WESTCOAST JASON
Enthusiast
Having logged over 100k miles on my motor starting with mild mods, then a 300HP NX kit and then finally to my beloved twin turbo kit my motor was starting to blow a bit of oil during high RPM shifts. For safety's sake I took it to my Viper tech who found the oil was sneaking past the valve stems and suggested a r&r of the heads. Fair enough. When the heads were pulled he was amazed to see that the head gasket on the drivers side, second cylinder back, was blown. There is a 1" wide dark area where the cylinder pressure was too much for it and it caused a leak.
What is amazing about this is the fact that how long it has been this way. Back in my NX days, my lady and I always noted a slight 'smell' after a hard pass and started calling it 'Viper Sweat' - never knowing what it was, but not being concerned as it was never short on power. After the Turbos were installed and tuned the smell was around more often, again, attributed to our mystery 'Viper Sweat'. Keeping in mind the car was making a consistent 700RWHP I started searching for exhaust leaks, never thinking it could be anything else. As a side note, I did occasionally notice a 'tweet' or high pitch sound during hard runs. This sounded much like the chirp an MSD ignition makes on other vehicles (hard to explain, but if you know the MSD sound I mean, it is just like it) This tweet sound was not detonation as I had that under control, so I kept checking ignition wire routing and so forth. Again, never finding the source...
Having never solved my Viper 'sweat' or the tweet I figured I would continue searching for the answer when the car was done with the head R&R. The head gasket failure is the cause of both these and I can't wait to get on the dyno to see what the power will be now with my engine freshly sealed. The tweet was the sound of compression squeezing past the failed head gasket. I have no idea if it will make a noticeable difference but just the fact that I can cross off two of the oldest bugs I have had on the car make me very happy. I just wanted to let all you guys and gals know that you truly own a wonderful piece of equipment and this is just another testament to how our cars are the 'Flying Fortress's' of the high performance automotive world!
What is amazing about this is the fact that how long it has been this way. Back in my NX days, my lady and I always noted a slight 'smell' after a hard pass and started calling it 'Viper Sweat' - never knowing what it was, but not being concerned as it was never short on power. After the Turbos were installed and tuned the smell was around more often, again, attributed to our mystery 'Viper Sweat'. Keeping in mind the car was making a consistent 700RWHP I started searching for exhaust leaks, never thinking it could be anything else. As a side note, I did occasionally notice a 'tweet' or high pitch sound during hard runs. This sounded much like the chirp an MSD ignition makes on other vehicles (hard to explain, but if you know the MSD sound I mean, it is just like it) This tweet sound was not detonation as I had that under control, so I kept checking ignition wire routing and so forth. Again, never finding the source...
Having never solved my Viper 'sweat' or the tweet I figured I would continue searching for the answer when the car was done with the head R&R. The head gasket failure is the cause of both these and I can't wait to get on the dyno to see what the power will be now with my engine freshly sealed. The tweet was the sound of compression squeezing past the failed head gasket. I have no idea if it will make a noticeable difference but just the fact that I can cross off two of the oldest bugs I have had on the car make me very happy. I just wanted to let all you guys and gals know that you truly own a wonderful piece of equipment and this is just another testament to how our cars are the 'Flying Fortress's' of the high performance automotive world!
Mine has been in daily driver mode ever since I sold my 97 650r and got this 98. It is shocking to be using another car during the down-time of my repair. Viper detox *****!
