HEMI Engine Family Receiving Upgrades To Fuel Economy, Power
Changes are coming to FCA’s HEMI engine family, ranging from increased fuel economy, to higher horsepower.
Though details are scant, the 5.7-liter HEMI V8 could receive direct injection to increase its fuel economy, Allpar writes. In turn, the upgrade would be enough to reduce or remove the need for FCA to buy CAFE credits.
Meanwhile, the Hellcat’s development splits two ways. One modification — for the upcoming Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk — would be tuned for greater refinement to better match the character of both SUV and driver, likely leading towards less horsepower under the bonnet.
The second modification is in response to Ford and Shelby bringing to market an engine said to be more powerful than the Hellcat. Thus, for 2017, FCA are looking to push the Hellcat beyond 707 horsepower against the Blue Oval’s twin-turbo 5.0-liter with direct injection and a potential 740-plus horses pushing the 2017 Shelby GT500 down the highway.
Beyond what is known, no models have been discovered as recipients for the upgrades, while said upgrades may not be ready in time for the 2016 model year’s start.
(Photo credit: Dodge)
Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.
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Umm, whatever on the Hemis...more power, DI, blah blah blah. My question is how the hell did I miss the twin turbo Ford Coyote and when can I get one under the hood of a revived Lightning F150?
1. Trucks and SUVs are still huge profit generators. Chrysler moves a lot of Hemi engines and most of them go into the heavy profit generators. It makes complete sense to put development dollars into them. 2. Trucks still count against CAFE. When trucks are such a huge part of a company's volume, improving their fuel economy has a major CAFE impact. 3. It's not like Chrysler isn't investing in other engines. The Pentastar family is still pretty new. The I4s need to be cometely replaced, though they did make tangible improvements to them. It takes time to develop a new engine family.
I'm all for gas mileage, having never in my life owned any car that did worse than 20 (a big deal in 1980!), but so much of current high mileage engine design is driven by mileage testing, rather than real world driving. I'm pretty sure that in total, in the real world, smaller turbos don't save one bit of gas. I say bully for FCA (and Toyota to a certain extent) for continuing to develop NA technology. And damn BMW to hell eternal for replacing the NA I6 with a turbo 4!
We, as a family, own three Hemis, two of which have the MDS system. I love all of them, and I'm excited Chrysler is investing in this platform. As far as we're concerned the Hemi MDS engines ARE the Chrysler 4-cylinders :-) Even the current MDS Hemis are pretty frugal (for a 5.7 V8): in our 2014 Ram CC 4x4 20mpg is my usual average, which (coming from a Nissan V8) was a major increase in fuel economy. If Chrysler can increase that, they'll surely keep me as a customer. Finally, it's pretty funny to read the comments in this thread; other than BigTruck there doesn't seem to be any hands-on owner experience with the modern Hemis in the readership. So, naturally, the discussion devolves into rants about how Porsche had a Hemi first bla bla etc. Sigh.