Sweet Ride
Enthusiast
So I decided to spend my Saturday working on the Viper (again). I actually mades some progress this week and would like to share the following:
I was standing there with the hood open mentally preparing myself for what lie ahead. I have been trying to come up with a better air intake for my Paxton since the day I bought the car. Many ideas have gone through my head, all involving some sort of cutting, building, and testing. Then it hit me today. Why not just take the stock stuff and rotate it to draw air in from the driver's side of the car? So after some test fitting, some trial and error, and about an hour and a half I got it all figured out. It's a pretty tight fit with the stock K&N filter but now I am drawing air from the driver's side slightly above the frame rail. A quick temp comparison from the stock set up vs the modified set up showed about a 20 degree change in ambient temperature. The new set up also emliminates drawing hot air into the intake every time the fan turns on. I will attempt to post pictures tomorrow.
I also found the root cause of my car running hot. I have a Roe fan control kit and it didn't seem to be working properly. I had been through the relays and most of the wiring and still found nothing. I started playing around with (I mean diagnosing) the temperature sensor that mounts to the t-stat housing. I got the sensor up to temp and the fan came on as designed. I thought *** is going on as everything once again seemed to check out. Then I moved one of the sensor wires and the fan shut off. Wiggle the wire: on, off, on. Turns out that one of the wires that was soldered on to the sensor broke apart. I'm not gonna blame this on Roe as I have had the sensor off a few times and likely damaged it while re-installing it at some point. I cut the wire, re-soldered it, and viola! A working fan... Just in time too as it was 90 degrees today.
Another happy surprise came when I was up underneath the dash working on my boost gauge wiring. I found a computer box that didn't look stock. I turned it over and it was a Snake Oyl speedo recal box that is marked for 3.73 gears! This car always seemed fast off the line and now I know why. Glad I found that as I was considering new gears sometime in the future.
So it turned out (for once) to be a good day in the shop. It's nice to get out and bond with my car every now and then. Especially when everything goes right.
Happy Vipering!
I was standing there with the hood open mentally preparing myself for what lie ahead. I have been trying to come up with a better air intake for my Paxton since the day I bought the car. Many ideas have gone through my head, all involving some sort of cutting, building, and testing. Then it hit me today. Why not just take the stock stuff and rotate it to draw air in from the driver's side of the car? So after some test fitting, some trial and error, and about an hour and a half I got it all figured out. It's a pretty tight fit with the stock K&N filter but now I am drawing air from the driver's side slightly above the frame rail. A quick temp comparison from the stock set up vs the modified set up showed about a 20 degree change in ambient temperature. The new set up also emliminates drawing hot air into the intake every time the fan turns on. I will attempt to post pictures tomorrow.
I also found the root cause of my car running hot. I have a Roe fan control kit and it didn't seem to be working properly. I had been through the relays and most of the wiring and still found nothing. I started playing around with (I mean diagnosing) the temperature sensor that mounts to the t-stat housing. I got the sensor up to temp and the fan came on as designed. I thought *** is going on as everything once again seemed to check out. Then I moved one of the sensor wires and the fan shut off. Wiggle the wire: on, off, on. Turns out that one of the wires that was soldered on to the sensor broke apart. I'm not gonna blame this on Roe as I have had the sensor off a few times and likely damaged it while re-installing it at some point. I cut the wire, re-soldered it, and viola! A working fan... Just in time too as it was 90 degrees today.
Another happy surprise came when I was up underneath the dash working on my boost gauge wiring. I found a computer box that didn't look stock. I turned it over and it was a Snake Oyl speedo recal box that is marked for 3.73 gears! This car always seemed fast off the line and now I know why. Glad I found that as I was considering new gears sometime in the future.
So it turned out (for once) to be a good day in the shop. It's nice to get out and bond with my car every now and then. Especially when everything goes right.
Happy Vipering!
