1996 Viper GTS Venom 550 Hennessey - modifications
 

Here is another project that I am working on. I purchased this 1996 Viper GTS Venom 550 Hennessey a couple years ago and am now in the process of "tweaking" the car...for both power and looks. This Viper only has 1800 miles and hasn't even reached it's first oil change!! I can not own a vehicle and not "tweak" it regardless of its age and/or value. So let the wrenchin' begin!!!

Here are the stats before the "tweaking" began.

Engine

• V10 8.0 L - 488 cubic inch

• 10.0:1 compression (increased due to the Hennessey mods)

• Hennessey Venom cylinder heads

• Hennessey roller camshaft

• Hennessey intake manifold

• Hennessey Venom 550 valve covers

• 514 HP and 543 TQ (at wheels)

Exhaust

• Hennessey 1 3/4" stainless steel long tube headers

• Hennessey 3" stainless steel tubes

Brakes

• Brembo 13" racing calipers - front/rear

• Mov'It 13" cross drilled rotors - front/rear

Suspension

• Koni coil over shocks with Eibach springs - 2" lowered

Wheels

• 18"x10" HRE - front

• 18"x13" HRE - rear

Tires

• 285/35 18 Michelin - front

• 335/30 18 Michelin - rear

These pics are what the car looked like when I purchased it.

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More pics before modifications.

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Here is a list of modifications that I am planning to do. I am also working with one of the best Viper tuners, Joe Donovan - Performance By Joe - PBJ (www.performancebyjoe.com) to see how much more juice I can squeeze out of the engine.

Engine
PBJ Air Intake System
PBJ camshaft (to increase HP) - to be determined
9.0 L racing oil pan with windage tray & ACR adapter - to be determined
VEC 3 controller (to enable more precise engine control)
CNC machined power steering bracket (OEM unit has the tendency to break)
Gen. III Viper valve covers
Powdercoat valve covers and intake (darker Red)

Transmission
skip shift module
B&M Ripper Shifter

Exhaust
ceramic coat headers and tubes
Borla XR-1 Racing mufflers
Random Technology catalytic convertors

Cooling
Ron Davis aluminum racing radiator

Wheels
Forgeline SP3P wheels (gunmetal centers)
19" x 10" - front
19" x 13" - rear

Tires
Pirelli PZERRO ROSSO
285/30 19 - front
355/25 19 - rear

Exterior
upgraded Viper GTS emblems
upgraded Venom 550 Hennessey emblems
MGW Viper emblem pop open gas cap
U.S. Exotics Diamondback hood


Interior
Venom 550 Hennessey floor mats
Venom 550 Hennessey seat emblems
Venom 550 Hennessey dash plaque
MGW first strike race shifter knob
Viper GTS side sill covers
Viper GTS door pull surrounds
Aluminum control knobs - all
Aluminum dash console
Aluminum racing pedals
Push button start
Dynamat sound deadener
Stereo system - to be determined

I will be posting pics as I work through the modifications.
Cheers
Jason

Here are some pics of the Viper in my shop just before I started the modifications.

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Here are some pics of disassembling the interior. I removed the carpet and original sound deadener so that new Dynamat could be installed.

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More pics of the interior.

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Here are some pics with the intake manifold and valve covers removed. I removed them so I can have them powdercoated with a much more vibrant Red. I am removing the original wiring harness tape and convulted tubing because it is old and dried out. I will be rewrapping the wiring with new tape and installing high-temp convulted tubing.

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Additional pics.

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When I removed the intake manifold I used a Dremmel to grind off the casting ridges where the two halves were fused together during the manufacturing process. I wanted the manifold to look smooth without the rides. Next step is to remove the original paint.

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Here is a picture of the stainless steel exhaust headers before they were ceramic coated.

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Here are the brakes before I detailed them. Will be polishing the center of the front rotors and painting the center of the rear rotors. Front rotors are two piece and the rears are one piece.

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:wow: :thumbsup:

My dream car!!! Love it!

The Dream car geting even better! Awesom man! I must Admire your guts, a viper in mint condition and you are tearing it apart :) Keep it up man!

