Dodge Viper Tuning

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We look at Viper tuning and highlight the optimum modifications. Dodge Vipers are popular tuning projects and with the right performance upgrades you can dramatically increase your driving experience.

The chassis is very capable and there are many Viper derived vehicles around. The performance and handling of the Viper is noteworthy but with the right mods you can really make a serious track day supercar.

We have seen some awesome Viper tuning projects and there seems to be quite a loyal fan base of Viper owners. Sit down first and research Viper tuning to avoid making the usual costly mistakes we see.

There were 5 generations of the Viper spanning 26 years, although there was no production between 2010-2013 due to Chryslers precarious financial situation, but a replacement was announced and we see the 5th generation coming out.

All cars sold in 2007 were actually built in 2006.

• First generation (SR I; 1991–1995)
• Second generation (SR II, 1996–2002)
• Third generation (ZB I, 2003–2007)
• Fourth generation (ZB II, 2008–2010)
• Fifth generation (VX, 2013–2017)

Handling/Suspension upgrades
Handling modifications are high on most peoples lists for the Viper.

We found that most Viper factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out for cornering or toe in for stability, -0.8 to 1.3, and a tiny bit of negative camber will often benefit your cornering and handling.

Drop the car optimally somewhere in the region of 30mm - 38 mm and fit performance stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Top end power should be your overall aim with a nice fat wide peak torque band.

Smaller engines do not provide much of a return in terms of power so start with a bigger engine. Engine swaps are a good option if you have a small engine size.

Engine Tuning.

These mods sports mods are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you begin.

Getting the right uprated parts for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 motor sport parts just don't work well on the road hard to control in slow traffic.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best Engine Mods for your car

1. Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings,  aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
2. Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they're doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
3. Intake and Exhaust - Note that on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
4. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. It is one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
5. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Alloy wheels, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Panel air filter, Lighter flywheel, Sports exhaust, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm).

Typical stage 2 mods often include: Fast road cam, high flow fuel injector, Power/Sport clutch, Ported and polished head, fuel pump upgrades.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Sports gearbox, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Engine balancing, Competition cam.

Your aim when tuning the engine should be a wide torque range. You don't want all the torque to be at the top end of the rev range unless you are creating a motor sport car.

The whole point of our articles is to give a brief overview of car tuning upgrades and point you in the right direction, our forum is where you can ask for more detailed advice and tips on your modified car project, the best uprated upgrades and all aspects of modding cars.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest bhp gains for your money as far as a solitary modified parts goes on a NA (naturally aspirated) engine.

It maximises the intake and exhaust durations and increases the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a reflashed ECU. We'd also caution you not to go with a motor sports profile cam as this affects the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

When pushing up the power you will need to increase to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

Most power losses, flat spots and erratic idling after uprated mods are done can usually be traced to timing or fuel delivery issues.Improving the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. 

Air induction kits and smooth intake track revisions were popular mods, the Viper intake can definitely be improved.

If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.

Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed on heavily tuned engines, this can be sited within an air box but a performance panel filter should suffice for most applications. TorqueCars suggest you use a panel air filter as these are easy to clean and maintain and generally perform better than paper ones.

Sports exhausts can help equal out the flow of gases through the engine. But if the exhaust is too large, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose a great deal of the flow rate and end up lacking power and torque.

Getting a professionally flowed (ported and polished) head with larger valves can fully release the engines power. Your clutch can lose you loads of power as the power goes up if it starts to break and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 40%. Fit an upgraded clutch to avoid power loss through the transmission. The best mods in our experience for your Viper are a tune/remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake.

NA (naturally aspirated) engines do not achieve big power gains if you tune/remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications.

If you have forged pistons on your engine block it makes a lot of sense to add some forced induction.

With turbocharged engines this is another story. A tuned/remapped turbo will give large power gains and take full advantage of the strength of the block. The most phenomenal power gains for NA (naturally aspirated) engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Superchargers are generally easier to add than a turbo. It is difficult to map fuelling with a turbo as the boost comes on exponentially with rpm.

Superchargers will give a boost which is correlating to engine speed so is easier to map. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the engine compression ratio .

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels will help the brake cooling and are usually lighter than the steel ones. Don't forget that your choice of rubber greatly affects your cars grip and handling. It is not worth compromising performance with cheap tyres when you can buy track legal slick performance tires.Please note although they can look cool on the Viper large alloy wheels will actually decrease your performance. The larger you go the lower your acceleration will be - this to the change in your effective final drive ratio.

Due to this fact we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 18 inches, although we know some of our members have fitted larger wheels with no problems.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss Viper options in more detail with our Viper owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Dodge tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Dodge. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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