Toby,
My solution was to crank up the water % to 75, and run 25% glycol, distilled water of course. Ideally 100% water would be the best, leaving internals to corrode. 25% was the min. I found on the net to still have all the anticorrosive properties, although not popular in the Viper crowd, I didn't feel anything was Viper specific as far as % of each. Luckily were not the only punks with alot of alum. internals.
In addition to that kicked in 2 bottles of Water Wetter, as per some dug up threads on the morgue.
I was concerned when I first bought my 97, and gave everything a once over, and did the above for good measure.
Of course within 2 weeks of buying my car, and before any of the above, I puked out the timing chain gasket cover, pissing coolant everywhere. Had to pull the oilpan and rehit that as the front of the cover extends down into the front bolts of the pan, something like 40 of them, nice.
Think I drive a little harder than the old owner, test drove it for a few hours (him driving) when I bought it and no problems.
Talk about wondering what the hell I got myself into, dropping $300 in gaskets and under the car wrenching the thing on maybe the 2nd tank of gas, not good.
Chalk it up to a bonding experience for now, so far so good going into year 2!
take care,
If you happen to agree with any of my advice, a nice kicker is having to flush in the fall pre storage with 60/40 ish glycol for a positive winter safe mix. Come spring you have to flush the rad out and rehit with the summer mix, forcing coolant maintenance on a yearly deal. A good idea with any car, moreso with this finicky thing.
Good god, my first tech reply on the alley, might move my chair a little to the right. :rofl:
