Greg Good heads & cam build - gained 189 rwhp

ssjcreeper

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To start - I began looking at options late last year. From superchargers, to twins, to heads/cam. I had a budget and expectation for horsepower that made several options viable. In the end I decided a N/A car was what I was looking for and called around to talk to a few of our great VCA vendors offering solutions. I saved the call to Greg Good as my last and it should have been my first. We walked thru my expectations and Greg detailed the parts and work involved with his heads/cam kit. His results have been well documented on the forum and after that conversation the decision was easy. Finding a local shop with Viper experience was another matter. After talking with a few respected wrenchers in the area, the name Jeff Wightman at Precision Autosports kept turning up. Jeff has a tremendous amount of Mustang/GM experience, but he also turns wrenches and tunes plenty of Mopar, including a handful of Vipers. After a shop visit and lengthy conversation about the build and expectations, I was confident Jeff would take the utmost care and apply that attention to detail in my build. For tuning, a quick search of the top N/A Gen III Vipers yielded consistent results = A&C Performance. I contacted Todd and gave him details on my build. Todd was absolutely phenomenal to work with and his knowledge of Vipers and applicable N/A packages was second to none.

A huge thanks to Greg, Jeff, and Todd... the car turned out exactly as I had hoped, if not better, and the experience from start to finish has been absolutely pain free. All are first class and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend working with them should you be in the market for mods.


Driving Impressions - being a cammed car you might have expectations that you sacrifice your low speed power and driveability for peak numbers, but you would be totally wrong. Just as promised the car behaved much like stock, albeit immensely stronger and with a nasty/awesome cam lope that makes your stereo 100% obsolete (these cars even have stereos??). Honestly you need nothing else for your soundtrack. The rubbernecking/gawk-factor was through the roof as I took delivery and jumped straight into rush-hour traffic. Talk about a test, sitting for two hours in bumper to bumper traffic in 90 degree humid heat. The car ran flawless. There were a few tiny spaces I could blip the throttle and holy cow does the power come on like a rocket was strapped to your @$$!


Results - I'll save any further ramblings as others have much more detailed documentation of their builds and results... but that being said, results are very similar. In fact, we settled on a conservative tune that admittedly probably left 20-30hp on the table, yet still put down a solid 619 rwhp / 608 rwtq. Apologies that I only have the one graph available to demonstrate the before/after results, but sufficed to say the results are immediately apparent and once again, yielded exactly what I was looking for.


Parts List
  • Greg Good Heads & Ported Intake
  • Comp Cam, lifters, and pushrods
  • Crower Rockers
  • M & M Headers
  • Corsa Catback
  • BBK Throttle Body
  • K&N Intake/Filters
  • A&C Performance Tune

Build pics

Teardown
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Before and After Greg Good
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M&M Headers awaiting assembly
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Powder coated Valve Covers
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Final Assembly
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Before / After Graph
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98intrigue

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Doug, those are fantastic results! I can't imagine the feeling of gaining that much power on an NA motor. The more I read about these NA builds, the more I'm starting to lean towards one. It's rare to hear of such success stories when multiple shops have their hands in on a build.
 

345s-bspinnin

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Congrats on the phenomenal numbers. Greg Good and Todd really have this heads/cam recipe down. Enjoy the new power and learn to manage it well as it will surprise friend and foe alike.

:2tu:
 

Camfab

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What's amazing about a proper N/A build on Vipers is shown on the dyno charts. Typically a head and cam car shifts the torque curve. That's why for decades guys knew that if you did this kind of build, you gained HP at the sacrifice of low speed drivabillity. It was known that little gains were seen in the overall TQ numbers, but a shift in the curve which made for a car with really soggy bottom end and two stroke like hits near the top. It's why drag cars with auto's need such loose converters, cause big HP cars need to be driven the the RPM band. Props to everyone in this build, however I can tell you that Greg Good obviously knows what he's doing, because these types of numbers across the board don't happen normally. Great Job
 

Jeebs

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Those are great numbers. Congrats on the build. Your going to enjoy it.
About the tune, was it just a tune or a dyno tune?
 

ACPERFORMANCE

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I think was a win win for all involved

Greg got to sell one of his proven bad ass setups that we all know works. Greg is the man and the man is flat out talented!! I'm sending a set of heads to Greg next week as well
I got the pleasure of making it all work together like it should
And Doug
Well Doug you got the finished product that you've been waiting to come together for some time

I can speak for everybody on this one (I spoke to Greg, Jeff and had plenty of time on the phone with you myself)
Doug, your a great guy not only to deal with but just in general.

Thanks for choosing me to be a part of your Viper venture
 

Allan

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Wow, that is awesome. I may consider doing the same. Curious though on the reliability of the upper valvetrain and also the lifters with a more aggressive cam profile. My engine now has over 47,000 miles on it (mostly track use since about 22,000) and has no problems. Is that kind of durability reasonable to expect with the nasty cam? Or is there some unknown sacrifice for this killer mod? -Usually for every gain, there is a compromise, or downside. .....is it too early to tell? or is this mod totally bulletproof. ...:dunno:
 

viper04

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Doug
thanks for posting the result, and phenomenal numbers for sure, did u get a change to dyno it with race gas? Thanks.
 
