Will this Sinkhole Flood Salvage Dodge Viper Start and Run? 

Also, check the trans for water. The vent will let in a good deal of water in a short time

I love seeing beautiful cars like this get saved and back on the road. I wish you luck!!

When I was a silly young man, I put my 70 Nova SS in to the bay (salt water). Drained the water/oil and refilled. Ran to operating temp and changed again (2 times). Drove that car for over a year without issue.

Please Sam stop. You have a chance to save a Viper. Do it the right way. Pull the engine and take it apart and clean it. Take apart the the entire front end and do it right. Make lots a content and bring us along on the journey 😄👍

Before replacing the starter, first check if you are actually getting power to the starter solenoid. The starter may be okay.

Since this is a flood car, there might be lots of reasons, why is the starter not engaging. The wiring from the START button to the ECU or the starter relay ; the starter relay ; the starter itself ; the ECU.. You should probably try jumping the starter if it's not somehow full of water. It also could be a badly ruster or corroded ground.

It’s always more fun to watch someone try to start a flood car without pulling engine for tear down. If it was mine I would simply pull everything and rebuild, but like I said it always interesting to see if it start with simple DIY hacks. Keep up the good work Sam!!!

Lots of marine diesel engines get started after sinking....staying filled with water isn't terrible if you drain/clean/treat the engine before trying to fire it up.

ARP con rod bolt? Most likely That's a Racing built engine good score!

The evaporust did amazing! Also that cylinder is way worse than what I imagined when we spoke on the phone.

Anyone else shouting "JUST START THE DAMN CAR!" at their screens? Seriously though you did a great job cleaning those internals and I am confident it is going to be ok once you do get some power on the starter.

I'm confident it will work if you make sure all the dirt inside the components are cleaned as best as possible. Don't make us wait too long for the next video 😄

I've been in the car business for 30 years. Not seen the whole video but this engine needs a full strip and rebuild to save it. If it does run it's probably going to eat itself and destroy any components that might have lived again. Want you to succeed but all that sand/rust and water internally is a death sentence.

I had an engine with water in it like that and one thing i can recommend is that you should crank the engine for a few seconds with the oil filter off to blow out the oil passage from the pump. A bunch of white sludge came out of mine.

Hi Sam, This was my car. Happy to help fill in any info you need. Still sick about it. Was absolutely immaculate!

It might a built or REBUILT engine already! Noticed your bearing caps have ARP bolts on them...

Most likely going to need a new PCM. The computer is in the front left corner of the car and was completely underwater. Would be really surprised if it's not completely corroded inside.

When it comes to the starter Sam all you have to do is take it apart clean it re-grease it then test it. Most likely it has sand and other material preventing it from functioning.

enjoying this series so much man, cant wait for that thing to roar into life, fingerz crossed

Just want to say I really enjoyed the video this is like legit my dream car I've always loved the vipers every time I would play midnight club it would literally be the only car I would drive so just for watching you restore something this amazing you just got a new subscriber and a good like form me because of how much I love these cars cant wait for the next video

I'm pretty sure it will fire but I also think in the process you will liberate so much crap that something is bound to get caught in the valves and burn them. If you just removed the heads you could really clean it up a lot more and you don't have to remove the block. Good luck, it's a beaut.

Wishing Sam a speedy recovery after the cholera infection from drinking the intake water...

Wow Sam, you got me very excited to see the follow-up video of this awesome one here! Loved it all the way 👍😀

Keep on keeping on, you are on the right track and I can't wait to hear that beast roar back to life. Good luck.

Like with salvaging Boats, NEVER drain your engine until you are immediately ready to tackle, start to finish. Boat salvage operators won't raise the boat until they are ready to begin work. Not that I'm an expert, but it takes air to start the oxidation process, so their logic makes sense.

Been waiting 2 weeks for this….hope we don’t have to wait 2 more weeks. Dying to know how this turns out

i look forward to seeing this thing run. Can't wait for the next video

You seem pretty confident so I'm with you on this one-- let's hope a starter helps!

