Originally Posted by cudaman1969
Originally Posted by Greenwood
Originally Posted by 360view
In its first year Chrysler’s press release said the new 5.7 was
“6% more fuel efficient”
than the previous Magnum 5.9V8

a portion of that must have been no distributor drive
another portion 2 spark plugs per cylinder
another portion thinner piston rings
another portion higher dynamic compression ratio

That's rather humorous, in hindsight. My last Magnum-powered truck couldn't go 500 km (310 miles) on a tank. My first Hemi easily went 100-150 km further on the same size tank. The Magnum was undrivable in cruise control, as the O/D constantly hunted, even on a relatively flat highway. Hills the Magnum (318) couldn't get up in high gear, with NO load, the Hemi could go up in O/D, with a 3000 lb car on a 2000 lb trailer behind it. I'm now on my 4th Hemi truck. Two weeks ago, I rolled out of Kalispell with a full tank. Drove 65-75 mph all the way home. 665 km. The range indicator showed 224 km to empty when we pulled in the driveway. Same size tank as my old 318 Magnum, in a 4x4 Crew Cab 1500.

2001 Ram Van, 360 magnum, cruise never hunts at 45 or 75 up and down hills but it is a gas guzzler, 15 mpg tops, torque out the Ying Yang


My wife has a 2000 Ram 3500 van 5.9 magnum for a daily driver, we drove it 430 miles yesterday and it never hunts for gears like my 5.7 hemi ram. The TQ down low is great but man it has no power at all compared to the hemi when I want to pass someone. I like the new engines but HATE HATE HATE the new transmissions. I think if the transmission was programmed to actually keep the hemi at lower RPM it would be fine, I had one with a 5 speed in a 2500 ram and could lug it down low and it was just fine, the new automatic just wants to downshift for no reason at all at the mear thought of a hill, heck it downshifts going down a hill! Udderly stupid...

I am not causing global warming, I am just trying to hold off a impending Ice Age!