Before I begin please forgive the spelling.
Oct 10 - Quartermile racing and engine runs rough. Car goes to dealership.
Nov 10 - I take a one month vacation 7k miles away from home.
Nov 10 - I return and my car is still at the dealership and nothing has happenned. They ask me to come look at the car. The manager shows me how my arrow roller rocker nut has unscrewed its self and fell down above the head gasket. Because the roller rocker is aftermarket my warranty will not cover the expense. I state that the rockers were purchased from Arrow Racing as Chrysler parts and installed by a Dodge dealership when the engine was rebuilt under warranty as one of the early 03's tha had engine failure.
Dec 10 - I get in contact with Chysler warranty who turns down my case as the California Dodge dealership who installed the rockers is no longer in buisness and no paperwork is available. I then get in contact with Arrow Racing who states they do not warranty the rockers and no longer sell them as several Vipers with the Arrow rockers have had similar breakage. Arrow racing sends me a replacement rocker free of charge.
Seeing that it will not be covered under warranty I give in and say "How much?" to the dealership. 1400$ to pull the heads and find the roller rocker bolt.
The dealership and I then agree to order the comp coupe camshaft and supporting seals, etc to be installed while they are pulling the heads. So 1000$ for parts and 1400$ for the labor. Might as well get somthing for my 1400$ other then a roller rocker bolt found. And the camshaft etc. was ordered.
Jan 11 - The camshaft and seals arrive and I take all parts to the dealer. A week goes by and I show up unannouced asking what the progress is. The manager tells me that there is a problem and that they recently got a new boss and he will not allow them to install my comp coupe camshaft. "We had a deal" I stated, and besides these are all genuine mopar parts including the camshaft. "Well we no longer install Mopar parts."
At this point my engine was already taken apart with pieces just laying on the engine and various bolts etc unlabeled in different boxes. The dealership then told me to tow my viper 50 miles away to a dealership that did install Mopar parts.
Let me get this straight. Your renegging on our deal and asking me to spend 300$ Dollars to tow my viper with parts just laying on the engine and bolts all over the place?
"Yes, but we wont charge you for anything weve done." My car has been here 4 months and you didnt do anything. How could you charge me!
At this point I inspected my filthy Viper and observed that the windows were not sealed completely and when I opened the doors I saw mildew in the interior and the carpets were completely soaked.
Moments later as calmly as I could I told them I was coming back with a Lawyer.
The manager then gave me the number for the head honcho who seemed to really appreciate muscle cars. We talked for 10 minutes and I went over the series of unfortunate events.
24 hours later he asked me to Come by the dealership. He then explained that they had found my roller rocker bolt and put everything back together. They had also installed my Abs yellow wire and new spark plugs and the viper was running perfectly. They also had my interior cleaned and professionally dried. He stated the water had entered because his mechanics had disconnected the battery and forgotten that my windows drop up and down a 1/4 inch when the doors are opened and closed. He also had the Viper clay-barred.
This was all done at 100% no charge to me. I inspected the car and saw the exterior looked better than ever and the interior was normal. He said luckily the viper has plastic under the carpet that kept the car from being damaged. He then gave me the number to a Dodge dealership who would install the 1000$ worth of camshaft and seals I still had.
Feb 11 - The other dealership finally gets back to me with a price for the cam install and says it's a 14 hour job and they charge 100$ an hour. But because its a viper and only his Viper technicians will touch the car and their gonna take their time so it will take them 25 hours instead of the books 14 hours and the price is 2500$.
Needless to say the guy was a real peice of work and I said no thanks and decided to stay away from the dealerships and took the car and parts to a local shop who had worked on my previous vette/nsx and viper.
They said 1400$ with before and after dynoes and AFR reading. The date was scheduled for 24 Feb. 5hen resceduled to 28 Feb. Then resheduled again as jobs kept takeing them longer than anticipated.
Mar 11 - Few days ago my car finally made it to the shop.
This is the same shop were I hit 457 rwhp with just kn air intake and arrow rockers.
Then 476 rwhp with a stock intake (long story why I went back to stock intake)/ arrow rockers/titanium exhaust/ no cats/light weight fly wheel/light weight underdrive pulley and a sct tune from a vender here. Fast forward to a few days ago and I redynoed with all the above mods with the only change being that I went from the venders canned one size fits all tune to a differant venders tune specifically for my modifications and Abs wires and new plugs.
The result was a disapointing 452 rwhp SAE. A loss of 24 rwhp from the previous venders canned tune of 476 rwhp SAE.
Then installed a KN filter intake system and kooler thermostat. The result was 461 rwhp sae. Still 15 rwhp under my previous 476.
Then the comp coupe camshaft was installed today and the result was a still disapointing 466 rwhp.
You can imagine haveing 476 rwhp and installing a kn air intake and new plugs and wires and kooler thermostat and mild cam and dynoing 466 rwhp on the same dyno.
Dissapointed doesn't come close. But their may be a light at the end of the tunnel as the wideband dyno will be done tomorrow to see what the problem is. There seemed to be some confusion over wich camshaft I was having installed between me and the sct tuner as I was gonna cancel the comp coupe cam for a more aggressive cam but was gonna be screwed on the 30% restocking fee and decided to push forward with it. Last time I talked to the tuner it seemed he thought I went with the much more aggressive Camshaft.
Please no reason to say who my previous sct tuner was and current sct tuner is. They both have great reputations and are great at what they do and Im sure if the A/F isnt right a new tune will be sent to me pronto for a new dyno.
Hopefully all resolved with the wideband dyno tomorrow and I can get the 490-500 RWHP I was expecting.
ITS BEEN A HELL OF A ROCKY RIDE SINCE OCT10!
