side sills and they weren't wrong. This bolt, located all the way up and inside the side vents as deep as you can go, is all but impossible to get at. You barely have room to fit your hand inside the vent to feel around where it is, and the only tool you can get on it, is an open ended wrench. So as you feel around blind in there with your wrench, hoping for the slightest bit of luck to actually find the head of the nut; When you do manage to grab a hold of it, you get maybe a 1/16th of a turn on it until you have to let go, flip the wrench, and do it over, and over, and over, and over again. It gets real fun when the wrench slips out of your hand and falls into the side sill, or you just cant plain find the head of the bolt. Even better, is when you rotate it the wrong way by accident. It is on of the most frustrating automotive tasks I've ever performed.




Finally, after much laboring and cursing, both side sills are off, exposing the stock exhaust.

[slowhatch]

At this point, since i had purchased the mid-pipes from a gen 4 viper, the catback from a gen 3, and had no real clue whether or not the gen 3/4 mid-pipes were interchangeable (forums gave mixed opinions) i decided to let a local exhaust shop actually install the piping. That way, if any modification/welding was involved, we wouldn't be stuck with a car without exhaust in the garage. We drove the car over to the shop with the side sills missing (and got some interesting looks on the freeway). Everything turned out to be interchangeable indeed, so soon we were back in the garage doing the final fitment.

Corsa and midpipes on;




Looks nice and naked without the cross-over piping.



Aero pan back on;


And then the other bitch and a half. Getting the tips to line up perfectly with the cutout on the side sills. It drives me nuts to see vipers with tips that are misaligned, or touching the exhaust opening, so i really wanted to make sure everything was in there dead center. You also have to keep in mind that after driving the whole exhaust grows from thermal expansion and the tips move back as much as inch, so they actually have to sit a little more forward in the opening when the car is cold.

It was another back n forth, back n forth, mocking up the side sill, seeing the position of the catback, taking the sill off again, loosening the clamps at the mid pipe, moving the catback, then putting the sill on and checking, over and over again. This was a monumental pain in the ass. Compounded by the fact that we needed to push the catback further into the midpipes by about an inch on both sides and the only way to do this was to hammer it in with a baby copper headed hammer that we had. You only have about 8 inches of room to swing the hammer where the hanger is, so this took FOREVER. Literally about 30 minutes of laying next to the car, beating on the hanger, and trying to get the damn catback to move on both sides.

Finally, everything was lined up best we could get it, and the sills went back on (tightening that vent nut was just as fun as taking it off). I am very impressed by how well the corsa tips conform to the opening, their shape is absolutely perfect.



The car sounds like it looks, insane. Think of a john deere tractor, a swarm of africanized honeybees having sex with a p51 mustang. It fires up with a loud snarl/bark, and then settles into a lopey tractor-esque idle. I love it. Under load it just screams, i really wanted to get a sound clip but until i get an external mic for either of my cameras it just wont do it justice. Now i just have to get a tune to take advantage of the upgrades.