LIKE!

One of the few Vipers out there that truly gets the love and use it deserves!

 

Glad you used honing plates, they make a difference. A tighter squeeze is always good too - the disinformation around acceptable quench clearances have cost a lot of lost power for Mopar owners. New motor should restore lost power and add a little. Good work!

 

Hoping that garage gets cleaned up a bit & let’s try better organization before the next pics. Something to consider. 😆

 

Flex hone for me when I do a simple deglaze/re-ring.

 

Very true. But when I've known the owner of the engine shop for 20 years and he's 10 minutes away, it goes back for the right stuff.

 

I'll be coming through your way again this year Dean. Will give you a call and if I can stop by I will. I'll plan better and won't keep you waiting like last year.

 

I had a busy weekend in the garage. I've had the car on the lift sitting on jackstands stripped of coilovers, brake calipers and lines since May. I rebuilt my front calipers in '23 and sent my front shocks to Penske for service at the same time. I just cleaned them up and worked on the rears this time around. I found a motorcycle racer and shock/fork specialist near here with great Penske creds, so he serviced my rear shocks.

In June, I detailed the entire frame, trans tunnel and wrapped some wire harnesses that were showing some wear. The suspension wishbone mounting bosses take a lot of stress when tracking them hard with sticky rubber and a number of racers have had them tear away. I've noticed all of mine had flaking paint around the welds on the frame, so I used a stainless brush and cleaned them down to bare metal for a very close visual inspection. Thankfully, everything looks good, so this weekend I masked off the wishbones, wheel wells and any frame members I didn't want any overspray on. I hit them all, along with the battery tray, with 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of semi-gloss black. They all turned out reasonably well, but not Dom - perfect!

I installed new, stiffer bump rubbers on all 4 shocks, installed the top eyes and set them so the rebound adjusters would all have 32 sweeps of adjustment. I got the main & helper springs installed, set the perches to the same height they were when removed, so the ride height should be pretty close. Got the cone spacers on both ends of the fronts and top of the rears, bolted them in and torqued the nuts. I loosened the swaybar adjusters to be ready for corner weighting when the powertrain is installed.

A few months ago, I rebuilt the 40mm rear brake calipers myself, because they were giving me lots of parking brake and pad drag troubles. Even with great online and phone help from "40mm" Rick - it was still a tough go. I had to have a couple of small seal screws machined for o-rings made from thumb screws I sourced from McMaster. It took some time, but I found an e-Bay store called Bigg Red in the UK. They stock every seal kit for Brembo brakes, and the prices are very reasonable - but it took several emails to be sure we were on the same page, then some wait time. The Lotus Elise uses the same calipers. I have to admit this is not something I want to do again - they are aggravatingly difficult to assemble, but I got them done correctly. I installed, torqued, hooked up the cables and lines, then did a gravity bleed at all 4 corners. I installed the rotors and pads at all positions, then vacuum bled everything again.

What was looking doubtful on Friday is now looking likely to be well ready for my November trip to COTA!

 

What event are you hitting there in November?! Might drive down to join you.

 

You and Chuck are real car/track guys!

 

You too. Not sure if I'll ever be on the track again. Getting tired.

 

Edge Addicts Nov 8-9. 5 sessions per day. They have a Purple group (for racecars running under 2:20) called Track Rats who get to use the 2-story paddock lounge near the start of the garages. It's either a little rainy, or perfect track conditions thru the fall and early winter months. Chin motorsports will be at Eagles Canyon in the north DFW area is the same weekend.

 

I need to get to Eagles Canyon...... BTW they just did a pretty big overhaul to MSR Houston. Not a full repave of the track but they hit the worst areas I will be checking it out next month.

 

Marriage will do that.

 

Nice work!

 

One week later - I partially dressed the engine/clutch and cleaned up the transmission on Saturday, then got the car down on 4 wheels for the first time since April. Sunday morning I rolled it out and got it up on stands to wait for my helper from across town. He was delayed due to a home accident requiring a few stitches, but once he arrived, we got the motor dropped in the driveway, then stabbed the trans with it on the lift in the garage. That process only took 3.5 hours! All engine, trans and mounting bolts were cleaned, Loctite'd and torqued to spec. I finished the evening routing the front wiring harness, hung the PS pump, hooked up some fluid lines. The pace of progress slowed down a lot after the big stuff went on/in. Now it's down to trigger work. A built, dry motor with light flywheel and water pump weighs right about 440#. Maybe it will be ready to crank up next weekend.

 

Damn Dean, that looks stellar! This makes me miss working on my Gen 2....it's SOOOOO much easier than working on the GenV. Keep up the great work!