Side sill heat

[mad0953]

Here I am again. I am full of questions. Have had the car 2 days and have put 150 miles on it and worked full time too. My GF is a little pissed although she does love the car.

Should I be worried if after driving around town for about an hour at 25 to 35 miles per hour if the side sills are hot enough that you can't keep your hand on them for very long? Also it seems like my car "lopes" a little at low speeds, like a 60's muscle car that has a big cam in it. Is that normal? Thanks for your responses.

Mark

 

[red98RT10]

totally normal! Enjoy!!

 

[Neil - UK]

modify your exhaust and youll loose some sill heat, just swapping for hi-flow cats will help and is a cheap upgrade

 

[EllowViper]

I was stuck in Orlando-Disney traffic (on my way to Larry Macedos) about a month ago in 90+ degree temps. I idled along for 1.5 hrs...no kidding (Mrs. behind me in the Dakota...all sorts of pissed-off about that trip)...anyways the Viper's temp was working the normal 190-220 dance with the A/C on low (hey, I had to survive too). I was thinking that the side sills would be melting given literally zero airflow for over an hour. I tell you, it was a good gut check for buillding confidence in the cooling system and the durability of the side sills. Hoot, sure, but no nuclear meltdown.

 

[DodgeViper01]

modify your exhaust and youll loose some sill heat, just swapping for hi-flow cats will help and is a cheap upgrade

Great call. Totally normal. I also was told by Chuck Tator that ROE has a kit that reduces heat about 30% as well and it is cheap.

 

[ViperJames]

modify your exhaust and youll loose some sill heat, just swapping for hi-flow cats will help and is a cheap upgrade

Great call. Totally normal. I also was told by Chuck Tator that ROE has a kit that reduces heat about 30% as well and it is cheap.

Roe does sell that, and I was advised that it wasn't necessary if I was upgrading the Hi-flow cats and the exhaust and they were right...

 

[PDCjonny]

I have Roe high flo cats and the side sill insulation, and my car is hot as hell. Marginally better than stock. Sometimes I wonder if the side sill insulation is counter productive as the cats must be absolutely boiling with no real heat escape. I did not notice any dramatic cockpit heat reduction with the insulated cats.

The 96-98 models have a very lumpy cam, it's one of the cool things about those years. Enjoy it.

 

[ViperJoe]

Sounds like you might have a problem with running a little too rich.
RT hi-flows and 3" Corsa on my 98 made a world of difference in the side sill temperature. Haven't made the change on the 02 but have the RT's and Corsa ready to go on with the addition this time of the Roe insulation blanket, which I am hoping along with the stock heat shield, RT's and cat-back will make a bigger difference than on the 98.

I have Roe high flo cats and the side sill insulation, and my car is hot as hell. Marginally better than stock. Sometimes I wonder if the side sill insulation is counter productive as the cats must be absolutely boiling with no real heat escape. I did not notice any dramatic cockpit heat reduction with the insulated cats.

The 96-98 models have a very lumpy cam, it's one of the cool things about those years. Enjoy it.

 

[klamathpro]

I test drove a couple RT/10's with bubbled paint on the side sills from heat. Is this more common with the stock exhaust? If this is from running rich when stock, how do you fix it? I'd like to know before I buy one.

 

[DanAuito]

Thanks for the report Ellowviper, being in Florida your experience and report have relieved some questions in my mind as well. To bad about the bummer trip but you proved a couple things that made my future days a little bit brighter!

 

[94RT10Ohio]

I have had much experience in this area lately.

Current setup. Glass sills. Hitemp coating inside sills, roe wrap with high flow roe cats and roe mufflers.

Ran in the garage, they got warm to hot, but no damage. Drove for 30 minutes to a show and one heat bubble appeared.

It was a 30 min drive to a car show. When I arrived the sills were just warm. Went to register for the show. Came back and the sills were HOT with a bubble. What does than mean? While running the moving air flow keeps the sills at a warm state. Turn off and the radiant heat rises, making the top side and about an inch of the side of the sills HOT. The middle of the sides and bottom no where near as hot. Makes sense. The radiant heat from the exhaust rises.

What I am doing next as I refuse to use the stock shields?

More hitemp coating. This stuff is thick and does better with more coats. I took my sills off after coming home from that 30 minute drive. No more bubbles occured. When I got home I just ran cold water on the sills to keep them from getting to warm and pulled them off. It was at this time I realized the hitemp coating was working. While the outside of the sills were touchable, no way in hell was the inside. The coating was insulating like it should.

