Considering Adding Boost To Your SRT 392? Watch This First
Anything more than 6 psi might be too much for a stock 392 to handle.
Ever wondered what it would be like to have more power in your Challenger or Charger? Does it sound ridiculous that 485 horsepower bone stock might not be enough? There is a funny thing about horsepower. When you don’t have it, you want. When you do have it, you want even more. This brings us to the subject of the 6.4-liter V8 powering the SRT 392 cars. Lots of folks want more power and usually the easiest way to do so is by adding some forced induction. However, throwing a supercharger or turbo at your 6.4-liter might not be the best idea without some careful research.
Thanks to R/T Life on YouTube, we get a little bit more in depth of an understanding about why this is the case with these motors and what can still be done to make more power.
The Challenger in question is the current 392 build of R/T Life. Currently, the car has an intake, a Hellcat throttle body, and long tube headers. However, its not just so simple as throwing on a supercharger like the Hellcat and calling it done. Ted, a Dodge expert over at Janetty Racing, explains exactly why this is the case. The bottom end of the 392 6.4-liter V8 has a few shortcomings.
One of these being that the due to the fact that the piston ringlands are very thin and the pistons themselves are weak, thus, any sort of detonation can lead to cracking a piston easily. He advises that if he was to run boost on a stock bottom end, the max would be around 5-6 psi. This would be around 600 wheel HP at that boost level, however, it wouldn’t be safe within a perfect tune.
Ted states that the pistons are really the make or break factor in making power, thus, if one were to add a set of forged pistons to a 392, then “the sky’s the limit.” The reason for this inherent weakness in the piston is due to the fact that the ringland is very high on the piston itself. This allows it to run cleaner for emissions reasons, but also severely reduces the structural integrity.
Long story short, if you want to make big power on a 392, you’ll need a set of pistons first. Any of you 6.4-liter owners considering boost? Let us know in the comments below.
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