Oct 10 - Quartermile racing and engine runs rough. Car goes to dealership.
Nov 10 - I take a one month vacation 7k miles away from home.
Nov 10 - I return and my car is still at the dealership and nothing has happenned. They ask me to come look at the car. The manager shows me how my arrow roller rocker nut has unscrewed its self and fell down above the head gasket. Because the roller rocker is aftermarket my warranty will not cover the expense. I state that the rockers were purchased from Arrow Racing as Chrysler parts and installed by a Dodge dealership when the engine was rebuilt under warranty as one of the early 03's tha had engine failure.
Dec 10 - I get in contact with Chysler warranty who turns down my case as the California Dodge dealership who installed the rockers is no longer in buisness and no paperwork is available. I then get in contact with Arrow Racing who states they do not warranty the rockers and no longer sell them as several Vipers with the Arrow rockers have had similar breakage. Arrow racing sends me a replacement rocker free of charge.
Seeing that it will not be covered under warranty I give in and say "How much?" to the dealership. 1400$ to pull the heads and find the roller rocker bolt.
The dealership and I then agree to order the comp coupe camshaft and supporting seals, etc to be installed while they are pulling the heads. So 1000$ for parts and 1400$ for the labor. Might as well get somthing for my 1400$ other then a roller rocker bolt found. And the camshaft etc. was ordered.
Jan 11 - The camshaft and seals arrive and I take all parts to the dealer. A week goes by and I show up unannouced asking what the progress is. The manager tells me that there is a problem and that they recently got a new boss and he will not allow them to install my comp coupe camshaft. "We had a deal" I stated, and besides these are all genuine mopar parts including the camshaft. "Well we no longer install Mopar parts."
At this point my engine was already taken apart with pieces just laying on the engine and various bolts etc unlabeled in different boxes. The dealership then told me to tow my viper 50 miles away to a dealership that did install Mopar parts.
Let me get this straight. Your renegging on our deal and asking me to spend 300$ Dollars to tow my viper with parts just laying on the engine and bolts all over the place?
"Yes, but we wont charge you for anything weve done." My car has been here 4 months and you didnt do anything. How could you charge me!
At this point I inspected my filthy Viper and observed that the windows were not sealed completely and when I opened the doors I saw mildew in the interior and the carpets were completely soaked.
Moments later as calmly as I could I told them I was coming back with a Lawyer.
The manager then gave me the number for the head honcho who seemed to really appreciate muscle cars. We talked for 10 minutes and I went over the series of unfortunate events.
24 hours later he asked me to Come by the dealership. He then explained that they had found my roller rocker bolt and put everything back together. They had also installed my Abs yellow wire and new spark plugs and the viper was running perfectly. They also had my interior cleaned and professionally dried. He stated the water had entered because his mechanics had disconnected the battery and forgotten that my windows drop up and down a 1/4 inch when the doors are opened and closed. He also had the Viper clay-barred.
This was all done at 100% no charge to me. I inspected the car and saw the exterior looked better than ever and the interior was normal. He said luckily the viper has plastic under the carpet that kept the car from being damaged. He then gave me the number to a Dodge dealership who would install the 1000$ worth of camshaft and seals I still had.
Feb 11 - The other dealership finally gets back to me with a price for the cam install and says it's a 14 hour job and they charge 100$ an hour. But because its a viper and only his Viper technicians will touch the car and their gonna take their time so it will take them 25 hours instead of the books 14 hours and the price is 2500$.
Needless to say the guy was a real peice of work and I said no thanks and decided to stay away from the dealerships and took the car and parts to a local shop who had worked on my previous vette/nsx and viper.
They said 1400$ with before and after dynoes and AFR reading. The date was scheduled for 24 Feb. 5hen resceduled to 28 Feb. Then resheduled again as jobs kept takeing them longer than anticipated.
Mar 11 - Few days ago my car finally made it to the shop.
This is the same shop were I hit 457 rwhp with just kn air intake and arrow rockers.
Then 476 rwhp with a stock intake (long story why I went back to stock intake)/ arrow rockers/titanium exhaust/ no cats/light weight fly wheel/light weight underdrive pulley and a sct tune from a vender here. Fast forward to a few days ago and I redynoed with all the above mods with the only change being that I went from the venders canned one size fits all tune to a differant venders tune specifically for my modifications and Abs wires and new plugs.
The result was a disapointing 452 rwhp SAE. A loss of 24 rwhp from the previous venders canned tune of 476 rwhp SAE.
Then installed a KN filter intake system and kooler thermostat. The result was 461 rwhp sae. Still 15 rwhp under my previous 476.
Then the comp coupe camshaft was installed today and the result was a still disapointing 466 rwhp.
You can imagine haveing 476 rwhp and installing a kn air intake and new plugs and wires and kooler thermostat and mild cam and dynoing 466 rwhp on the same dyno.
Dissapointed doesn't come close. But their may be a light at the end of the tunnel as the wideband dyno will be done tomorrow to see what the problem is. There seemed to be some confusion over wich camshaft I was having installed between me and the sct tuner as I was gonna cancel the comp coupe cam for a more aggressive cam but was gonna be screwed on the 30% restocking fee and decided to push forward with it. Last time I talked to the tuner it seemed he thought I went with the much more aggressive Camshaft.
Please no reason to say who my previous sct tuner was and current sct tuner is. They both have great reputations and are great at what they do and Im sure if the A/F isnt right a new tune will be sent to me pronto for a new dyno.
Hopefully all resolved with the wideband dyno tomorrow and I can get the 490-500 RWHP I was expecting.
ITS BEEN A HELL OF A ROCKY RIDE SINCE OCT10!
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