Gen V Belanger exhaust "how to" Photo intensive!

[ViperPete]

This is a "how to" on a full Belanger exhaust for 2013+ Vipers. This is the catted setup. I would assume that the instructions below would work for American Racing, M&M, and other brands. I am not a technician but have some experience turning a wrench and the confidence to work on my Viper. My best advice is to take your time and make plenty of mental notes! This is not a fast swap. It is simple and it is easy but it is not quick. I completed this over 4 days around 2-3 hours per day.

Tool/parts/item List:
Dodge Viper (duh)
Jack stands and floor jack- or a lift.
1/2" drive ratchet
1/4" driver ratchet
8mm,10mm, 13mm, 16mm, 17mm, 5/8" socket
13mm open ended wrench
Phillips screw driver
Torx number #20 and #27
1" hose clamps (depends how many you want to replace)
Permatex Copper high-temp sensor safe silicone

1. Jack up your Viper with jack stands and remove rear wheels

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2. Remove X brace- 13mm socket

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3. Remove Valve Cover Covers- just pull upward. There are 4 Rubber grommets that hold the covers in place. The drivers side needs to have the Oil cap removed also.

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4. Remove wiper blade arms. Be gentle with the rubber bolt covers. I used a little screw driver to remove the grommets and then side to side upward pressure on the wiper arm to get them loose. 13mm socket

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5. Remove wiper cowl. Some of the torx bolts are hard to see. When you remove the cowl be extremely careful of the rubber gasket that goes under the hood. Its held in place by a bunch of these oval plastic clips and if you aren't careful they will break the rubber gasket. (ask me how i know). There is also an 8mm bolt inside the door jamb on each side of the car. Torx #20 and 8mm socket

6. Remove HVAC box. 8mm socket and Torx #20

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7. Remove passenger side valve cover. You could remove the coils if you want but i think that is unnecessary. Just unclip the coil plug, pull the spark plug wire from the spark plug, remove the bolts, there are 3 plastic clips that are pressed into the cover, you have to pry these off the valve cover before you remove the valve cover. Don't break them! Then lift the valve cover away from the head. Take note the the oil dipstick tube uses one of the valve cover bolts. Put the valve cover in a clean dry place. 10mm socket

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8. Remove passenger side spark plugs. 5/8" socket

9. This next step is probably not 100% necessary but i was advised to do it as a precaution. Remove coolant overflow tank. I had a hell of a time draining the tank and lines without getting coolant everywhere....I used a Gatorade bottle and just filled it up a bunch of times and put the coolant in a larger container. Instead of wrapping the coolant lines with that DEI heat reflective tape, I bought some DEI Titanium heat sleeves for the coolant lines. I like the look better and i am hoping that they perform as well as advertised. I also replaced the hose clamps that had the sleeve with regular adjustable clamps as it was impossible to slide the OEM clamps over the sleeve and the hose. You have to drain every line individually. I also found it a lot easier to put the sleeves on the lines with them completely off the car and dry. This step was the most annoying part of the whole swap. As I mentioned you could be fine with just wrapping the coolant lines and not removing anything. While I was at it I wrapped the wiring for the windshield washer fluid pump with DEI heat tape as it is very near the header.

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10. Remove drivers side valve cover. Same process as the passenger except that you do not need to remove the spark plugs (the manifold will come right out- there is more room between the frame and engine on the drivers side). Take note that there is a ground ******** the front of the valve cover that has a nut and bolt. Un-clip coils and set the valve cover in a dry safe place.

11. With the rockers, push-rods and springs exposed to the environment, I covered the whole engine with a towel to prevent debris or junk from falling into the engine. The rockers are a really neat design.

12. Remove passenger side sill. There are a lot of bolts to remove for the sills. I recommend removing the 10mm screws from the underside of the sill first. There are a bunch of them. Maybe 10 screws. Two at the very rear of the sill and then 1 screw every 8 inches or so until you reach the front of the sill.

There are 3 torx #27 bolts in the front wheel well that need to be removed.

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In the rear wheel well there are quite a few Torx #27 bit bolts. Remove all the bolts on the rear of the side sill and the wheel well cover. That will include the bolts on the wheel well cover that are bolted to the rear bumper.

Gently pry away the wheel well cover to expose the insides of the cover from the rear. There is a metal bracket inside that has two 10mm nuts that need to be removed. There isn't a lot of room to work and the wheel well cover has sharp edges.

