Valvetrain noise after hard braking???

[Silver Snake]

This has happened to me twice now. I am out showing my friend the awesomeness of the Viper and before we know it were doing 120MPH. Next I want to show him the great braking ability of the car and proceed to bring it down quickly. Now I begin to accelerate again and I get valvetrain noise. Like the lifters are sticking. The last time this happened I was told the oiling system on these cars is not that great and the G's while under heavy braking will cause the oil in the pan to shift enough to cause oil starvation. Thus sticking lifters.

Is this true? Makes me not want to push this car too much if every time I have to stop from higher speeds my engine is gonna be starved for oil! Do I need a new pan or something?

Thanks
Mark

[Viperfreak2]

Common issue to GenII. Both my 99 an 02 did it. SRT is immune so far. It's not sticky lifters, just a few second of (you guessed it) no oil. Usually get a big smokey cloud too, but you didn't mention that (yet) There are fixes out there, though I'm not personally familiar with them.

[ChrisGTS]

Another thing I ran into is that if you brake really hard and don't have very much gas in the tank, there is a fuel pick-up problem, and the engine loses power and makes this loud clicking noise (which I assume is the fuel pump pumping air). I noticed this at a recent track event after heavy braking zones. When I filled the tank up with gas, I did not have the problem again.

[Ulysses]

Puke can for smokey cloud, oil trap in pan for oil starvation (or pre-oiler/accumulator)

[PhilC]

I dont think that is valve train noise, I think it is detonation from all the oil getting into the combustion chamber. You need to fix that asap. Add puke can between valve covers and airbox. I also had to run the pcv (orifice control) into the same puke can to fully correct my problem. Good luck.

[tealviper94]

I had to have my head gaskets replaced right after I had purchased my 94 viper. ever since then I can hear the valve train. Not real loud. just enough to were you can hear click, click.. click... click. I Thought maybe I was paraniod or that was just the way vipers are. The oil level is fine. Do you think this is a problem?

[Viper Specialty]

ViperFreak nailed it- oil pickup running dry. 2 fixes out there; oil pan baffle system, or add an Accusump kit such as one of the ones I sell. either kit will solve the problem you describe, though an accusump kit has dual purposes- both pre-oiling and accumulator duty.

PS- If you are braking hard enough to cause oil starvation on a regular basis, you may want to strongly consider doing BOTH oil system mods, and an oil catch can to keep the oil out of the intake tract.