I am so intrigued with this process! Great thought process Sam.! 👍🏾 😁

Love your videos Sam - keep em coming man!

love these projects! There will always be naysayers... keep up the interesting projects!

Make sure you’re doing the start sequence correctly. And reset the inertia switch.

It’s a shame the engine wasn’t drained immediately and flushed and filled with new oil within hours of retrieving it. I floated a car across a flooded off ramp. I immediately drained all fluids and refilled. I had no issues with anything in the car. At this point this engine looks like it will never be the same, without a full tear down. The rust on the cylinder walls will surely promote loosing the rings compression and oil control. A hone is a minimum and probably needs to be bored out. The numerous electrical issues will be secondary to the future of this car, but it is truly a shame that the engine was so neglected after the flood. At this point, I would not be looking for short cuts, but would be evaluating whether the engine is salvageable by a full tear down.

These are interesting videos with some mystery if it's going to run or not, much better than the quick flip ones I've seen on YT before! ☺️

Just waiting for the continuation of this series. Nice video. 👍

What a let down. Was really looking forward to hearing the engine ticking over. Hopefully next time Sam.

before changing the starter break the cover on an old relay and use it as the starter relay and close the contacts manually that way you break the system in half, if it tries to crank or cranks the engine bay wiring is good and possibly the starter and the issue is between the button and pcm

Really like this content, keep up the good work with more practicable cars to have and fix!

Haven't watched SamCrack for a while, but this video is really good.

Make sure the clutch pedal switch works, the one that detects if the clutch is depressed to start the engine!

Could try jumping the starter relay pin 30 to 87 with the relay removed that would also eliminate a bad component before the relay and also find out if the starter is bad. You would also hear the starter relay click even if the starter is bad.

The video I’ve been waiting for clicked so fast lol

You will probably get it to spin over. Then you will probably get it to run eventually. Then the same thing may happen as those dudes with the flood GranTurismo....you'll spin a bearing. Then you won't be rebuilding but replacing this motor. But it's interesting to watch you try.

Love the videos can't wait for the next one

Great content, can't wait to see her run

I’ve now rebuilt 4 flood cars and every time i had to replace the fuse panel under the hood. Also the starters were toast every time too, even a few that didn’t have water in the engines.

Found you from Ratarossa visit in UK and a great car channel. Really respect your 'give it a go' approach. All the best from UK..

I loathe American commuter cars, but my god, Vipers are quite amazing. No one has a simpler formula for fun than the Viper engineers. Great to see this on your channel.

It seems like you’re doing a very good job Sam. It will be fine. 👍

Darn it Sam! Just spent my lunch break in the Florida heat so I could watch this with no interruptions to hear this bad boy at least crank!! You got this cuz, get this SOB howling!

@Samcrac Many people will not see it or tell you they enjoy it a lot. But i see you are uploading video's in 4K30 and it means a lot, it's just that extra to make me come back :)

Great progress Sam!

Dude! You got some mad skills....... kickass bro

Cool. Can't wait to see the end result !

The sand comes from around the hydrant and the water line. When installing both items, they compact everything in the ground with a strain sand and or "concrete" sand (sewer lines). This way they pack ot tightly to make sure to stay in location. Plus, when water leaks happen, alot of the sand is pushed out and you can develop sink holes or sunken ground levels. So more then likely, the sand was all pushed up amd away from the pipes holding both items

Wow i like this video gives alot on information how to treat the viper thanks .

Done a bit of deep water driving, a good starting point for a water fill is oil pressure switch out and make an air line fitting that will replace the switch and fit an old long air line to it remove the dip stick and filler cap and cover with a rag and next blast it for a few minutes. Next fill the air line with oil and drop the pressure down to 30-40 psi stand back and blast away again and you should be ok to drain, replace the filter and refill with cheap and run for 10-15 minutes to get it upto temperature. If it all goes well then it is drain and fill with good new oil and a one more filter, good luck.

