When Volkswagen, followed by pretty much every other European automaker, was found to have been faking emissions gear, American diesel pioneer Cummins stood apart from the rest. Cummins had even, years ago, met future diesel standards years before they needed to.
The 2024 calendar year has arrived, so we wanted to take a quick look at the trim levels and engine availability for those different variations of the 2024 Ram 2500 Heavy Duty. As this piece is published, the 2024 Ram 2500 is available in six trim levels with two engine options and two transmissions while … Read more
During the saga of diesel-engine emissions “cheats,” first found in Volkswagens which only turned on certain pollution controls when they detected emissions testing routines, Cummins and Ram stood apart for a while as an example of how to do it well. Earlier, Cummins had met future diesel standards years before they were phased in.It turns … Read more
Since the release of the Ram 1500 Ramcharger, there has been a good deal of unfounded criticism of the engineering choices—even before such key figures as the fuel economy on an empty battery have been released.
The Ramcharger is almost unique as a hybrid in that the engine is used both to recharge the battery and to power the motors when needed, but has no physical way to drive the wheels.
Dodge announced this morning that the second edition of the modern Direct Connection catalog is now available online and one of the items added to the new list of available items is the C170 Hellephant Series crate engine. The C170 is the crate engine name of the production engine in the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT … Read more
The Toledo Blade reported back in August that Stellantis would be shutting down the Dundee Engine plant, temporarily laying off 611 workers, to transition to making new Peugeot-based 1.6 liter engines.
The plant is currently down for this retooling. Informal sources claimed that, in addition to the 1.6 liter engine, the new 2.0 liter four-cylinder would be made in Dundee—on the same line, which would be a fairly sizable achievement for flexible manufacturing. The two engines share virtually nothing in common, with different cranks, bore spacing, and so on.
The Hurricane Six was reportedly created using the combustion chamber from the 2.0 liter GME engine—essentially creating a new block around that chamber. However, in a recent interview, Micky Bly, head of Stellantis propulsion, said that the Hurricane will spawn a new 2.0 liter four-cylinder engine. …
Stellantis and Samsung SDI have chosen the location for their final pre-announced “gigafactory,” or battery-and-cell plant. Scheduled to start production in early 2027, it will be able to produce 34 GWh of batteries per year, and will cost the two companies $3.2 billion.The plant is going to be built in Kokomo, which is also the … Read more
Years ago, Chrysler introduced faux-automatic programming to the CVTs it bought from JATCO and used in the Caliber, Compass, and Patriot, to make the cars more comfortable for people used to automatics.Today, Stellantis has patented a fake transmission feel for battery-electric cars, making vehicles with single-speed transmissions feel like conventional four-or-more-speed automatics. The idea makes … Read more
Yesterday, we brought you the news that Mark Pawuk had won the Factory Stock Showdown class at the NHRA Midwest Nationals, setting a class E.T. record of 7.583 in the process. Many Mopar fans in Facebook racing discussion groups joked that the Dodge Challenger teams would be “punished” for Pawuk’s new record.Today, the NHRA announced … Read more
In recent years, Stellantis has stated its goal of being a significant player in the global market for electric vehicle batteries. Through strategic partnerships and facility development, the company is trying to catapult itself to the forefront of the electric vehicle industry.Stellantis was due to announce the location of another United States battery plant, but … Read more
The first Direct Connection stage kits to reach Power Broker dealerships earlier this year were strictly for the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye (and closely related Super Stock). Due to issues with government regulations, the approval process took a whole lot longer than expected, so the first kits were shipped and delivered almost a year … Read more
Stellantis has been sending what some would call mixed signals lately, creating a brand new twin-turbo I-6 engine at the same time as it invests heavily in two North American battery plants (a promised third one was not yet been sited). In point of fact, the company is following its previously announced strategy of selling both internal-combustion and electric vehicles in the US, Canada, and Mexico—a strategy expected to see a 50/50 sales ratio of the two vehicle types in the calendar-year 2030.
Dodge has released a statement to fleet buyers that the 2025 Durango will have the new Hurricane twin-turbo straight-six as an option; it produces more power than the equivalent Hemi, using the same grade of fuel, but uses around 10% less fuel (in the Wagoneer). It appears that the Durango will be sold with either the 400+ hp or the 500+ hp version.
For the first time, as well, Dodge announced that the Hurricane…
When the fuel crises of the 1970s hit, American automakers were unprepared. Once Chrysler saw that big car owners were dropping their V8s in favor of newly-available slant sixes to save fuel, they authorized a two-barrel slant six to make the smaller engine more satisfactory—but could they go further?Chrysler had more than one slant six … Read more
The new Hurricane twin-turbo six-cylinder is stunning in its power and efficiency, but many are skeptical, saying it’s too small for serious work trucks.
GM has its turbo four for the Silverado, and Ford has a 2.7 twin turbo pulling the F-150, and they do well—though the Ford seems quite thirsty when towing. But GM and Ford still have V8 choices, while indications so far are that Ram will end with the sixes. (Some do believe the 6.4 V8 will remain on the Ram 2500 and 3500.)…
