New Viper owner, some concerns after fresh maintenance items…

[SecureOpossum]

Hey all, just picked up a 2001 GTS with the Fitzgerald Motorsport Snake 530 package. Took care of a bunch of maintenance items (plugs, wires, PS pulley, all the fluids, tires) and drove the car up to the gas station to fill up and do a shakedown. I made sure to let it warm up before driving, and didn’t get above 2500rpm on the drive. When I got home I noticed some smoke and a burning smell coming from the front of the driver side sill, and the sill was hot enough to boil off water immediately. I’ve read about how hot the sills get but I feel like this isn’t typical. The car also makes an intermittent popping noise from the exhaust at idle, as well as at low RPM on throttle that wasn’t there before the work I did. There’s no CEL but I only drove it a couple miles. I’m going to double check the wires to make sure they’re on the right plugs (I went by the numbers on the plugs, not the manual), but what else should I check? Is this indicative of a clogged cat? I’m hesitant to keep driving the car until I’ve checked all my bases. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[BoondocSaint]

Possibly an injector issue. If it is dumping excessive fuel that can burn up a cat.

 

[daveg]

If it Definity was not there before your work, check your wires and plugs on that side first.

 

[TEALLIFE]

sounds like the mixture is way off, like others have said...maybe a wire isnt connected right or not at all or is bad.

After that...maybe a clogged cat.

 

[SecureOpossum]

It was 100% something I messed up with the wires. Not sure what exactly, but after undoing all of them and methodically reinstalling them the car is running great. Thanks again for the helpful suggestions!

 

[Dan Cragin]

You have a misfire on the side of the engine that’s getting hot. Check those wires and plugs

 

[Steve E]

The firing order is screwed up. Every Viper that came to my shop with problems was after the customer changed the plugs and wires .

 

[Dan Cragin]

They often mix up 6 and 9

 

[SecureOpossum]

It was definitely a misfire issue, though which cylinder on the driver side I can’t say. Drove the car to work and back on Friday after getting things sorted out Thursday night and it was flawless. Glad to have her back on the road and running smooth.

 

[Goggles Pizano]

The firing order is screwed up. Every Viper that came to my shop with problems was after the customer changed the plugs and wires .

They often mix up 6 and 9

I can never understand this. Just replace one at a time. Sh_t at least write/draw a picture if are going to pull all of them together.

 

[daveg]

Just replace one at a time.

^^^^ Bingo

 

[Old School]

It was definitely a misfire issue, though which cylinder on the driver side I can’t say. Drove the car to work and back on Friday after getting things sorted out Thursday night and it was flawless. Glad to have her back on the road and running smooth.

This has always been a problem, even before the days of coil packs, when you had a distributor. Getting the plug wires back on right when you’re in a hurry or not paying attention.

 

[Damn Yankee]

Because somebody may actually want to learn how to know, not guess as to the actual state of your Viper engine, I'll spend a a little time on a subject that will serve you better than almost anything you do to help your Viper from this point forward. They're essentially two types of people who run these and both of them should be looking at the dash gauges that are installed by the factory all the time, having said that, the first takes it to somebody who Tunes it and then they drive the car until they think that there's something that is not in tune and needs to be attended to. The second absolutely knows the current state and quality of their tune whenever they take a second to glance at a tiny little meter, or better yet two of them, one in each exhaust system at the collection point of your exhaust headers and ahead of the cats. It's going to cost you almost nothing to put oxygen sensors in. Then you will know if you're at Lambda (which depending on your setup means that you've got 14.7 units oxygen for every single unit of fuel.) If you see 14.7 you know your engines tuned to perfectly. If you don't see 14.7 you're going to know whether it's rich (less than 14.7) or lean (more than 14.7) and then you can either take it to have somebody else do what needs to be done or you can choose to set up your system so that you can map your own engine to perfection. What is perfection? From Idol to Red Line 14.7. You're going to know and work to ensure that you're at Lambda, anything that is wrong, you will instantly know. You will know as soon as you turn the key and the engine warms up... in the first 30 seconds. If there's trouble you can turn it off and if there's not you can go for a drive. If you're driving and your engine isn't correct you can look and see if you're rich or lean and start there. How difficult is it to install the meters? An afternoon. How difficult is it to read the meters? You look at them somewhere in your dash. How difficult is it to tune the engine so that you can achieve lambda? I figured if that skinny dude in Fast and Furious #38 could do it, I could do it........

 

[Dan Cragin]

Data is always good, we use a lot on race cars. For a street car, you can read most everything you need in real time with the OBD port. Once the car is sorted and correct, you don’t need all the extra stuff unless you have a modified car. Then you will want to add things, like more more visibility of the warning for oil pressure, max rpm, fuel pressure, etc.

My 2 cents, your opinion may differ.