Come on, wouldn't it lower production costs to eliminate the 4.xl engine from the lineup and just replace them with the 5.7l hemi's. Imagine a hemi in a dakota - first, all that power; then with the cylinder deactivation, amazing gas milage (especially unloaded).

 

A Hemi Dakota would be cool, but if they got rid of the other V8's then it wouldn't be the most affordable V8 pickup out there. Dodge seems to be doing a lot of advertising with that. New for 06' is the Dakota RT if you're looking for more power. I believe it has 260hp?


-Matt-

 

The R/T has the HO 4.7L in it. Me personally would rather have a 4x4 dakota w/ that engine.

 

I'm surprised too that they don't just dump the 4.7 completely, with MDS it's pretty much just as good as the 4.7 for fuel economy and from what i've read it's cheaper to build the 5.7 than it is to build the 4.7, not to mention the fact that the 4.7 has so much less power than the 5.7 does, even in the HO trim of the engine.

 

It may be cheaper to build, but you won't get the high profit margin that hemi engines pumps into their pockets! I would like them to get rid of the standard 4.7 and just make the 4.7 HO as the standard v8 across all their vehicles

 

You start jammin' the 5.7s in Dakotas and you get Rams.

 

According to Car & Driver, the 5.7 Hemi won't fit inthe Dakota for some reason - See the October 2004 issue.

 

I think that whole thing about it not fitting is a bunch of BS, the dakota is a durango with different body panels and a pickup bed on it, the 5.7 fits just fine in the durango, and if they can fit the 5.7 in the magnum/300/charger all of which are smaller than the dakota I just can't see how there posibly couldn't be enough room, the engine bay on the dakota is big.

 

I heard that that current generation dakotas and durangos have different frames? But I have to agree, it has to fit the 5.7. Heck, it used to be able to fit a 5.9!!!! Even with the hemi with the much bigger wider heads, it should still clear.

 

Well the 4.7 and the Hemi use the same basic block with different heads, so if a 4.7 will fit I can't see why a HEMI wouldn't.