Changing Headgasket in Viper

P

PurePower

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Joined
Jan 10, 2008
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Minnesota
I will be changing headgasket soon on my '02 Viper and was wondering if I could get any pointers? How/best way to drain anti-freeze? Anything I need to know that isn't obvious? :) Also, is the bender opticool headgasket the way to go? I am all stock, but might be worth the extra $'s. Thanks in advance!
 
if your stock, no real need to get a opti-cool head gasket. stock will suffice, but you can get the opti-cool gasket if you don't have a rear heat exchanger, which IMO you should have, regardless if its stock or not. for draining the coolant, there is a drain bolt on the front of the crankcase/water pump cover, that says "drain" above it. pull that bolt out and you'll drain down enough coolant to pull the head off. for loosening the head bolts, start w/the outside ones and work your way into the center, while staggering/jumping around. for torquing back down, start in the middle and work your way out. first torque to 10ftlbs, then torque to 20ftlbs. hopefully daman will chime in and can post a pic of the head torque sequence for the viper head. if he does, then you start w/the highest # and work your way down to #1 for loosening, but for tightening the head down, start w/#1 and work your way up. for adding coolant, fill up till the cold line on the coolant bottle, then raise the back of the sled off the ground, and pull out the bleeder screw and leave it out till the coolant starts to bubble out. if the back of the sled is too high you will need to lower the back, until the coolant comes out the bleeder screw. re-add coolant to bring the level up to the cold line and you should be good to go. good luck.
 
Turkey baster or mitivac pump to empty the coolant tank. Drain bolt as mentioned above with small catch pan. It is difficult to not spill it.
 
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