Sam, I'm glad I didn't have a chance to bet on those 10 cylinders moving at all. I'd have lost. Good job. Good luck going forward.

Thanks Sam. You give me inspiration.

LMAO. Sam you kill me sometimes. Prev viper vid: Complains about cost of rust cleaner ($10-15 or something) This vid: "Totally forgot to check the fuse box!...........so we overnighted all new relays" ($$$$$$)

You better give your wonderful step mom the first drive. She is such a sweet lady, giving us all pleasure when she is around. A true inspiration to us all.

Sam, excellent DIY, hurry with the next episode, we gotta see it run.

I am excited, fingers crossed!

Positive that this engine going to run,excellent job

Good luck with it Sam i have my fingers crossed

More and more I watch the better I dig your skills. Good job 👍

i had a 95 mustang gt that was a flood car i had bought when i was 19, i had bought it for 900 bucks in practically perfect shape 112k miles, just flooded, i beat that thing daily to 183k miles before i sold it. As for electrical issues, they were minor. It really depends on the car, that one had water up to the seat cushions.

Sam uses Optimism - it’s super effective. +10 rust inhibitor, -10000 math ability

not sure if vipers or have it, but maybe an inertia switch got tripped when hitting the hydrant?

One your best new car projects for sure I'm hooked on this viper

Go ahead Sam, clean everything again and again till you feel confident, by sure it will run smoothly. What about the gearbox?

Sam one of these days you need to pull a "ChrisFix" style clean up. We want that satisfying dirty to clean adventure, this project is a bit lacking on that but still a good journey.

The starter is rusty and full of water. Good job Sam. Never seen Sage working so fast haha

Sam What about the two post lifts ? 😂

Noone knows how to drag a project on across an uneccesary number of videos better than samcrac. I literally just fast-forward through 75% of his videos because it's just rambling haha. I just watch the parts where something actually happens.

It's your ECU. I had the same same problem. I tried cleaning the engine bay and didn't notice the ECU was present. This was on a Kia Optima. Dealership wanted 2500. Went to ebay using the same number on the ECU and got one for 65.00. Got it and fired up and it worked just fine. Hope to see it crank up...Good Luck

Crazy Thank you for the video

welcome back Sam

After seeing all the progress, even more confident it will run no problem. Am I confident it will have great compression on every cylinder with only 5-10% deviation? Eh I'd go with 70/30 odds on that.

I couldn’t wait for this episode to drop

You very could be right could be the starter , starter relay etc. really good progress so far Sam

can't wait for the next one !!

U should way over fill the the oil and let sit for a day to coat the bearings then drain some out to get it to level

Great video. More more more please

Check to see if the check engine light is coming on when in position 2: that will indicate that the ECU is at least somewhat functional

6:42 that's an ARP (aftermarket) rod cap bolt. there may be some upgrades in that engine

Come on do it, need to see more of this Viper

I would mesure the pistons at TDC to check possible bent rods. Many knuckle heads at the Auction site try to start flood engines without checking the oil. Some even do it in their walkarounds videos.

as always, good content.

Facinating stuff. 👏

13:11 nice to see that your snake camera came back from one month in the future to take a video for you

Diesel used to be used to clean internal engines. Drove the engine hot, emptied out the oil and filled up with diesel and some oil, then the engine started and had to go idle for a couple of minutes.

Great to see it turning over okay 😁

"... and this is the start of how Sam developed his diagnostic palate. Like the Car Wizard." 🧙‍♂

I am hopeful that you can get it to start, and that it is not damaged internally. Good Luck.

I have no experience, but I think this thing will be fine and in the next video you will be doing donuts in the Viper!

Samcrac. Your master sports car mechanic!

You got balls Samcrac. Have at it. This is an easier fix than that Ferrari

This is such a fun project to watch.

Good steel takes a "little" time to rust. Cast is a more porous. But creates a "skin" ..from going deeper. Steel, once it takes hold, it penetrates deep! Time was your friend.