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or is this mod totally bulletproof. ...:dunno:

This cam has really smooth lobes. I don't believe in putting an aggressive cam in something that dyno's well then breaks a valve spring 6 months later.

Knock on wood, I have not had any valvetrain problems with this cam. I always use the best valve spring I can find, and they are pricey, with either new, or gently used 97-99 model lifters. The Dan Cragin lifters that have tie bars will also work, and I'll be using more of them in the future because my supply of good lifters is drying up.
 

FastMatt

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This cam has really smooth lobes. I don't believe in putting an aggressive cam in something that dyno's well then breaks a valve spring 6 months later.

Knock on wood, I have not had any valvetrain problems with this cam. I always use the best valve spring I can find, and they are pricey, with either new, or gently used 97-99 model lifters. The Dan Cragin lifters that have tie bars will also work, and I'll be using more of them in the future because my supply of good lifters is drying up.


Sweet build. So Greg when are we going to see a gen 3 with the mopar "650hp" up grade pkg with your full port job on the heads and a big cam? We really would love to see a 700 rwhp N/A Gen 3....
 
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ssjcreeper

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Thanks guys. A few responses.

Race fuel - after speaking with Todd, he recommended we stick with the pump gas. He may be able to speak to it more, but my understanding was that the gains would have been negligible.

Tune or Dyno tune - Todd delivered a tune tailored for my car using his vast knowledge and experience with Vipers. He worked collaboratively with Jeff on dyno-tuning, but admittedly we kept the tuning to a minimum as Todd's initial tune was basically dead-on. I know we left ponies on the table but I wasn't chasing the highest number. Given the excellent drivability, power, and torque it put down... I was good with where it was.
 
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ssjcreeper

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More impressions from drive time today:

Still amazed how well this thing drives. Did I mention it sounds awesome?! Finally got a chance to goose it on an open stretch of roadway. Got to play a bit with a diesel spewing, Bully-Dogged, Super Duty that decided to put the hammer down next to me. Poor SOB beared witness to the sound and the fury of the Viper. About half way to WOT in second and the back end danced to the top of the gear at which point I was in another zip code and shut it down and back to the speed limit. The exhaust was simply HOWLING as I went by this poor guys door. I swear I think the sound scared the absolute hell outta him as he dropped a good 15 mph under the speed limit just to stay away from me. Prolly shook the spit cup right off his dashboard.

Mu-hahaha

:devgrin:
 
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One thing about the dyno sheet, and this would concern someone running the standing mile, or top end, is the difference in power at maximum rpm. At max rpm the difference is almost 200 hp.

(That's something Andres pointed out to me on his build)
 
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More impressions from drive time today:

Still amazed how well this thing drives. Did I mention it sounds awesome?! Finally got a chance to goose it on an open stretch of roadway. Got to play a bit with a diesel spewing, Bully-Dogged, Super Duty that decided to put the hammer down next to me. Poor SOB beared witness to the sound and the fury of the Viper. About half way to WOT in second and the back end danced to the top of the gear at which point I was in another zip code and shut it down and back to the speed limit. The exhaust was simply HOWLING as I went by this poor guys door. I swear I think the sound scared the absolute hell outta him as he dropped a good 15 mph under the speed limit just to stay away from me. Prolly shook the spit cup right off his dashboard.

Mu-hahaha

:devgrin:

Ha Ha, that's funny. ViperTony likes to scare little old ladies sitting inside their house with his car. His is so loud he nick-named it Armagedon. LOL.
 
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Sweet build. So Greg when are we going to see a gen 3 with the mopar "650hp" up grade pkg with your full port job on the heads and a big cam? We really would love to see a 700 rwhp N/A Gen 3....

Want to hit 700 with Gen 3 heads first. It will do it. Then I'll put my Gen 3 program to rest and start on the Gen 4 R&D.
 

345s-bspinnin

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One thing about the dyno sheet, and this would concern someone running the standing mile, or top end, is the difference in power at maximum rpm. At max rpm the difference is almost 200 hp.

(That's something Andres pointed out to me on his build)

Great point Greg. The post-build dyno pull posted lacked a few hundred rpm up top when compared to the baseline. I bet there are 10-15 whp there, resulting in 200+ whp at redline.
 
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ssjcreeper

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I have two simple videos. Sorry nothing fancy just yet. I'll maintain that no video will ever do justice to how incredible this car is now. I would post the dyno videos but honestly the final dyno session was so loud that the audio portion of my video went almost completely silent as my device could not handle it.

So here are two videos I do have that demonstrate the change in demeanor. Both with the same device in the same location. The first video is nearly a year ago with just the catback as I give it a few revs during a cold start-up. Second video was taken this afternoon as the car basically just lopes at idle.

http://youtu.be/OfRa9LcIw64
http://youtu.be/i1tTBw1U5R0
 
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with stock CID? what CR and how big of a F-ing cam is going to be in that?

Haven't bought the crank yet. Probably in the 530 inch range. About 11:1. Cam is bought. Nice solid roller, still a streetable one though.

Lots more intake port flow. It will have a 2.100" intake valve, compared to the 2.02" valve we're limited to with stock pistons.
 
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