Meet the World’s First Hellcat-powered Dodge Dakota
‘Hellcat Dak’ is Born
Although Snider was enjoying his 392-powered Dakota, he wanted more power. The arrival of the HellCrate and the items needed to make a Hellcat Hemi install in a project vehicle easier got his attention.
He was “in the right place at the right time” to score an engine that had been removed from a wrecked Dodge Challenger, and he was able to purchase almost everything that he would need to install the monster mill in his midsized Dodge truck. This included things like the low-temp radiator pump, the oil cooler and other crucial components of the supercharged Hemi.
Having already installed a modern Hemi in his second generation Dakota, Snider had a good idea of what he would need to do to make the Hellcat fit.
Before the engine would bolt into place, Snider had to trim a spot on the frame to make clearance for the alternator along with trimming the wiper cowl to make clearance for the supercharger. Beyond those changes, the engine bay had been prepared for a big Hemi-shaped V8 from his last swap.
For the engine itself, he modified a Hemi Dakota oil pan to fit with the Hellcat’s front cover, he modified the position of the blower coolant temp sensor and the Challenger’s low-temperature radiator has been replaced with a Mishimoto dual core radiator replacement for a DodgeNeon, but the majority of the engine is similar to how it came from the factory in the Challenger.
After four months of acquiring parts, planning and assembling, the world’s first Hellcat-powered Dakota roared to life earlier this year. Snider wasn’t in any great hurry with the swap, so after installing the 392 in about a week, his Hellcat swap was more relaxed and took a bit longer, but the results were worth the wait.
Hellcat Dakota Details
So, this 1998 Dodge Dakota Sport is powered by a 6.2-liter Hellcat Hemi from a Dodge Challenger and the power from that supercharged heart is sent to the rear wheels by means of a Tick Performance Stage-3 T-56 manual transmission from a Dodge Viper with a McLeod twin disc clutch. Out back, there is still a9.25-inch rear differential and remarkably, the majority of the suspension components are original.
As mentioned above, this Dakota has a set of Caltracs traction bars with drop blocks in the back with lowering springs up front, but in the long run, this suspension setup is not designed to handle this monster power. Snider plans to upgrade the suspension in order to make better use of the power, at which point he expects the truck to get quite a bit quicker in the quarter mile.
For those wondering, with the Hellcat Hemi, the T-56 transmission, the 9.25 rear axle, full interior with power accessories, no air conditioning and the fat drag tires out back, this Dakota weighs just 3,764 pounds. That is about 700 pounds lighter than the Dodge Challenger from which this engine came, so when Snider gets the suspension setup figured out, it is very likely going to be an easy 10-second machine.
Hitting the Track
While Greg Snider finished his Hellcat swap too late in the 2018 to make a bunch of trips to the track, he was able to get out to the drag strip for some testing. With the stock engine calibration from Mopar that comes with the HellCrate install package, the original 1998 Dakota rear differential and 3.92 gearing and many of the stock suspension components, this Dodge pickup ran an 11.5 at 126 miles per hour with a soft launch and hitting the rev limiter in fourth gear.
Right now, the Hellcat Dak is similarly quick in the quarter mile to a stock Hellcat Challenger with a manual transmission, but that 126-mile per hour trap speed shows that with a better launch, quicker elapsed times are well within his reach. With suspension changes, Snider will be able to launch harder and make better use of the available power, making a 10-second quarter mile a very realistic goal with “stock power”, but he is already eyeing more power in the near future.
The new HellRaiser 2.72-inch decoupling pulley and a good engine tune will lift the output of the supercharged Hemi well over the 800-horsepower mark, so the Hellcat Dak could soon have lots more power. When you combine even more power with some suspension bits that can handle all of that power, the world’s first Hellcat-powered Dodge Dakota could be one of the quicker Hellcat-powered swap vehicles on the road.
In any case, Greg Snider’s Dodge Dakota is the first of its kind with the Hellcat Hemi, combining one of the company’s greatest production performance pickups with one of their greatest production performance engines, creating one of the coolest Hellcat swaps we have seen thus far.
As this project continues, you can follow Snider’s progress on his Instagram account, chock full of pictures and videos of the world’s first Hellcat-powered Dodge Dakota.
Greg Snider would like to thank Neil’s Custom and Collision in Swartz Creek, Michigan for their paint work, Ernie Miyamoto at Motofab in Davisburg, Michigan for his work on the custom headers and all of the friends who helped make this project come to life.
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