5 Of The Best Engines Ever Put In A Dodge RAM Truck – SlashGear

“That thang got a HEMI?” If you were around and near a television in the early 2000s, then you probably remember Dodge’s annoying yet effective advertising campaign featuring that catchphrase. That touted engine would be the 5.7-liter (345 cubic-inch) Gen III HEMI V8 that first debuted in Ram pickup trucks for the 2003 model year. Though immediately popular with the general public, there was controversy among Chrysler purists because the new HEMI’s combustion chambers weren’t perfectly spherical like the old ones from the 1960s and early-1970s. 

Nonetheless, with 345 horsepower and 375 lb-ft of torque, the new 5.7-liter V8 was one of the most powerful mass-produced engines at the time, which also happened to deliver decent fuel economy. Things got even spicier in 2009 with an updated 5.7 HEMI, nicknamed the “Eagle,” which got better flowing cylinder heads and variable cam timing. The current output for the truck 5.7 HEMI is 395 horsepower and 410 pound-feet of torque.

That’s about 25 more horsepower than the passenger car version of the same motor, owing to a less restrictive intake manifold that only fits under the truck hoods. Like all Stellantis V8 engines, the Ram 5.7 HEMI is living on borrowed time and is likely to be replaced by the 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline six-cylinder engine, dubbed the Hurricane. The Hurricane boasts impressive specs, but we’ll still miss the HEMI’s glorious burbling exhaust note.