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Dodge Durango Hellcat V8 Engine Swap Is OEM Tuning Done Right

With the Durango SRT, the guys over at Dodge didn’t prove much except that the engine bay can fit 6.4 liters of naturally aspirated HEMI V8 goodness. A $62,995 rehash of a rather old design, the Durango SRT is described as America’s fastest three-row SUV by Dodge. Plum Floored Creations begs to differ, though.
Dodge Durango Hellcat V8 engine swap by Plum Floored Creations 26 photos
Photo: screenshot from YouTube
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Introducing the Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat, which isn’t a production model offered by the automaker, but the creation of… uhm, Plum Floored Creations. And as the name implies, the engine bay is full of 6.2-liter supercharged Hellcat V8, the blown HEMI to rule all modern iterations of the HEMI plant.

In the attached video, the Durango Hellcat flexes its muscles on the Phoenix, Arizona-based shop’s dyno, producing almost 700 hp at the crank. Mind you, the factory-spec 2.3-liter blower running 11.6 psi of boost was swapped for a 2.9-liter Whipple pushing 11 psi. Going the way of Whipple allowed the mad professors at Plum Floored Creations to retain the factory engine control unit.

The 5-speed automatic transmission, meanwhile, made way for a 6-speeder with a one-piece aluminum driveshaft and billet torque converter. “The 356-T6 alloy 6.2 heads used exclusively on factory supercharged HEMIs were CNC machined to accept the bigger blower,” explains the tuning shop. The factory-spec exhaust system was disposed, and in came 3” piping with 5” tips.

“At the same time the front drive, was also replaced with a new unit. The results are impressive, however surprising domesticated unless you push further down the go pedal,” argues Plum Floored Creations, and it makes sense when you bear in mind this bad boy sends the goodies to all four wheels. And yes, the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk also does 4WD.

Now, have a guess how much the Durango Hellcat V8 engine swap costs in hard-earned green dollar bills. That would be approximately $40,000 plus the Durango, which is top dollar considering the R/T retails from $42,095.

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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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