Also, once I apply more coating I am going to apply this. http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=THE%2D14001&N=0&autoview=sku Going to apply along the inside of the top and sides of the sills with high temp adhisve. My hope is it will "force" some of the radiant heat down and out the vents, at least enough to keep from damaging the sills. I should know by Sunday.

Oh, as for that heat bubble, when it cooled it sat back down, unless you look really hard you can not even see it. I LOVE THE PAINT that todays technology provides!

 

[SNAKE BITE]

Everything you have mentioned is totally normal and nothing to worry about. Upgrading exhaust is good but by no means do you have to. Enjoy the new ride

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Fresh plugs and wires will keep the loping to a minimum.

My sill discolored at 40K. I removed it, shot the inside with hi-temp silver paint and repainted the outside. 60K miles later no discoloration.

I have stock cats and resonators.

 

[Ron]

I also did extensive work in this area. Airflow is the only way to minimize the sill temps, in fact stuffing more insulation in is counterproductive. I first piped in some air from behind the radiator so I'd get some (though 180 degree) air even idling as the fans kicked in.
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I then ceramic coated the entire exhaust system including cats, (from OEM shorty headers back to the exhaust tips) used a 3D screen material wrapped by 3M's Nextel Ceramic Cloth to keep a air barrier around the stock cat so the OEM insulation wasn't directly pressing on the cats.

Cutting into the front wheel well isn't needed (keeping to my personal goal of making no permanant changes to the car intact) as there is ample air openings underbody that will flow air during forward movement. The airflow is worthless though if the sill is plugged with the cat rubbing up against the insulation which it is as built from the factory.

Not magical results but certainly an improvement over stock.

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[PhoenixGTS]

As a data point I source the Cer-Wool insulation Roe sells and have it on my car. It helps but the sills are still roasting. One of my issues is I have the stock cats with the inlet and outlet enlarged to 3" (they are larger diameter so closer to the sills themselves).

 

[kcobean]

I wonder if there is a ceramic coating of some sort that could be used to shield the sill (picturing space-shuttle belly tiles)...

 

[PhoenixGTS]

I wonder if there is a ceramic coating of some sort that could be used to shield the sill (picturing space-shuttle belly tiles)...

You could use the same Jet Hot or similar coating that is on Belanger and other headers. Most larger towns have a provider.

 

[Ron]

My Jet Hot type Ceramic coating (in my case, plasma applied) made virtually no difference. Even recoated with a different mix of compounds (zirconium if I remember right).

To test the effectiveness of the coating, I coated the drivers side and left the passenger side uncoated in order to do exact side by side temp. comparisions. The only "variable" was that the uncoated side had the OEM cast iron manifold while the coated side had the SS OEM Shorty. Certainly impacted results but I don't believe in a significant way.

In my experience do it for looks, not heat.....

 

[kcobean]

Almost makes you want to divert your AC ducting down to the sills so you can turn the AC on when not moving to keep sill temps down. However, as 94RT10Ohio stated, when you shut the car off, the 'radiant' properties of the cats goes up. Guess there's not a whole lot to be done.

 

[Buckeye Viper]

Anyone use the sidesill vents that DC Performance and Partsrack sells? Wonder if those really make a difference.

 

[Anaconda]

I removed my cats AND used the Roe insulation. It was as cool as you can get after that. It was a fantastic improvement. I highly recommend it.

 

[apun]

The 96-98 models have a very lumpy cam, it's one of the cool things about those years. Enjoy it.

According to http://ivr.viperclub.org/specifications.php, the 99s also have it, right?

Thanks,
Alex

 

[PhoenixGTS]

To test the effectiveness of the coating, I coated the drivers side and left the passenger side uncoated in order to do exact side by side temp. comparisions. The only "variable" was that the uncoated side had the OEM cast iron manifold while the coated side had the SS OEM Shorty. Certainly impacted results but I don't believe in a significant way.

In my experience do it for looks, not heat.....

FANTASTIC information. This is what the internet is all about. Being able to hear about real experiments and results. Thank you.

 

[Mark Hahn]

I removed my cats on my '96 RT/10 and ceramic coated the straight pipe replacements and mine still get fairly warm but a lot cooler than stock. MGH