ok guys, the battle begins! what are the goods and not so goods about each of the two engines. Also which is faster the stock 5.9 R/T Dakota or the stock 4.7 Sport Dakota? My vote goes to the 4.7 only because I own one and I happen to be obsessed with it! I think the 5.9 is a pooch for the size It has, don't get me wrong a very reliable motor but not as good as the 4.7. Have fun

 

I'm bias too ... 4.7 has my vote as well [8D]

 

this is a very subjective debate. there is one going on elsewhere as well. there are many goodies for the 5.9, and it does have displacement. out of the box..the 4.7 is great...absolutely no complaints...I think in 2 years(i realllllly hope less!!!) there will be nice parts and lots of them for the 4.7s. BTW Lil black....Thats an awesome icon...just need it with my ext. cab in it...

 

Battle begins? The battle is over. The 5.9 V8 is no longer produced. I guess that means my engine is a collectors item, and your's is, well... just a lil' V8.

All joking aside, what are you trying to compare exactly? 1/4 times? Hp/Tq curves? longevity? Fuel economy (j/k)?

 

Man... this used to be a LONG thread.... where'd all the comments go?? I know MoparTodd and I each had like 3 comments here...
Strange.

 

This topic is also an easy debate because if you compare JUST motor, and have the SAME tranny in identically matched trucks, the RT is dominant by about .6-1 second in the 1/4. So if by a pooch you mean vs a 5speed 4.7 (Which they hapen to be very equally matched) then You MIGHT have a argument. It's not really a motor argument becasue the 5.9 does produce more power, nuff said. Only thing between the 2 is the tranny used and the 5 speed happens to put more power to the ground then the 5.9. Which isn't weird cuz it only happens to just about every auto/manual comparison ever.. :-) Please people..stop calling it a 5.9 vs 4.7 argument. Maybe a RT vs Sport argument, cuz fully loaded the right way a 'Sport' can be just as fast as an RT.

 

both engines have the same everything mods, trannys, drivers you name it. The 5.9L engine will produce more Hp/torch then the 4.7 ever will. honestly it comes down to what you need the truck for, you need good gas milage but need it fast 4.7. you just wanna race the truck or made it loud and bad ***, 5.9L. I mean come on, if we wanna do things the right way maybe we should get the old hemi dropped into our dakotas . Right now i got the 3.9L engine to get me back and forwth to college, after college woooeeeee!!! i am gonna drop in that 8.3L Viper V10 baby! thats gonna be alot of work but man it will soooo be worth it! It will be loud, faster and very powerful. Gotta get a new tranny of course :-D

 

Well, I'll take this from all angles. My '00 Dak. has the 5.9. My father has two Dak's with 4.7 in each. There is more aftermarket available for the 5.9, the 4.7 is really just now coming to life because the aftermarket is catching up to the full size use of 4.7. The 5.9 is easier to work on, simple good ol' fashioned straight forward V8. Everything is relatively is easy to get to and hasn't really changed much in 40 years. The 4.7 is harder to work on, sorry, not much a fan of coil packs, they do fail, and then what?? If I loose a cap, rotor, coil, or plug wire just about any backwoods auto parts store is going to have one for a 5.9. That coil pack, special order or dealer only. The horsepower matchup is about equal, though the new 4.7's are putting out as good as the older 5.9. I guess it comes down to preference.

As someone else said, the 5.9 is now a collectors item, so the argument is pretty mute.