5.7 Hemi Heavy Duty (HD) vs Overhead Cam Engine
Cool!
I know there was a European race team that built a V8 version using the V10 block because they outlawed the V10's. And that V8 still rocked the competition.
Just seems like Mopar is in dire straights and a V8 version of the Viper motor with some tweaks would be a cheap(er?) option than an entirely new V8. If emissions was truly a part of the demise of the Hemi, then a new Hemi might not be the best option. An inline valve motor with a smaller combustion chamber and less crevasse volume might be a better direction and they maybe have the foundation for such a motor in the Viper V10.
And I'm not saying it is a slam dunk no cost option. Even if they could use the Hemi block, it would need a new casting for the head and some kind of an intake. The big savings is in the development costs, which might or might not be a drop in the bucket in regards to total costs.
This idea has had me watching YT videos on Viper builds and such recently just to get a better idea of how they are built and designed. After doing so, I want a Viper even more than I did before. Such a cool car. That said, I don't think the smart move for Mopar is to just cut 2 cylinders out of the Viper motor and call it good. The motor looks too costly to build for mass production with the aluminum block and oil pump in the timing chain cover. But the Viper heads on the Hemi block seems very doable in my mind, enough so that I wonder if some yahoo in his garage couldn't do it on his own. I mean, if someone can put LS heads on a 351W or (even worse) an inline 6, why couldn't someone section a pair of Viper heads to remove a cylinder each and then tweak the bolt pattern to fit a G3 block?
To be clear, the only reason I can see for someone to build a Viper headed G3 block is because they want something different. I'm not sure it would be a straight up performance improvement and while a G3 is a tight fit in an A-Body I'm not sure it would be easier to build custom headers for a frankenstein build like that despite being narrower. At the same time, imagine the visual of a shortened Viper motor in an A-Body.
Cool!
I know there was a European race team that built a V8 version using the V10 block because they outlawed the V10's. And that V8 still rocked the competition.
Just seems like Mopar is in dire straights and a V8 version of the Viper motor with some tweaks would be a cheap(er?) option than an entirely new V8. If emissions was truly a part of the demise of the Hemi, then a new Hemi might not be the best option. An inline valve motor with a smaller combustion chamber and less crevasse volume might be a better direction and they maybe have the foundation for such a motor in the Viper V10.
And I'm not saying it is a slam dunk no cost option. Even if they could use the Hemi block, it would need a new casting for the head and some kind of an intake. The big savings is in the development costs, which might or might not be a drop in the bucket in regards to total costs.
This idea has had me watching YT videos on Viper builds and such recently just to get a better idea of how they are built and designed. After doing so, I want a Viper even more than I did before. Such a cool car. That said, I don't think the smart move for Mopar is to just cut 2 cylinders out of the Viper motor and call it good. The motor looks too costly to build for mass production with the aluminum block and oil pump in the timing chain cover. But the Viper heads on the Hemi block seems very doable in my mind, enough so that I wonder if some yahoo in his garage couldn't do it on his own. I mean, if someone can put LS heads on a 351W or (even worse) an inline 6, why couldn't someone section a pair of Viper heads to remove a cylinder each and then tweak the bolt pattern to fit a G3 block?
To be clear, the only reason I can see for someone to build a Viper headed G3 block is because they want something different. I'm not sure it would be a straight up performance improvement and while a G3 is a tight fit in an A-Body I'm not sure it would be easier to build custom headers for a frankenstein build like that despite being narrower. At the same time, imagine the visual of a shortened Viper motor in an A-Body.