Tool

have any of you had any major problems with you hemi engine?? and how much power can this motors make reliably? also the trans behind it is that a good unit too??

MrDestinE

I for one have not had any problems to speak off despite literally Hundreds of 1/4 time slips... there are some that have though.. the limit of power is also a question at this time due to tuning issues, then again some of the members on other boards have upwards of 550 HP to the rear wheels on juice. I really think that we could use forged internals... 6.1 has forged crank and pistons.. while the 5.7 uses cast parts. The trans also is an unknown quantity as far as power goes, perhaps we will find out some time soon....
BTW, Most of the members pushing a lot of N2O that have no problems while those that have the problems are mostly stock... luck of the draw I guess..

TJ

Toe

Yah it seems like either these engines are good for big hp or they will break with even the stock amount of hp. Stock trucks only dyno in about 250-270, the mushy tranny gives a high drivetrain loss at about 25%. My truck has the tick often talked about but I haven't had any problems with the engine, just the posi clips in my diff broke, warped my front rotors and had a leak from the power steering rack all fixed underwarrenty. The tranny beside being mushy, seems to be reliable, I've only heard of a few failing.

With Long Tube Headers, Exhaust, Programmer, CAI, 6.1L cam, underdrive pulley and Electric fan guys are dynoing in around 340hp, decent gains considering the 6.1L is still on the tame side. And you can now get heads, intakes, larger injectors to bump that up even more.

I get my 6.1L cam installed on Monday, when I get my programmer back so I can set it to a 120mph, I can do a proper 3rd gear dyno, I hope to be in around 320-330rwhp.

It may get a little risky running large shots of NoS, or 6psi+ boost on a Turbo or Supercharger, but many have done it with no problems. With boost, at least on the 03's the piston rings sit too high up on the piston, under heavy boost they can crack the piston. I heard this was fixed on the 04 plus rams, but have never confirmed it... need an 03 and 04 piston to compare. The 03 rams have a more restrictive fuel pump resulting in 10psi lower at the fuel rails under full throttle. This can cause the 03's to lean out more then the 04's. There is a fix, I plan on getting a 04 tank/pump from a wrecker to fix the problem.

Tool

thanks for the response was being yelled at while typing so sorry for it not making much sense. i haven't heard of any major problems with the hemi, i was just wonderin if they were as strong as the old bunch they replaced.

MrDestinE

uh, NO! if you are referring to the 426 hemis... but these will be as good or better when properly modded with forged internals and ARP bolts..

TJ

Rumble Bee Ram

I run the crap out of mine and have not had the first issue.........."knocks on wood while saying this."

ktmrider

Right, stock seems to have no major issues other than the ones listed by Toe. A few of the early 03' had some valve spring problems that were fixed under warranty ( 7/70 powertrain ). I personally HATED the rotor crap and replaced them with aftermarket models. After 17k miles no pulsing.
More and more boost/N2O folks are puking the tranny now. I seems most of them are the 04+ people who could not play the the torque management stuff before the SC and Hypertech were out. Low line pressures are burning up the bands between shifts. The turbo guys are having better luck. Only thing I can think of is the boost delay keeps some of the shock out of the driveline compared to the supercharger and giggle gas. DC is also lowering the warranty to 3/36 for all future trucks.

Tool

i was referring to the 318 360 motors. great times and nice trucks. when i sell the dakota i have now im lookin to get a rc hemi. thats good to know that there tough.

J'ville

The new HEMI is fast getting a reputation for bulletproof reliability around the world. We don't see it because we have a tendency to nickpick, but we are allowed too.
Forgive me for not being able to link the source, but the 5.7 HEMI has now made the "worlds best 10 engines list" for the last three years. That is quite a testament in it-self.

1Red Dawg

I just bought my 05 with 30 miles on it, when would be a good time to switch to a synthetic oil?