Viper Head Gasket

Viper Treats

Viper Treats

New member
Joined
Feb 21, 2005
Messages
431
Age
51
Location
Appleton, WI
Does it do any good to change a head gasket after 8600 miles or so? Someone told me my overheat problem could be from a head gasket. I thought for $30 it would be worth pulling the head anyway and looking to see how the cylinders and jugs look. Also I have heard of aftermarket gaskets for better cooling. Anyone have a part #/Manuf/description? Also anyone have the head bolt torque spec?

Thanks,
Treats
 

Yeah swap it out and replace with the Bender Opticool gasket.

A gasket is probably not the cause of your overheating problem if your sled is stock. I would check over your cooling system and flush and bleed it properly.
 
Opticool gasket is for piped vipers with cooling problems. Should work great for you, as for changing the gasket at 8600 miles... not sure, but it would be a good idea anyway if you have cooling issues. Another thing you could do is add an SRX base gasket. As for torque specs: 20 ft-lbs for the heads. 24 ft-lbs for the jugs if you do the base gasket. Like said above you should not be having a cooling issue if your sled is stock... unless it's sitting at idle for too long?
 
A lot of '02 Vipers had overheat problems even when stock without a rear heat exchanger. Adding a rear exchanger will cure your overheating problems. It is POSSIBLE that it could be a head gasket, but not likely. If you don't have coolant pushing out of the overflow and your heat exchangers are all warm, its not a headgasket. If a headgasket is bad it will put compression into the cooling system, making air pockets, and the overflow will overflow (no pun intended) and the heat exchangers probably wont all feel hot. If you don't have these symptoms try adding a rear exchanger first.
 
It is piped and I do have the rear exchanger. Last winter I lost a heat exchanger and had it welded and from that point on I had an overheat only when really rodding on it. Most guys on the board thought it was an air lock but I rode it 1000 miles afterwards so I thought the air would have worked out. I did re-bleed it this summer (dealer did the welding), but have not had a chance to ride it since. Thought maybe a head gasket could explain the symptoms and it is a cheap investment. I thought it was worth a try. Trying to avoid the rebuild if the water pump gear is slipping.
 
It is possible that you could still have an air lock, keep bleeding it several more times and see what happens. If you lost a heat exchanger last year, that probably means you overheated it right? Then it is also possible that your head gasket is bad now, as the expansion of the metal could stress the gasket and make it fail.
 
all small things add up to big help in the cooling dept. srx base gasket, opticool (or modifying a stock head gasket) water wetter or engine ice, added rear exchanger equal alot better cooling. for piped vipers the more help the better. ski
 
Hey ski did you do the srx gasket? I have everything water wetter included for my piped vipe but the srx bask gasket.
 
Not sure on the SRX basegasket, but I know some base gaskets may be thicker and it changes your port timimg a bit.
 
yamaholic22 said:
It is possible that you could still have an air lock, keep bleeding it several more times and see what happens. If you lost a heat exchanger last year, that probably means you overheated it right? Then it is also possible that your head gasket is bad now, as the expansion of the metal could stress the gasket and make it fail.
Click to expand...


Yeah, it overheated when the exchanger went. I will change the gasket and bleed it again. It is a small investment and easy job I think worth trying. Thanks again for the all the help.
 
when you lost your heat exchanger how bad did you over heat your engine?did you imeaditly shut it down the secound you heard a object go through the exchanger or did you keep on riding till the light came on or the sled died?it makes a big difference if overheated real bad could be headgasket,cracked head or cylinder, bent cylinderhead. how bad exchanger damaged did the welding restrick the flow of coolant through it thus reducing its ability to cool pousably needing replacment
 
yes that is another possiblity, that the head is warped if it overheated pretty bad. Might want to get that checked while you are at it.
 
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