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Next remove the 3 screws that hold the Aluminum sill plates.

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There is a Phillips head screw on top of the sill that needs to be removed in the door jamb.

Next remove the three 8mm bolts near the washer fluid container. There is also a rubber hood bump stop that needs to be removed and has a #27 Torx bit. Gently pull the side sill off the car being extremely careful not to drop it. You cannot remove it with the door closed and this poses a need for dexterity/agility to remove the sill and not scratch the door or drop the sill. Place the sill in an out of the way place where you wont trip over it or drop anything on it.

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[ViperPete]

13. The exact same process is used to remove the drivers side sill.

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14. The cat back seemed unusually easy to remove. My car has 10k of miles and there was just a little surface rust which worried me at first but there is literally only 1 clamp you have to remove to get the exhaust off. First un-clip the o2 sensors from the wiring harness and exhaust and put in a safe place. There is a Band Clamp at the manifold/cat back junction. Remove the nut and slide the bolt free. Then take a screwdriver and pry the clamp apart, and completely remove it. Next unbolt the cat-back exhaust hanger. Next unbolt the rear exhaust hanger by the tip. The cat-back will drop so be careful. Voila! You removed the entire cat back with only 1 clamp! Reinstall the rear exhaust hanger bracket. Leave the cat-back bracket off. 13mm socket for the exhaust hanger brackets.

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15. Remove the exhaust manifolds. After fighting with the passenger side manifold for about 20 minutes i decided to unbolt the engine from the mounts and raise it up approximately 1" The nuts are 17mm, one for each mount. Some people have been able to remove the manifold without raising the engine but my car was too tight. The drivers side came right out without raising the engine. Once the manifolds are removed, reinstall the engine mount nuts.

You can see the engine mount and the nut removed.

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16. The Headers came with some sleeves for the o2 sensor wiring and also o2 sensor extensions for the rear 02 sensors. I wrapped all the o2 sensor wiring with DEI heat tape and also used the heat sleeves that came with the headers. For the o2 sensor extensions that were already sleeved, i just wrapped over the sleeves with DEI heat tape.

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17. I purchased the ECU heat shield from Woodhouse. Nice piece of steel. Installation was simple but i found that there was no way to install it without putting the bolts through the back side of the shield and the nuts then on the outside. Even with unbolting the ECU from the car and having some more wiggle room, my hands were too big. Still came out fine. While i was in the area i wrapped the brake lines that were near the header area and also some wiring that was near.

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What a difference in design!

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18. The header instructions called for reusing the stock header bolts but came with new 8.8 grade SS bolts, washers and lock washers, so i used those. They are 13mm. The headers are actually 3 piece. I found it easier to get the headers into place by installing the rear 2 primary header first then getting the 3 primary header in place. You will have to gently twist and tilt the header to get them into the right location. I also opted for the 3 ply metal OEM replacement gaskets instead of the cloth ones. The stock ones would have probably been reused....oh well. Bolt in the headers only finger tight. Don't they look pretty?

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19. The header instructions also call for some Permatex silicon to be used on the lower header joint as well as the collector side for the cat back. Apply a 1/4" or less bead all the way around. This part can be pretty messy. Once the have the lower header part lined up, get a bolt and nut started. Then start the other 3. There is not much room to work and you're going to get silicone all over your hands and the collector so have paper towels handy. Tighten the bolts. Do this on bolt sides. I used a combination of 17/16mm sockets and open ended wrenches. The nuts are a locking type and don't go on easily.

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20. Install cat-back. It helps to have another person for this part. You need to line up the cat-back with the collector. If you don't have a helper you can use some boxes to get the cat-back into place. The cat-back is secured with 3 bolts. The collector also has to have Permatex silicone applied. These bolts are a pain. The nuts are a locking type and don't go on easily. There also is not much room to get to the top bolt. Take your time.

Before I installed the cat-back I taped this DEI shield to the cat back. Its about 24" long and covers the top half of the exhaust. I used some metal zip ties to secure it and seems to work great! I didn't want to wrap it with the exhaust wrap as the instructions warn that that will destroy the coating and void the Belanger warranty.

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21. Tighten the header bolts. They are 13mm and I used a socket for some and an open ended wrench for others that are a bit tight.


