Mike Brunton
Enthusiast
Some of the local Corvette guys have said very negative things about Halltech as a company and the intake products he sells for the C5. Take that for what it's worth - I don't know this guy and have never used his products, and I'm sure you can find folks who have bad stuff to say about ANY tuner, but this is just what I have heard - combined with the posts above, I would probably do some research on the Corvetteforum and see what the deal is - I don't know what it is either way, but buyer beware buying from ANY tuner.
Regarding TT'ing a Viper, if it were MY company looking into it, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, and here's why...
1) I don't see all that much profit in it. Turbos are probably close to $3,000. Turbo headers made of quality stainless (are you sure you meant 371?) are going to cost a good $4,000-5,000. Probably $2,000 in materials alone. You're also going to need some sort of fuel management system - "adjusting" the stock system IS NOT GOING TO WORK, not at anything beyond very mild boost. A good FMU is going to be at least $2k or more. You're already looking at $9k-10k for parts alone, and you also need all sorts of plumbing, wastegates, oil/fuel lines, filters, brackets, and a bunch more which would eat into that $5k-6k margin REALLY quick.
2) Given #1 above, this system is obviously not using replacement pistons, heads, con-rods, rockers or crank. One of the things about a turbo is that there is a high up-front cost, but the gains are very nice if you 'do it right'. I don't see the point of spending so much on a turbo unless you plan to go all the way with a new intake, pistons, rods, and heads at the VERY LEAST, preferably a new crank too. If you do it the "right" way, you could probably easily make upwards of 1,500hp on the Viper motor - for probably about a $5k addition onto the price of the original kit. If you're not going to go for the really big power, why go turbo at all? Why not just get a supercharger for under $10k that will probably match the TT power pretty easily?
3) There are at least 6 other kits available or in development already for the Viper for turbocharging. Grants Performance, Hennessey, SVSi, Doug Levin is doing one, and John Moore is working on one and so is Lingenfelter. LPE is obviously the cadillac of this market, Hennessey has some cars built, Grants seems to be making the big power numbers, SVSi road races their cars and Levin is the unquestioned king of forced induction on Vipers and reputation and reliability. Moore seems to be taking up the "low cost" approach. So what niche is left for another competitor?
In addition, there is a major packaging problem with the Viper, and it does not have a knock sensor (not on all but the most recent, I think), so detonation is a major concern. Heat is also a big problem on these cars and I would think that the R&D required to make a TT work WELL on the Viper would make even an entry-level kit cost into the $20k+ range.
I certainly wouldn't be the first to strap one of these onto my car - especially without any sort of warranty from a company that is new to Viper tuning.
Just my .02 - no flame intended.
Regarding TT'ing a Viper, if it were MY company looking into it, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, and here's why...
1) I don't see all that much profit in it. Turbos are probably close to $3,000. Turbo headers made of quality stainless (are you sure you meant 371?) are going to cost a good $4,000-5,000. Probably $2,000 in materials alone. You're also going to need some sort of fuel management system - "adjusting" the stock system IS NOT GOING TO WORK, not at anything beyond very mild boost. A good FMU is going to be at least $2k or more. You're already looking at $9k-10k for parts alone, and you also need all sorts of plumbing, wastegates, oil/fuel lines, filters, brackets, and a bunch more which would eat into that $5k-6k margin REALLY quick.
2) Given #1 above, this system is obviously not using replacement pistons, heads, con-rods, rockers or crank. One of the things about a turbo is that there is a high up-front cost, but the gains are very nice if you 'do it right'. I don't see the point of spending so much on a turbo unless you plan to go all the way with a new intake, pistons, rods, and heads at the VERY LEAST, preferably a new crank too. If you do it the "right" way, you could probably easily make upwards of 1,500hp on the Viper motor - for probably about a $5k addition onto the price of the original kit. If you're not going to go for the really big power, why go turbo at all? Why not just get a supercharger for under $10k that will probably match the TT power pretty easily?
3) There are at least 6 other kits available or in development already for the Viper for turbocharging. Grants Performance, Hennessey, SVSi, Doug Levin is doing one, and John Moore is working on one and so is Lingenfelter. LPE is obviously the cadillac of this market, Hennessey has some cars built, Grants seems to be making the big power numbers, SVSi road races their cars and Levin is the unquestioned king of forced induction on Vipers and reputation and reliability. Moore seems to be taking up the "low cost" approach. So what niche is left for another competitor?
In addition, there is a major packaging problem with the Viper, and it does not have a knock sensor (not on all but the most recent, I think), so detonation is a major concern. Heat is also a big problem on these cars and I would think that the R&D required to make a TT work WELL on the Viper would make even an entry-level kit cost into the $20k+ range.
I certainly wouldn't be the first to strap one of these onto my car - especially without any sort of warranty from a company that is new to Viper tuning.
Just my .02 - no flame intended.
