Some updates:
- Rod bearings are all good.
- Mains are good
- No scoring on the cylinder walls that I can spot, so far so good.
- The lifters do look like they got hot, one has some wear I don't like, and I am concerned may have harmed the cam. This just reinforces oil starvation.
- The 80% of the lifters feel pretty smooth, a few definitely are not super smooth on rolling them, and have a little binding, not a fan.
- All pushrods look fine, all straight. No horrific wear, and are all passing oil.
- Head bolts were torqued oddly. Someone has been in here and done a head gasket set before, and there was no pitting in the heads which is great. However, the torque spec seemed far too loose on the corners, far too tight in the center. So whomever did it did not follow procedure, which is fine, but tells me someone was in here.
- Have /not/ yet pulled the oil pump. Not sure how much of a pain it'll be but it must be easier than taking the heads off.
Next steps:
- Inspect the lifters and test to see if they are indeed in or out of spec, some did feel squishy and my understanding is that they /should not/ be able to be done that with my bare hands unless I'm He-Man.
- Scope the cam and look at it prior to pulling it, since that'll be far easier to do.
- Starts putting together a full parts list of all the things to seal up, replace, and get back to normal.
Post notes:
- Working on a viper engine is really not as bad as i expected. Things are pretty easy to get to, move out of the way, disconnect.
- There's very little in the way, getting valve covers off is almost direct
- I'm used to working on old german cars or the jalpa and i haven't really dealt with a car that has a "simple" exhaust. Usually you have a mix of bolts from the top and bolts you have to get from the bottom and weird angles just to get the headers off. There is a shield cover held on by 3 nuts, those come off, slide right up, expose the rest of the bolts and studs, and they are all within hands reach and use a simple 13mm socket. Then they slide right up and out with ease. Honestly, pretty freaking dope. The clamp below is on a flex pipe from the factory that easily moves out of the way.
- The intake manifold is really pretty awesome. I'm used to seeing return systems and I know that returnless systems exist, but on the viper, the whole intake manifold is both the "rail" and supply, returnless, and has just one single fuel line. Couldn't have made it easier.
- With the intake manifold off, there's really nothing in the middle, with the valve covers off, it's a matter of a handful of bolts that are even bolted to the heads (alternator and power steering pump) and then the bolts come out and the coils come off the back of the heads, and blammo, heads come right out.
I have always heard "these are purpose made cars, they're built like a race car: easy to work on, easy to get to things, and made to be easy to rebuild." but now that I'm finally getting to work on one? I gotta say, they really hit the nail on the head. These are a gearhead's dream when it comes to ease to work on. And by comparison of other cars that offer similar performance that are european, the parts are reasonable by far, by comparison.
While I was pretty bummed I had to dig in and was dreading it, I am feeling far more comfortable, and really quite enjoying the ride. Can't wait to actually enjoy the ride again soon.