Pressure cap failure consequences...

Mark Crosby

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Running the car like normal and really got on it in 1st up to 4th and noticed the temp climbing past normal. Gauge got to 250 point, obviously something was wrong. Pulled off, coolant spattered all over my passenger side and fender well. Knowing my pressure cap failed, I got a new one. Testing car out again problem still persisted to happen. Upon further research, a YouTube guy I follow Boostedmotorsports, had the same problem I’m assuming. Pulled the radiator, had the core swapped out and thank god I did, I can post pictures of my old one. Other than that, the issue was that since it got so hot, the water pump impeller failed and only worked at low rpms. Revving the car up through gears, the impeller would simply not spin, but just spin on the shaft. Boostedmotorsports has a good YouTube video on how to swap it out. In the end, I swapped that out upon updating the radiator and hoses and car runs ice cold. This post is just to let other viper owners to know to check that pressure cap or the water pump will probably fail. Cheap part ended up turning into a few more bucks than I wanted to spend and hours. By the way, if you have an actually live data reader for the obd, use it for engine coolant temp. The gauge on these cars is not entirely accurate. Used the stock coolant temp sensor and an aftermarket one. Both read the same while running the car and the gauge on the dash will mislead you a bit. It is close, but not entirely. Anyways hope my problem may help some people.
 

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