Hello all

[Dodger]

Name's Alan Dodge and always wanted a "Dodge" Viper but got to the stage when I'll never afford one and anyway I don't like driving left hand drives in this country!, so bought a Fiero Venom replica! so called complete, MOT'd, just a few rinkles to iron out!!!

Here I am 18 months later and just enjoying the fruits of my labours through last autumn, winter, spring and most of this summer in the garage.  Great way to buy a kit car, you'll save ££££ on buying all the bits brand new from the manufacturers, BUT!! just be aware how competant and diligent the previous owner(s) were!!

The Viper (as I like to call it) was built by the old Fiero Factory and/or Auto Speciali using a Ford Granada Mk3 as the donor.  Somewhere along the line a Chevrolet small block 5.7ltr V8 was added with a GM 4L60E gearbox thru to the Granada diff.  I now have experience of the following:  replacing some rubbish electronic ignition system with a good old distributor, Squeezing the engine up to increase the ground clearance from 40mm! to 85mm and associated headaches with exhausts, bulkhead etc, Starter motor breakages (4no in total), ball joint coming apart on the A352, engine cooling, shearing the pinion off the diff ,to list just a few!  Great fun though!! so now I'm on the road again and right at the end of the season I've found you guys and looking forward to being part of the club. 

First off, does anybody have any experience of the GM 4L60E gearbox?

Dodger

[David H]

welcome

[Daley Down Under]

Welcome to the club - sounds like you've had fun to this point 

Now you can reap the rewards.  Look forward to seeing the car 'in the flesh'

Adrian

[peetee]

Welcome! Can appreciate a bit of what you've had to go through....Car looks very nice.

['The Gaffer']

Hi Alan and a warm welcome to our club. If there's something I've learnt about kit cars its that nothing ever fits first time.

The are a few guys on here that have had dealings with larger V8's so maybe they can offer advice.

Hope to catch up with you soon .

[Hairy Santa]

Hi Alan

Welcome to the madhouse

Sounds like you are like me  - buy them to sort out  - good fun ain't it

sorry dont know anything about that gearbox  - what probs are you having with it

hope to see the car in the flesh - looks great

all the best

Pete

[dave_bence]

Hello and welcome Alan

[Dodger]

Thank for the warm welcome and looking forward to meeting you all.  Would love to join you at The Kit Car Show in Exeter but I'm off on holiday till 23rd .  If the Viper is behaving though and it's a nice dry day I might tootle down the A303 on the Sunday.  It will be a slow trip mind as the problem I have with the  GM 4L60E transmission mentioned previously is that it is an electronic gearbox in a car without computer thingy to tell it when to change gear etc.  So it's in "limp home" mode only allowing reverse, 2nd and 3rd to be selected with the stick shift.  I think I've almost sorted it though, a firm called "Transgo" in the USA produce a kit to allow selection of 1st and 4th manually as well, mind you costs £200!!!, lots of small springs and fiddly things to put in the valve body!!!

['Mendip Wurzel']

Welcome Dodger. Sounds like you have had fun with your kitcar, mine constantly has bits falling off of it so you are not alone.

['The Gaffer']

Wow, that gearbox does sound complicated, looks like some hardware over software may sort your problem.

I'm sure £200 in the scheme of things connected to your build is a pi** in the wind