96 Viper GTS Venom 550 - making more mods

[GTSjbud]

Front control arm before.

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Control arm bushings and ball joints removed. Started to remove the casting marks.

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[GTSjbud]

Rear control arm before.

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Bushings and ball joints removed.

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[GTSjbud]

Rear shock wishbone before.

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Rear shock wishbone with casting marks removed.

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[DrumrBoy]

Those look great!

Question for you - How'd you do the ball joint removal and are you replacing the ball joints?

I melted my ball joint boot and lost the grease at the last track session (nice no-damage-but-spectacular fire though) and replaced the entire control arm because the ball joint part wasn't available from Chrysler. Is the part truly available and I just couldn't get to it?

The parts folks told me that the control arm (aluminum and all) isn't something us hammer-and-fork ball joint removers should mess with, impact has been known to create micrio cracks in the control arm material.

I bought the explanation and replaced the whole assembly, but in the back of my mind the BS-meter was whirring quite a bit. What's your take on this?

 

[GTSjbud]

Those look great!

Question for you - How'd you do the ball joint removal and are you replacing the ball joints?

I melted my ball joint boot and lost the grease at the last track session (nice no-damage-but-spectacular fire though) and replaced the entire control arm because the ball joint part wasn't available from Chrysler. Is the part truly available and I just couldn't get to it?

The parts folks told me that the control arm (aluminum and all) isn't something us hammer-and-fork ball joint removers should mess with, impact has been known to create micrio cracks in the control arm material.

I bought the explanation and replaced the whole assembly, but in the back of my mind the BS-meter was whirring quite a bit. What's your take on this?

I took my control arms to a shop and the ball joints pressed out. My plan is to replace all the ball joints.

 

[InjectTheVenom]

Bump of 9,5 on the scale of Richter for this cool project.

Any updates?

 

[InjectTheVenom]

Over a year later....

 

[RTTTTed]

He bought a Ford GT from XVipers last year?

 

[ACELLR8]

He bought a Ford GT from XVipers last year?

Yeah but did he actually ever get it? Last I remember Mr Xvipers was not delivering.

 

[RTTTTed]

Yeah but did he actually ever get it? Last I remember Mr Xvipers was not delivering.

Yes, but GTSBud isn't the quiet kind of guy and I'm sure that thread would still be going on if he hadn't collected.

 

[Twister]

Who dynoed the 514 number you personally or henesy...

 

[yamahahaha]

why r u taking off the hennessey exhaust? it sounds unreal!

 

[my viper]

why r u taking off the hennessey exhaust? it sounds unreal!

...because that was soo 2007

 

[99 R/T 10]

...because that was soo 2007

Nice....................

 

[yamahahaha]

what r u doing with the hennessey exhaust?

 

[crazyspeed]

I'm looking forward to an update on your awesome project.
But at least you have a tungsten 1-2-3 commerorative to drive?

 

[eucharistos]

thanks for bumping this thread

 

[InjectTheVenom]

Fully agreed with the last two posters!! at this point he either lost interest all together or doesn't like coming to the VCA forum anymore for some reason? i'll ask around with the Canadian guys and will try to get him to post.

 

[crazyspeed]

It's tough when you have a young family and a job and a wife?? I hate it when people take things apart...it's a long time to get it put back
espec when you also own a Ford GT

 

[Viper4Christ]

Semi strong bump but I'd like to see what ever happened with his build considering the first 5 pages have insane amounts of details on the build. Shame he went against the TT idea, would have been a nice rocket with some oil-less T4-72mm units spooling about.

Anyone have any updates, if not at least treat yourself to the first few pages.

 

[DrumrBoy]

Yeah, this car would definitely have been THE most perfect GTS out there....no casting marks, everything polished or painted. GTGjBud - tell us what's going on these days! Even if you've sidelined the Viper, we'd love to hear from ya.

 

[AAKVIPER]

Very cool post..

wow awesome post..you have God given skills...

Arthur

 

[Viper4Christ]

Yeah, this car would definitely have been THE most perfect GTS out there....no casting marks, everything polished or painted. GTGjBud - tell us what's going on these days! Even if you've sidelined the Viper, we'd love to hear from ya.

Without a doubt, when the thread was a baby, I got a kick out of every post showing how he decided to dive into something lse to improve it and by the 4th page or so the entire car was apart getting reworked in some way. Normally I'm a big advocate for power adders like S/C or TT because of how these V10's love boost but in THIS case I'd be fine if he did strong N/A build. Which is fine because with a set of Striker heads done by GG and other go fast billet/forged engine parts you can get these engines around 700 still on pump...barley but still.

Drumr, is your's a 650R build and if so is it the original build or more added since then?

 

[Red Snake]

Any updates? I'd love to see how the car sits today. Any of it back together?

 

[GTLaser]

Anyone know where to get those CF surroundings that are in front of the guages?

 

[kyleblix]

Wow, just read the entire thread. Hope we get an upate soon!

 

[justingeer82]

just read it too! keep posting LOTS of pics and a tally on how much the total project is costing. youre giving me some great ideas for things to do to mine when winter comes and theres no good times to drive it.

 

[crazyspeed]

It's tough when you have a young family and a job and a wife?? I hate it when people take things apart...it's a long time to get it put back
espec when you also own a Ford GT

I hate it when people take things apart...it's a long time to put put it back together

 

[DrumrBoy]

Drumr, is your's a 650R build and if so is it the original build or more added since then?

Its a long and sordid tale. Build by John H originally, but done pretty poorly. The highly disreputable morons at SVS then hacked at it rendering it relatively useless in the power department (lots of threads on this story ).

Spent the next 3 years rebuilding it the way it was supposed to have been done, Greg good did the heads, port-matched intake, proper cam etc etc. Tracked it for a while but got tired of repainting the sills and fascia and retired it to street duty. It pulls a respectable 580 RW NA now and sounds pretty good.

There must've been some John H cars that went out the door the way they should have, but I haven't heard of any.

 

[crazyspeed]

It's tough when you have a young family and a job and a wife?? I hate it when people take things apart...it's a long time to get it put back
espec when you also own a Ford GT

Hope things are ok with Jason, his last post here was 3/9/2009 but his last post on Lateral-g.net was on 4/21/2010.

There he mentioned he was going thru "really tough times"

Here's hoping things are looking up for you now Jason