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Hemi V8: ten quick points on the return of the fabled engine
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Jun 8, 2025
Ten quick points about the 5.7 Hemi V8’s return to Ram 1500, and, possibly, the Dodge Charger and Durango - why they stopped production, how they brought it back and why that makes it cost more, the Hurricane and V8 pros and cons, and more...
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hi there this is Dave and I've got 10
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points today and they're all about the
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new Hemi announcement so we just heard
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that the uh 5.7 Hemi is going right back
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into the Ram 1500 pickup truck from
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which it so recently departed and it
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will have the same specs as the outgoing
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one that will come at a cost for buyers
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it is $1,200 more than the same truck
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with a hurricane engine there's a higher
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premium if you get the truck that would
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normally come with a V6 so what do you
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get for your $1,200 well you get a
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rebellion badge on the side to show that
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you're a Rebel you get a new exhaust
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tuning well actually you get an old
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option of exhaust tuning that sounds
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louder and more exciting uh and you get
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less power than the Hurricane engine
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gave you uh and you get much less power
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at lower revs because the Hurricane
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everybody who tries one comes back
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saying "Boy that's a great engine."
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People who have towed it uh used it for
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towing up mountains say "Wow I had
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power." Like I had lots of power it was
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smooth it was at all RPMs it's you know
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people are really impressed with this
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engine who have bought it and who have
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been using it uh and you get lower fuel
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economy by about 10% a lot of people
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won't care about that but it's there i
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mean if you think about what it would
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wouldn't it be nice to cut 10% off your
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fuel bill or do you go from one gas
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station to another looking for a lower
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price there you go the other thing is it
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requires 89 octane fuel mid-grade in the
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United States and not regular which the
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Hurricane takes regular and I know that
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some of you out there will say "Well
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that doesn't matter nobody puts
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mid-grade into a Hemi anyway." in which
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case the power actually is lower than
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the stated rating because you're using
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lower octane fuel and the timing gets
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changed to compensate for that and
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you're losing a little gas mileage and
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then the advantages of the hurricane are
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actually stronger so basically you're
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paying $1,200 for rebellion uh what Tim
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uh in charge of Ram calls freedom of
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choice
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uh and extra cylinders now I see why
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some people might want the Hemi i get it
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there's people who think it's too
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complicated compared to the hybrid Hemi
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V8 uh because it's got the twin turbos
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and that's fair although
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turbochargers are not exactly unreliable
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these days and it's not like you don't
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have them in Cummins diesels or in other
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vehicles that last a good long
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time but yeah I get it there too and
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it's going to be harder to service
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probably the Hurricane will be harder to
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service and the Hemi has proven itself
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for the most part the Hurricane is still
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new uh the 392 is not um been announced
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yet there probably will be a 392 coming
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back it's hard to know uh they've got
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pretty flexible equipment so there's not
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much standing in the way of doing a 392
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but let's remember that there was not a
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392 Ram 1500 it was 5.7 and then TRX
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Hellcat whereas there is a high output
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hurricane putting out about 550
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horsepower that you can get in your Ram
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1500 right now since they're putting the
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engine back into production and they're
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using largely new equipment to do it
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when it goes back in August uh the test
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trucks presumably were made using old
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stock Hemis or they were handmade or
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there's some other option that I'm
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missing uh but they are not the
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mainstream 5.7 Hemis that you'll find in
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the 2026 Ram 1500 option but any uh that
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roll off the line that hasn't finished
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being installed yet there might be some
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changes between the ones that they
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demoed and the ones that people actually
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buy when they come out in the 2026
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models and those might be just for
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durability and reliability which would
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be fine everybody likes more durability
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and reliability on the other hand it's
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quite possible that they're not making
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any changes or that they're again only
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making durability and reliability
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changes or changes to meet new emission
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controls or that they're making changes
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for economy and in all those cases they
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might not make any real changes to
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horsepower and torque and then we have
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the final point which is does this new
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assembly line making 5.7 Hemis and
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possibly other V8
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engines does that replace a planned
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assembly line for the new Hurricane does
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that reduce the number of Hurricanes
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available for say Grand Cherokees which
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for some reason never got the hurricane
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engine that they were supposed to get at
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least 2 years ago the Hemi is a V8 the
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V8 does have a certain magic and now
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Ram's question is was it the lack of
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that magic that kept sales down because
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let's not forget the Ram heavy duty
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never lost its 6.4 Hemi that has stayed
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in production on the heavy duties and
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the heavy duties have really lost a lot
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of sales and the Durango never lost its
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V8 but the Durango's really lost a lot
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of sales so is that from a V8 we don't
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know what we do know is the Hemi V8 is
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back in the Ram 1500 and I'll see you
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soon
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