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Possible reasons of why the Viper engine never went into the Charger or Challenger?

7K views 39 replies 23 participants last post by  Rpaulg87 
#1 ·
I wonder why Dodge never shared the Viper engine with the Charger or Challenger? Even a de-tuned version? Or why they didn't use the current viper's engine in the hellcat with a supercharger on top of that? lol.
 
#5 ·
There are rumors that the Hellcat may power the next Viper.
 
#7 ·
Putting the Hellcat 6.2L in the Viper makes more business sense than the V10 in the Challenger. And sounds more like something Marchionne would push for.

Redesigning the Viper to take the V8 opens so many future possibilities, including helping to assure the sustainable future of the car, that the cost of the redesign can be more easily justified.
 
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#8 ·
If the Viper had this Hellcat engine, it would be the next car in my garage.
 
#11 ·
I got curious and looked it up, found this:

The biggest problem was the straight-shot Viper intake that made the V10 too long for the engine bay. The fix was a shaker hood. The two openings on the shaker hood are the actual intake, and the air is then routed through a circular path and into the stock Viper intake system—all courtesy of some free labor from the plastics shop at Chrysler Technical Center. Clearance issues also required moving the engine cooling module forward some 55mm. Also, a new driveshaft had to be fabbed due to the difference in length between the trans and rear in the Challenger and Viper. That, and some electronics work so the Viper engine could talk to the Challenger body, was essentially it.

Mopar Action On-line - Tech Archives

So it could be done, it wouldn't have been that hard. Wasn't the best financial decision at that time. Now it sounds like the V10 is a 'legacy product' and not the future vision.
 
#13 · (Edited)
dunno why...never went in a Caliber either...probably because it was not R&D'd for any other car
They never put a V8 in a Prowler either and that definately had the looks for it
 
#15 ·
Rebellion by the Viper owners... Which, by the way, has in part prevented Chrysler from putting a V-8 in the Viper up to this point...
Very true, but with the lackluster sales of late, the Viper needs something different. "Owners" can be upset, but owners aren't buying the excess inventory of present Vipers either.

Revamp with the 6.2 does make sense, but I'm not into the Vipers at all, so don't mind me! lol
 
#18 · (Edited)
Platform and fitment would be my guesses. Plus Viper nation as posted earlier would lose their minds again. They had a pi$$y fit when the Gen 3 motor was dropped into lowly Ram pickem up trucks, 2004 thru 2006 MYs.....
 
#22 ·
Ralph Gilles was interviewed recently and he brought up that they did try to put the Viper engine into a Challenger and it was too much re-engineering to make it cost effective. The HellCat was the next option. He also mentioned that he likes to keep the production numbers down on the Viper. He is proud of the fact that they are a limited production run, unlike every chevy dealer having 20 or more Corvettes on the lot.
 
#23 ·
Ralph Gilles was interviewed recently and he brought up that they did try to put the Viper engine into a Challenger and it was too much re-engineering to make it cost effective. The HellCat was the next option. He also mentioned that he likes to keep the production numbers down on the Viper. He is proud of the fact that they are a limited production run, unlike every chevy dealer having 20 or more Corvettes on the lot.
He did very well keeping production numbers "down", and the "elitists" happy. Sales are so slow on the present Viper, that production was stopped to allow excess inventory to move.

I'm betting that there are a lot of RIP "The Brand is Dead" gatherings, and probably some folks in the ER knowing that the Viper is now a Dodge again........................................Oh the humanity! LMFAO
 
#24 ·
Besides not fitting there are a limited number of V10 engines as they are not building more since the current Vipers are built out of the warehouse full of engines from BK, and to the earlier post the V10 was a truck engine that was discontinued in 2003, so it was quite natural to build them back into trucks in 2004. If Viper is to continue I will bet it gets the Hellcat, IMHO would actually get more respect if it was competing with its true ONLY V8 rival Corvette Stingray! ;):bigthumb:
 
#25 ·
If Viper is to continue I will bet it gets the Hellcat, IMHO would actually get more respect if it was competing with its true ONLY V8 rival Corvette Stingray! ;):bigthumb:
Completely agree. Marchionne may not get them all perfectly right, but he has shown that he is all about making sustainable business decisions.

And it has been reported that Marchionne pushed for the development of the a Hellcat engine, while the decision to keep the V10 in Viper was made in the depths of the bankruptcy.

Now that Chrysler is out of the hole, Marchionne is going to push for decisions that maximize product sharing and the long-term sustainability of each nameplate, shareholder value, and meeting government regulations.
 
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#34 · (Edited)
Well yeah, supercharged\turboed. Not naturally. Only thing close to the HP I can see in V-10 is the Lambo's 5.2l.....and that makes 610HP. Most powerful "some-what" luxury affordable V-10 is the M5, in the F-10 trim, 560HP and 502lbs torque, only amazing thing to me is 450lbs of torque is available @ just 1800RPM. 8.4l is still a flat out MONSTER, and for damn sure does not sound like the M5\M6 5.0, HUGE displacement difference, which sound to me like a can is rattling throughout the engine\exhaust whenever they floor it. Though if you owned the older model V-10 8.4l (520 or so ponies\tq) I can totally understand why you wouldn't want it, though "sound like crap" is the last thing I would ever think lol.

I don't think people should be writing off the the 8.4l so fast...it is the last BIG naturally aspirated V-10 you can buy...and pushes 640HP naturally. Super chargers\turbos are very quickly replacing displacement, sound wise I don't think there is a replacement, for displacement.
 
#35 ·
Really glad they didn't put the V10 in the Challenger, primarily because they sound like crap. I've never heard a V10 I've liked, and the cammed Viper engines sound just like my old Case tractor... which I guess isn't necessarily a bad thing :) Some V12's on the other hand sound incredible...
 
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