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Hemi V8: ten quick points on the return of the fabled engine
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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