Couple of ?'s on '01 GTS

[Viperguynick]

Couple of ?\'s on \'01 GTS

Hi all,

I have a friend up here who I just assisted with an install of T&D 1.7:1 shaft mounted roller rockers, and Edelbrock Headers (beautiful!). After the install, The car is running EXTREMELY rich, so rich in fact that even after going to a dyno shop (with Viper experience) to have an APEXI III A/F controller installed they still could not get it under control, any ideas?? While I was not there assisting, he also changed out the plugs / wires with all factory items as the old ones had been chewed by a rodent while the car was in storage. This leads me to my other question, appearently when he was putting the plug into Cyl #10, he stripped the threads and the plug is now jammed in there. I told him he is probably going to have to have it heli-arced, which he is okay with, but everyone is telling him that it will be $800+ as they will have to remove the heads. Can't this be done with the heads on the car? I know I have seen Heli-arcs installed without the heads being pulled before on other cars. Thanks in advance for the help.

Nick

 

[Mark Red GTS Cooper]

Re: Couple of ?\'s on \'01 GTS

Did the owner strip the plug or the people tuning?

Mark

 

[Viperguynick]

Re: Couple of ?\'s on \'01 GTS

The owner did.

Nick

 

[Ulysses]

Re: Couple of ?\'s on \'01 GTS

No matter how careful you are, you are bound to get some shavings in there from the Heli-Coil.

 

[Asp Man]

Re: Couple of ?\'s on \'01 GTS

Cautionary tale, the moral?: use anti-sieze! I've done a heli-coil with the head on (2.2turbo, and not mine!) but I wouldn't attempt, nor would I recomend doing it on something like a Viper. (stuff the bore with a rag, pack grease into the flutes of the tap and drill bit, vacuum it out, but I still don't suggest you do this)
About the rich run condition, maybe the mice had at more wires than he knows about?!? I could understand if it went lean after the bolt ons, but this one's a mystery.
Maybe bad regulator (integrated with the in-tank pump)or...?

 

[FlyBryViper]

Re: Couple of ?\'s on \'01 GTS

Yes, you could Heli-Coil the bad plug hole on the car.
Should you? Not on a Viper, I would not. Just pull the head. Not that different from any other head you may have pulled.
Fix plug hole, get car to certified Viper Tech. for analysis.

 

[KenH]

Re: Couple of ?\'s on \'01 GTS

We had a car here with rodent damage to the spark plug wires and it also was running very rich. The problem was eventually traced to other wires that they found chewed. I think they said it was part of the fuel injector harness.

On the spark plugs, I think it is also important to screw them in by hand at least a few turns before using a socket to minimize any chance of cross-threading.

 

[Viperguynick]

Re: Couple of ?\'s on \'01 GTS

Thanks for the advice everyone, I am going to be talking to him tomorrow to see what he wants to do. I know there were also a couple vacuum hoses that were chewed as well as the coolant overflow bottle tube on the fender. All of this damage happened before he took delivery of the car last fall, you should see the rodent droppings under the intake runners.

Nick