By the way.. a guy in town (Gällivare sweden) had a Viper.. but he wrecked it its first summer here, what a jerkoff he was, it was the first snow and he went riding it. :S

Well, Kepp up both your Viper projects!! I will be watching you. :unibrow:

This is the differential before and after. The diff. had many leaks as it was not properly sealed after the gear ratios were changed by the previous owner. I disassembled the diff and cleaned the housing surfaces to provide a better seal. I also installed a drain valve in the bottom of the case. Added some paint to the u-joints to give them some spice. Bolted the case up with stainless steel allen wrench fasteners...bling bling.

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Im confused I thought you were taking all of the suspension and drivetrain out of the viper and putting it into the mustang? If you still are doing that then why are you doing stuff to the interior and other things? Aslo what are you going to do with the viper once you take all the suspension and drivetrain out if that is still your plan?

Sorry for the confusion but I am not taking the Viper powertrain out of my 96 GTS. I will be purchasing a seperate Viper powertrain and suspension system for the Mustang. So that's why I am working on the Viper. I am simply "tweaking" the Viper for power and looks.

Hope this clears up the confussion. :thumbsup:

Cheers
Jason

Best looking color combo for the viper coup imo. That car is sex on wheels.

Well that makes sense now. Then mod the hell out of the viper.

:hail: :hail: :hail: Yeah Baby, Yeah...Sex on wheels!! :D

These are the brakes after I detailed them. I polished the center of the front rotors and painted the center of the rear rotors. I also installed high temp Venom 550 decals on the calipers.

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These show the intake manifold during and after removal of powdercoating. The powdercoating was extremely difficult to remove even with industrial air craft paint stripper.

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I purchased Gen. III Viper valve covers to install on my Gen. II engine. I'm going to change the valve cover color to match the intake manifold. These show the valve covers before, during and after powdercoat stripping.

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In front of the engine is a cross brace that spans the width of the engine compartment to provide support to the upper frame. This support is aluminum and I decided to detail it. The pics show the brace before and after polishing.

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looks good, more then likely it was powdercoat not paint, it does not like to come off, acts like rubber

Sweet! I was surfing the net and found a picture of The Hennessey Venom 1000 twin turbo engine, man that intake is awesome! I gues thats a III gen engine so i dont know if it fits your engine, but it would look awesome.
But i am sure you will make that intake look Top notch!
Keep it up!

Yes you are correct...the original intake coating is powdercoating and a huge paint to remove. I will edit my text above to indicate powdercoating.

Thanks
Jason

I am a stickler for consistency and therefore decided to paint the half shafts silver in color to look somewhat similar to the drive shaft which is aluminum. I also polished the aluminum drive shaft to clean it up. Pics are before and after painting and polishing.

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Maybe I missed it, but what are those rear rotors off of? They look like they were a 5 lug rotor, drilled to work with your 6 lugs.

What size are they?

Yeah a Gen. III intake will not fit on a Gen. II engine. They are totally two different beasts. Stay tuned for the powdercoated intake and valve covers.

The brakes are as follows:

Brembo 13" racing calipers - front/rear

Mov'It 13" cross drilled rotors - front/rear

When these racing brakes were installed back in 1996, Hennessey installed Mov'It rotors. The stamping on the rotors indicates Viper RT/10 and not GTS. I suspect that Mov'It did not have a GTS brake package developed at that time. So they modified the RT/10 brakes to fit the GTS.

If you look at the picture of the installed rear rotor you will notice an aluminum spacer plate in the center of the rotor. This spacer plate was not part of the rotor. This plate is also stamed with a Mov'It logo.

These brakes are absolutely awesome and stop on a dime! :thumbsup:

Loving the updates, can't wait to see the car done.

More pics of drive shaft and half shaft.

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Stainless Steel headers complete with high-temp ceramic coating.

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These pics are of the transmission cover plate. Black plate is OEM. I had a new aluminum plate fabricated to add some bling.

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Pics of OEM gas cap (without Sneaky Pete logo) and new gas cap with logo.

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Here's the rims that will be installed. Forgeline SP3P wheels (gunmetal centers). Ya gotta love the height of the wheels stacked in my shop. They are HUGE!!! :cool:

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Front wheels.

Forgeline SP3P wheels (gunmetal centers)
19" x 10"

Pirelli PZERRO ROSSO
285/30 19

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Rear wheels.

Forgeline SP3P wheels (gunmetal centers)
19" x 13"

Pirelli PZERRO ROSSO
355/25 19

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