RC Viper
Enthusiast
On Thursday the 29th of May my newborn (car that is) was transported to Wilmington N.C. to undergo major valve surgery with Dr. Tom Sessions as the attending surgeon and yours truly as the physician's assistant.
The surgery was difficult, but was a complete success.
I'm sure readers of this board know from my previous posts on this topic that I was not thrilled that this "maintenance action" needed to be performed on my brand new car. The good news is that both my car and my sanity were preserved.
To help other SRT owners understand the process a bit better listed below I have included a general procedure with some pictures. A few of the steps may
be out of order, but you will get the general idea. This is my first time posting pictures so if they don't come out they can be viewed in the Media
Section under the RC Viper gallery.
Procedure:
We started by covering the fenders and front of the car with thick 100% cotton
towels to protect the finish and the battery was accessed through the trunk and disconnected.
Next we removed part of the cowl to give us more room to operate under the hood.
The airbox was removed and then the Intake Manifold (including an amazing
number of connectors and sensors).
The valve covers were next on the agenda followed by removal of the rockers and push rods.
To prepare the heads for removal; we then had to loosen the exhaust system at the collectors, so we could drop the exhaust headers. Next came the spark plug guides, wire retainers, and spark plugs.
Once the prep work was done, we then removed the actual heads and replaced the defective valves with the new valves (after cleaning up both the heads and top of the block). The difference in the defective valves and new valves is small, but I think you can see the extra line on the shiny valve. This line is the extra cut on the valve that was missing on the original factory valve.
We replaced the heads, exhaust headers, spark plugs, wires, valve covers, intake manifold, and airbox.
To finish the job we had to change the oil, replace the coolant, and
attach the exhaust. Tom removed a fuse so we could crank the engine
without it starting, to get oil circulating to the heads.
After replacing the fuse, the car fired and ran perfectly. I still have to take the car to the dyno to verify horsepower increase. My car originally dynoed with only 425 RWHP. I look forward to a dramatic increase! From the seat of my pants, I can tell you that the car did feel stronger after the valve replacement. It is interesting to note that it still idles a bit rough. The valve replacement did not improve this. The SRT idles rougher than my GTS.
Tom took the time to do the job right and to protect the cosmetic appearance of
my car. I didn't envy Tom's position. Imagine trying to work on a car with a very particular (OK anal ) owner standing right by you all day long.
A few comments:
-Yes it is possible to replace the valves without damaging the car
IF you are very careful and take the extra steps to keep from scratching
the car and throwing fluids everywhere. Tom not only covered the car
with towels, he also used a vacuum machine to empty the heads of oil
and water to ensure that when we lifted the heads they did not leak in
the engine bay.
-Given point number one above, six hours is not long enough to complete
this job. It took Tom and I over 8.5 hours of work to complete the
job. The precautions that we took added time, but were necesary.
In closing, I want to thank Tom Sessions from D&E Dodge in Wilmington NC and highly recommend him.
If you want your car done right take it to Tom. He will take care of you the way Viper owners should be treated.
The surgery was difficult, but was a complete success.
I'm sure readers of this board know from my previous posts on this topic that I was not thrilled that this "maintenance action" needed to be performed on my brand new car. The good news is that both my car and my sanity were preserved.
To help other SRT owners understand the process a bit better listed below I have included a general procedure with some pictures. A few of the steps may
be out of order, but you will get the general idea. This is my first time posting pictures so if they don't come out they can be viewed in the Media
Section under the RC Viper gallery.
Procedure:
We started by covering the fenders and front of the car with thick 100% cotton
towels to protect the finish and the battery was accessed through the trunk and disconnected.
Next we removed part of the cowl to give us more room to operate under the hood.
The airbox was removed and then the Intake Manifold (including an amazing
number of connectors and sensors).
The valve covers were next on the agenda followed by removal of the rockers and push rods.
To prepare the heads for removal; we then had to loosen the exhaust system at the collectors, so we could drop the exhaust headers. Next came the spark plug guides, wire retainers, and spark plugs.
Once the prep work was done, we then removed the actual heads and replaced the defective valves with the new valves (after cleaning up both the heads and top of the block). The difference in the defective valves and new valves is small, but I think you can see the extra line on the shiny valve. This line is the extra cut on the valve that was missing on the original factory valve.
We replaced the heads, exhaust headers, spark plugs, wires, valve covers, intake manifold, and airbox.
To finish the job we had to change the oil, replace the coolant, and
attach the exhaust. Tom removed a fuse so we could crank the engine
without it starting, to get oil circulating to the heads.
After replacing the fuse, the car fired and ran perfectly. I still have to take the car to the dyno to verify horsepower increase. My car originally dynoed with only 425 RWHP. I look forward to a dramatic increase! From the seat of my pants, I can tell you that the car did feel stronger after the valve replacement. It is interesting to note that it still idles a bit rough. The valve replacement did not improve this. The SRT idles rougher than my GTS.
Tom took the time to do the job right and to protect the cosmetic appearance of
my car. I didn't envy Tom's position. Imagine trying to work on a car with a very particular (OK anal ) owner standing right by you all day long.
A few comments:
-Yes it is possible to replace the valves without damaging the car
IF you are very careful and take the extra steps to keep from scratching
the car and throwing fluids everywhere. Tom not only covered the car
with towels, he also used a vacuum machine to empty the heads of oil
and water to ensure that when we lifted the heads they did not leak in
the engine bay.
-Given point number one above, six hours is not long enough to complete
this job. It took Tom and I over 8.5 hours of work to complete the
job. The precautions that we took added time, but were necesary.
In closing, I want to thank Tom Sessions from D&E Dodge in Wilmington NC and highly recommend him.
If you want your car done right take it to Tom. He will take care of you the way Viper owners should be treated.
