V-10 Durango
Stage 2: Pull the 5.9L V-8 and put in a 8.4L V-10

Why? I thought about a built 408 but everyone has done that. I am going for a unique Durango, one that looks like Dodge would have/should have built. The V-10 has 450ft/lbs peak with over 400ft/lbs of torque from 1000-5000RPM stock. To put this in perspective my stock 5.9L has 330 ft/lbs peak torque with over 200ft/lbs from only 1000-4000RPM. My goal is around 1000ft/lbs of torque as wide as I can get it. Around 10+PSI of boost will bring that torque curve up, especially at the far end! That will give me a peak HP of around 1000 (to all four wheels) for you HP counters out there.

I will post pictures of the rebuild and of the installation of the engine. I will also keep a log of all of the issues that had to be conquered to make this happen on page 5.

Connecting Rods

Now that I have completely disassembled the engine here are comparison pics of the factory rod and mine. The factory rods are 6.123" these LENTZ rods are 6.25". I won't be able to use them as they are built for high RPM non-boosted applications. Looking into using Cunningham Rods .

Iron Block Deck Height
The factory rods are 6.123", the piston compression height is 1.622" (0.050" below deck) and the stroke (half of 3.88") equals a total deck height of 9.735" (Viper's is 9.48")! If I reduce my redline a little I could match the R/S ratio of the stroker Vipers out there of 1.52. That would let me go up to a 4.20 bore x 4.20 stroke. 582ci (9.5L) and still have a piston comp. height of 1.27"!

Gen 3 Viper Heads
 
Finally found a deal on some Viper heads. These will shave 80lbs off the weight of the engine. My Iron heads flowed only 203cfm peak. Couple thousand dollars of head work and the iron would have only flowed around 225cfm. Gen 3 Viper heads flow significantly more air (268cfm) stock and over 300cfm ported. Theoretically you can achieve 2HP per CFM of flow. That would give me an increase of 130HP. Not bad for $700.00!

Build Goals
My goal for the rebuild is a 515ci (8.4L) engine with a 4.03 bore x 4.04 stroke. That will keep the piston velocity around 4377. Rod/stroke ratio will be higher than factory RAM/Viper (1.595). A R/S ratio of 1.53 is what most of the 408 Mopar's you see out there are. If I keep the R/S ratio the same as a factory Viper (1.575) that would allow a 4.03 bore x 4.08 stroke bumping displacement to 520ci (8.5L) unless the Darton sleeves work out (check them out below).

Darton Sleeves
Researching Darton sleeves for my block. Cool things about these is it will allow a 4.20+" bore ! This could give me the best of both worlds. Big displacement (9.0L!) and high Revs (4.08 stroke). They have liners off the shelf or they will custom make one that you dream up.  Currently designing sleeves with   a 4.20" bore.  Install a crank with a 3.75" stroke (great R/S ratio and Bore/Stroke ratio) and 7000RPM is not a problem.

Problems that must be conquered:
What about the motor mounts? Since I went with the Iron V-10 instead of the Viper's the motor mounts won't be a problem.

Can the factory transmission handle all that torque? NO it doesn't, but I have found an excellent shop in my area that can upgrade it to handle all the TQ/HP I plan on throwing at it. Well up to around 1500ft/lbs of torque. The Transfer case can handle up to 950ft/lbs so AWD is still possible.

What are you going to use to manage the V-10? AEM makes an excellent plug-n-play system for the Viper's. Luckily engine management wise the V-10's are the same. That DOESN'T mean that all of the insides are the same though. The AEM system will allow me to adjust timing and fuel for the supercharger something that a factory PCM cannot do. If I decided I wanted NOS AEM could handle it for me as well. Also considering the VEC3 controller with a factory SRT-10 PCM as well.

Now you have the engine running what about the transmission control, transfer case, cruise control, factory gauges, map light, etc? Those are all controlled by the PCM right? Going to do a PCM swap for that one. Gotta have cruise (Vipers don't have that option) and I don't want any check engine lights going off either. There are alot of sensors and subsystems in my Durango that just won't be happy without a factory PCM for them to talk to. So I will give them what they want by replacing my factory PCM with one for the RAM SRT-10. Even the average MPG on the trip computer will work!

Can you think of anything I've missed? Sign my Guestbook with problems/issues/show stoppers you think I might have overlooked. Well, other than money that is always a problem for me :(

PLEASE HELP!
Corporate/Private Sponsors are welcome! Help my dream become a reality before I am too old to enjoy it. Trying to finish for the HotRod power tour 2009 with my son. Not many 1000+HP street legal AWD trucks out there that I know about!

Page 1: Procharger Supercharger
Page 2: V-10 engine swap
Page 3: Viper brake upgrade
Page 4: Misc. upgrades (viper seats, headlights, etc.)
Page 5: V-10 Progress