viper project

RedlineViper

RedlineViper

New member
Joined
Aug 2, 2004
Messages
143
Age
44
Location
Frankfort NY
well now that we have the vector, i am thinking of making a project out of the viper. not to crazy, just pipes, clutching, gearing, etc...

my main concern is the pistons. the sled has 5400 miles on it, and i'm wondering if i should just do a rebuild with pistons and rings, for a safe insurance policy. i have been told by the dealer that yamaha recomends new pistons every 5-6000 miles, and with a piped motor reving in the 9000 RPM range, it makes me wonder if they will hold up.

i am also leaning towards the bender pipes. any ideas on the same. have a local clutch tuner that i will probably bring it to as well.

should be a nice summer project!
 

RedlineViper said:
well now that we have the vector, i am thinking of making a project out of the viper. not to crazy, just pipes, clutching, gearing, etc...

my main concern is the pistons. the sled has 5400 miles on it, and i'm wondering if i should just do a rebuild with pistons and rings, for a safe insurance policy. i have been told by the dealer that yamaha recomends new pistons every 5-6000 miles, and with a piped motor reving in the 9000 RPM range, it makes me wonder if they will hold up.

i am also leaning towards the bender pipes. any ideas on the same. have a local clutch tuner that i will probably bring it to as well.

should be a nice summer project!
Click to expand...

I put Bender pipes on my 2002 Viper. Huge performance increase - very impressive. A bunch of other stuff needs to be done in addition to the pipes, however - be aware. It needs a hood relocation bracket - included with the pipes - in order to lift the front hinge about 1/2 inch for the pipes to clear. No big deal - not noticeable and the hood works the same. It also needs a new head gasket (Opticool) to change the coolant flow a little and it needs the addition of a rear heat exchanger-pretty easy to install. I also put in a new set of Boysen reeds with spacers. I also added a 1/25 camoplast track.

Putting the pipes in is kind of a bugger - a two-person job. It's a tight fit and a rubber mallet was the most valuable tool I had for that installation. The pipes do require re-routing of the exhaust valve cables, but even so you will need lots and lots of heat-reflecting insulation tape. I started out with just what Bender supplied. About 800 miles later it burned through the two mag-side exhaust-valve cables. Since applying a boatload of insulating tape, no problems in 1000 miles.

Bender has a kit for clutching and jetting with those pipes and those worked great at my 1100 foot altitude. They had no clue about other altitudes, however. I got really excellent recommendations for mountain clutching/jetting (6000 ft and above) from Mountain Performance, Inc. - they were extremely helpful and their recommendations have been right on.

I don't know anything about other pipes. This Viper project was kind of fun. There were a lot of steps, but it was a fun project and the performance gains were remarkable. If the machine had had 5000 miles on it when I did it, I would have redone the top end at the same time.
 
summer project, between the pipes and putting the clutching in it's only a few hr job.
 
pro116 said:
summer project, between the pipes and putting the clutching in it's only a few hr job.
Click to expand...

Yeh. Piece of cake. Remove/remount the hood, remount/reroute the exhaust servo/cabling, adjust the servos, remove/mount the manifolds, modify the belly pan, head gasket, toss in the pipes, rear heat exchanger, bleed the cooling system - all in time to ride down to Oley's for lunch. Add another 20 minutes and you can put new pistons in too.
 
summer project meaning i don't have to rush the whole process. i can figure exactly what i want to do, have the time for it, and do it. any moron can put pipes on in 2 hours.
 
I like the slp's. No need to do anything but heat exchanger and jetting. Might want to do some clutching but you have to do that anyways with any other pipes.6,000 on sled 4,000 with pipes no problems yet!!!! In my case didn't have to beat or bang anything to get them to work (one person job) I'm happy with them. Good luck and have fun.
 
Bender, SLP, CPR all work just fine. Whichever one you do take the time to do the rebuild and make sure your top end looks good, clean the powervalves, etc. If you have all summer to do it I'd spend the extra time and put a SRX base gasket in when you rebuild it and use the opticool head gasket with the rear heat exchanger as well and you will have no problems. If you wanted to add some more safety you could send your pistons & head into get ceramic coated on the domes of each. The Bender, SLP, and CPR are all very close in performance when you get them setup properly.
 
Sledboy,Hauck uses aaen's now?He didn't have them on his personal viper upnorth 2 week's ago.
 
spec, thank you very much. that was the answer i was looking for about doing the motor. just wondering why you would use an SRX base gasket?

gonna also use the opticool head gasket and use the rear heat exchanger.
 
The SRX base gasket allows more water to flow through the middle cylinder and keeps it cool especially if you ride in any low snow conditions.
 
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