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Balanced and Blueprinted viper engine

1790 Views 19 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  Chip
curious if anyone has pursued this avenue of "upgrading" by doing a balance/blueprint to their viper engine?
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I have done this mod. I added a number of things to the engine while it was apart. Bottom line 530 RWHP with a 94 - and I need computer adjustments. Tuner/Dyno guys estimate 580 rwhp when computer tuning is complete....oh and my car is a 94
Tristan,

What sort of "computer adjustments" do you need? I'm working on something that may do what you need - but I'm curious what sorts of problems folks like yourselves run into so I can accomodate them.

Thanks!
Those words 'balance and blue-printed' - to me just represents a factory motor
that's been taken apart and detailed. I think Torquemonster covered this
a while back on .org. I can't see a lot of power gains from spec checking,
but if you combine it with other mods, it complements the gains, and insures longevity - when you crank the power up.
I'm sure that good tuners/mechanics, like Hefner and Levin, automatically check tolerances when they do major internal motor surgery. By itself, I think
the gain would be no more than 5%.
BP and Bal are abused terms - but in their best sense mean exactly what Tristran did - improving what the factory did and working to precise tolerances.

I'd love to hear what mods were done to your motor Tristran - please list them for us as it will provide excellent insight into the gains to be had from this kind of work compared to a stock engine that had the same cam and basic headwork and exhaust etc.

I know that there was 50hp in a big block V8 from honing plate bore prep alone. A BP and Bal engine compared to a stock engine with same bolt ons - I'm confident there should be at least 10% power difference but the real benefits will be the difference in the way it runs, feels and lives!
Any time an engine is taken down it should be done for performance reasons, magnafluxing is a must. This has to be done at a machine shop because it is rotating weight your dealing with. Have the blocke checked and decked to make sure the block hasn't warped.
balancing will make a difference in some hp gain, smoother acceleration among other things. 1-lb rotating at 1,500 rpm weighs 7-lbs.

A rod that weighs 50 grams less than a stock rod is a lot of weight. A lighter rod will also help is the engine revving faster, performance and the redline will be higher than stock.
SRT MIKE,
The car is running very lean at higher RPMs. To be safe I have not pushed the car, but it has tons of power. ESI racing in SD did the work. They were shocked at how far out of round the piston sleeves were (and yes they had the block torqued) I had upgraded pistons and rods put in that were much lighter than stock and if I remember correctly they said the rotational mass of the engine once balanced ( with the new pistons and rods) was 5 lbs lighter. I think the compression came in around 9.475.
I am near New Orleans if you are from around this area and want to see it. Basically it looks like I need upgraded fuel injectors and a computer to manage the new set up. The car revs super fast, and will easily spin its tires pretty much everywhere under the national speed limit (55) Like I said I have not pushed the car. Also it has a 343 rear end.... I think I have a a dyno sheet somewhere is you want to see it...
Tristan
Sorry I forgot to put in all my mods:

68mm Throttle bodies
Extrude honed intake (TNT)
Roller rockers
Twin K&N filters (sucking hot air)
Stage III head job (TNT)
Ross racing pistons (stock compression)
Crower rods (I think)
High energy Cam (TNT)
Aluminum fly wheel
Evans NPG + coolant
180 thermostat
Zero gap rings
Griffin radiator
Roe Pre luber.
And of course other mods

I admit I went a little crazy with the mods on the engine, but while the car was apart I figured I would make it better. We only did one dyyno run on the car to test the engine - and really did not push anything - so I am not sure what the ultimate gains will be when finished.
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Its all about the combination of parts and the tuning.

A motor that is simply balanced and blueprinted to spec. without a compression or displacement change, will gain maybe 5-8% in my opinion.

Its all about moving air and maximizing efficiency. Outside of forced induction and nitrous, a great heads/cam package will in itself gain more power than any other engine mod in my opinion. I am talking about 100+ rw hp.
Tristan Rizzi said:
I have done this mod. I added a number of things to the engine while it was apart. Bottom line 530 RWHP with a 94 - and I need computer adjustments. Tuner/Dyno guys estimate 580 rwhp when computer tuning is complete....oh and my car is a 94
Check with Levin, Scott, Roe, MacedoMS - one or more of those guys had some GEN-II injectors(take off parts) that they would let go for next
to nothing. Until you get the A/F right, set your shift light in the conservative range.
Tristan, where abouts in La. are you. I will be in Hammond, La. soon for school. If we are close, I would love to see your engine.
I will be living in Slidell. I just got here from Japan - my car is still in Pensacola, I expect to have it here at the end of the month when we close on our house....
Tristan Rizzi said:
I will be living in Slidell. I just got here from Japan - my car is still in Pensacola, I expect to have it here at the end of the month when we close on our house....
You're just right down the road. Japan huh, so tell me, is La. hot enough for you?

If you ever need anything for your viper, you outta go visit Thunder Racing in Baton Rouge, La. Good guys and they put on a lot of drag racing events at No Problem Raceway. Hope to meet you one day. Hit me up if you are ever in the Hammond/Baton Rouge area.
Tristan - great results man! Oh - and New Orleans is a great city - loved it there.

With all due respect to John's comments - and he'd have more clue than me - if your bores were so out of round the machinst commented about it - you'd have picked up more than 8% just from that correction and oversize.

If the blueprint included a tight quench clearance - that alone would be worth at least 35hp not to mention a huge reduction in detonation risk.... tight meaning less than or = to 0.042" at TDC clearance. I'm fairly certain hardly any Viper tuners do this - esp. on boosted engines. That will change soon.

580rwhp with bigger injectors and proper calibration is pretty impressive for a heads and cam combo that still resumably operates in the same rpm band as stock and is not stroked - you've got a good one!
Tristan Rizzi said:
I will be living in Slidell. I just got here from Japan - my car is still in Pensacola, I expect to have it here at the end of the month when we close on our house....
Does this mean we are going to have 3 Vipers in Slidell? Damn, they are getting as common as the S2000!! :burn:
Slidel - cool! I'm planning on being back in the USA next July and will be staying for a little of that time at Picayune just up the road from Slidel visiting my wifes family. Can't wait - hoping to see a lot more of the US this time.
I remember scoring a #8 cylinder wall years ago in my old Pontiac 455. The machinist had to put an oversized piston in it and rebalance the crank. The motor ran smooth as silk afterwards. At that point I realized there was something to this "balancing and blueprinting" stuff. But that was 25 years ago. Dunno if it's needed today with manufacturing processes getting more and more refined.
Yeah - 25 years on processes have improved - but it is still worthwhile.

Compare the V10 to a stock Nissan RB30 - straight six with 2V heads and single overhead cam - worth a little on top end.... Both engines are designed for good torque and low rpms - under 6500rpm.

The RB30 makes 220hp or 73.33hp per litre vs the Viper SRT10's 500/8.2 = 60.98hp/litre.

The RB30 has similar power band but is smooth and strong enough to rpm 7000 if you want to (I've rpm'd a stock RB30 bottom end to 7000 with 450hp in 5th gear no problems) and is good for an average of 200,000 miles before any work. A full rebuild at 450,000 miles was common.

If the V10 were built to similar tolerances - you could expect 600hp stock and huge mileage without wearing out.... the OHV doesn't lose much power and can be made up for with better heads anyway, the OHC will have durability advantages so you couldn't expect V10 lifters and heavier springs to last 450,000 miles - but they'd do better than stock now in a blueprinted engine with valve geometry perfected, valve train balanced, lifter bores aligned, springs all matched identical etc.
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I think we need to start a Northshore viper club /images/graemlins/smile.gif
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