22. Now you need to route the o2 sensor wiring. First start with the rear passenger side o2 sensor. Once the extension is fully wrapped, loosely screw it into the cat-back. Then take the wire and go up and over the heat shield. Remove the 8mm bolt that holds the side valence and slide the wiring under and behind it. snake the wiring around the HVAC box. I taped the wiring to the firewall to make sure that it would not move as there is only about 2-3" of clearance from the wiring to the rear primary. There are 2 o2 sensor wiring clips that you have to remove so that there is enough wire to keep the wiring away from the header. I wish i had better pictures to illustrate this. Once you are under the car you will see what I am talking about. The front o2 sensor is straight forward. Try and keep it away from the primaries.

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23. The drivers side is easier. Do the same thing for the rear o2 sensor. Now as you snake it under the brake booster unbolt the heat shield that is near the starter. Snake the 02 sensor wire behind that heat shield and then reinstall. Then proceed to clip the wire behind the starter. The front o2 sensor wire is to be installed like the passenger side. Do your best to keep the wiring away from the primaries. You can tape the wring to the firewall/underside as an extra precaution.

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24. The rear tips will now need to be adjusted and clamped. First you must install the side sill into a rough position so you can figure out where the tip needs to be. I had a hell of a time getting the tips onto the exhaust hanger. I ended up using a rubber mallet and gently encouraging the tip into place.Once you have determined where the tip needs to be, remove the side sill and tighten the clamps. Do this for both sides of the car. 15mm socket

25. Reinstall the side sills. I found that bending the factory metal heat shield over the cat-back a bit makes it easier to install the side sills.

26. Reinstall valve covers. Tighten the bolts in a criss-cross fashion. DO not over tighten!

27. Reinstall coil clips and spark plug wires

28. Reinstall coolant lines and coolant over flow tank. Refill tank with coolant. Zip tie the coolant lines as far away from the headers as you can.

29. Reinstall HVAC box.

30. Reinstall wiper cowl and wiper blades.

31. Reinstall Viper valve cover covers

32. Reinstall X brace

33. Reinstall rear wheels

34. Lower Viper to the ground.

35. Reconnect battery

36. Start car and let warm up. Check for coolant leaks. Go for a drive. The smell of the exhaust curing is pretty powerful. I went for around an hour drive and the smell got worse and worse. I let the car sit in the garage over night and the smell was completely gone in the morning. My car has had no CEL and i've put around 50 miles on it. Drives incredibly well. The sound is great, loud and deep. There is a very noticeable power increase from 2k-5500 rpm. A huge difference.

I have a vibration on both sides of the car and i suspect that it from the exhaust tip clamp coming into contact with the car. I am going to remove the side sills and adjust this. Other wise no issues so far.

Good luck and feel free to ask questions.

 

[ViperPete]

Here is a picture of that heat wrap installed on the mufflers/resonators

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Passenger side o2 sensor wiring

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Drivers side o2 sensor wiring

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You can see the tack weld on the clamp. I drilled it out so that i could rotate the clamp. When i reinstalled the tip it didn't come into contact with the frame. Vibrations are completely gone. I suppose that it was tacked for a reason in the first place and if it becomes loose or a problem i can weld it at that time.

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You can see the clamp here. It needs to be rotated to the bottom of the pipe to clear the frame.

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[TalonTSi90]

Nice job. I cant believe in this day and age that 2 and 3 bolt flanges are still used instead of V bands and clamps, kudos on the factory for using them though lol.

 

[UCLA 06]

Thanks for posting, this is an upgrade I'm considering in the future. Do you happen to have before-and-after video of the sound?
Also, if you don't mind me asking, approximately how much would this set up run me?

 

[ViperPete]

Depends on where you buy i them i suppose. My setup was $4k.

I am working on a video

 

[URBAN LEGEND]

Any videos?

 

[Bobpantax]

Great "how to" post.

Any power difference or is this just a sound difference? If a power improvement, at what RPM does it occur? Thank you in advance for posting the answers.

 

[ViperJohn]

With the elimination of the flex pipe, have you noticed any additional chasis vibration from the exhaust?

Nice write up Pete!

 

[TexasViper35]

Truly impressive writeup! Thanks for sharing.

I will just add a note for those wanting to do this, or just the cat back exhaust, that the tips can move given time. I think it’s inevitable that they will. I’m at that stage right now with my Borlas. I’ll only have to drop the skirts though to correct it. To prevent it from happening in the first place you can drill a hole and drive in a self taping *****, then they will never move from where you set them.

 

[diablovox]

Really amazing writeup! Have you been CEL free all this time or did you have to do something to the ECU to stay CEL free?