Ram 3.6 Towing

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted by supton
Originally Posted by demarpaint
I would like to see the Ram equipped VM diesel vs. the Hemi. If anyone even thought for a second the V6 was going to do well against the Hemi they were dreaming. Having said that the Pentastar still impressed me.

TFL did test the Ecodiesel. It was slow. They seemed surprised, but... Surprise! 240hp is still 240hp, regardless of how many "torques" it has.

I don't think it was apples to apples, might not have been same trailer and load.

Of course, the ED wasn't turning 6k, and I don't remember the mpg but it had to have been better.

I'm quite frankly quite impressed with the Pentastar. If anything, I bet if you wore one out towing... it'd cost pennies to drop a new motor in. Fiat must be making a million of them a month now.

I hear ya! And for the up charge for the diesel I'd pass. Like I said the Pentastar was impressive.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted by supton
3.5? I thought it was the 3.7... which was based on a cut-up 318.

TBH, they probably are running that test right now. It's just that the truck still hasn't made it.

I thought GM was shooting itself in the foot when they kept saddling the 4.3 and 4.8 with their old 4AT while only the 5.3 got the much improved 6AT. They were milking the last pennies out of that engineering.


3.5 was a single cam engine that was a V6 from the start. I believe it had distant relations to the other chysler V6s. Never came in a truck or SUV apart from the Pacifica.

3.9 was a chopped off 318

3.7 was essentially a chopped off 4.7

Pentastar replaced a lot of engine families in a lot of vehicles.

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted by Delta
Originally Posted by Miller88
With that said, I ran my 200k mile junkyard 5.4 all out up a hill here and on the scanner , it didn't get above 205F. But it has a mechanical fan and I tried to keep the revs below 4K ... because it was a 200K mile junkyard engine that was dropped in not even a week prior.


That is notoriously tough stretch of 81. Believe it or not you did better than the 2012 Ford Transit Connect I used to have as a company vehicle... There was another spot before you got into Wilkes-Barre that was kind of sketch too.


That whole stretch of I81 is bad all they way up to I84 and even parts of I84 heading to NY are bad, especially the hill just as you cross over into NY. If the hills don't get you the bounciness from Hazleton to Wilkes Barre will knock your fillings out. We tow the camper up that way a couple times a year and it definitely gives the engine and transmission a workout. Trans can get up to 212-220 but the engine temp doesn't budge from "normal".

 

[StevieC]

Chrysler keeps the radiator fan always running on low and will kick it onto high as necessary. It starts this once the vehicle is at full operating temperature (roughly) and it has a sensor for radiator coolant temperature in addition to the engine coolant temperature that the ECU monitors. If the radiator coolant temperature drops too low (like in Canadian Winters) the fan's low speed is cut off until it returns to the desired temperature the ECU wants it at. (This seems to vary so it must be considering other factors as well that happen to coincide with cold air temperatures.)

They also have an engine oil to coolant heat exchanger on the 3.6L as well for additional engine temperature control. (Oil is a lubricant but also a coolant for where the traditional coolant can't reach.)

The thermostat runs at 203F but the coolant in the radiator is kept much lower than this at about 160F (yeah I measured it). This allows them to keep the engine at 203F but cool it quickly when the thermostat opens to pull it back down to 203F for quick control or when the temperature in the engine is placing extra strain on the cooling system. (The reason they use 203F is for better fuel vaporization. In some vehicles they will actually run a dual thermostat setup and run the heads at 203F and the block at 195F)

All this will more than adequately keep the vehicle cool enough while towing within the rated towing capacity in hot summer temperatures.

They also have a castration mechanism built in so if the engine oil exceeds a safe temperature level it will warn you ahead of time with a message, along with putting the vehicle into a limp in mode stuck in gear 3 if the coolant temperature or transmission temperature gets too high and the conditions for this are correct. Not that you should ever get to this point, but just in case.

 

[tcp71]

I wonder if the fuel economy calculation has a minimum set at 4.7 mpg for the readout. Seems way too convenient that both had exactly the same reading. It could have been significantly less if there is a minimum value in the formula.

 

[CT8]

I would say the engines performance is impressive.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted by CT8
I would say the engines performance is impressive.

I like that they rev the snot under load out of the PentaStar 3.6 at 6000+ RPM and it happily puts up with it. Sure the temperature was rising but that's to be expected considering it's towing 7,000lbs up an incline on 6 cylinders.

I'm sure it was on 5w20 as well which makes it even crazier.

 

[oilpsi2high]

Wonder how that Pentastar will do in the new Dakota with a manual trans.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted by oilpsi2high
Wonder how that Pentastar will do in the new Dakota with a manual trans.

Seems to do ok in the Jeeps.

 

[Skippy722]

Originally Posted by oilpsi2high
Wonder how that Pentastar will do in the new Dakota with a manual trans.


Probably great. It's great in my 300, it's great even in the 5500lb AWD Durango (rated to tow 6200lbs even!), I wish I would have bought a v6 2014+ Durango instead of the 2011 5.7 hemi that I did.

 

[A_Harman]

Meh. Gimme the Hemi!
Bigger is more gooder.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted by A_Harman
Meh. Gimme the Hemi!
Bigger is more gooder.


That is funny and it's true for the majority of today's truck buyers. My brother was one of them. He's owned a series of F150s in V8's, 2wd and 4x4 flavor. He keeps them for about 10yrs.Even though I own a Ram 1500 with the pentastar and love it, he wouldn't even consider one. He drove a couple of used 2017 and 2018 Ram 1500s with the Hemi and 8spd trans. Then he drove one with the Pentastar and that's what he bought.

 

[Srt20]

Huh.

I bought a 14 Durango pentastar. Its been great, not one issue. Has good power, though it needs to rev to make power.
Then my brother bought a 15 Durango RT hemi. Its just more fun to drive. Needed? No

But its gooder....lol

 

[KrisZ]

Pentastar is an impressive engine. It makes similar numbers as the DI counterparts without being DI itself. Sure, DI is not that big of a deal, but if similar performance and fuel economy can be achieved without it, that's a plus in my book.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted by KrisZ
Pentastar is an impressive engine. It makes similar numbers as the DI counterparts without being DI itself. Sure, DI is not that big of a deal, but if similar performance and fuel economy can be achieved without it, that's a plus in my book.

+1

I've been poking around, as I think I want a smaller truck. The Ridgeline uses a 3.5L but can "only" muster 280hp. Worse is that its torque curve isn't as flat. And then there's the timing belt. If one goes back to non-DI, the Honda was 250hp, and same sort of torque curve.

The Pentastar is rather like an electric motor. Happy at any rpm it seems.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted by KrisZ
Pentastar is an impressive engine. It makes similar numbers as the DI counterparts without being DI itself. Sure, DI is not that big of a deal, but if similar performance and fuel economy can be achieved without it, that's a plus in my book.

It was a design they got right... I mean after the head revision, oil pump update and filter housing revision. But yeah. It's a pretty good engine.

 

[oilpsi2high]

I love the gladiator's mechanicals but hate it's looks.

If that new Dakota comes with the manual, 4x4, basically all of the specs that the gladiator has, while still being able to tow 7000 lbs, you can bet I'll be at the dealer buying one as soon as I need one.

The Gladiator even has a twin disc clutch and dual mass flywheel stock!

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted by KrisZ
Pentastar is an impressive engine. It makes similar numbers as the DI counterparts without being DI itself. Sure, DI is not that big of a deal, but if similar performance and fuel economy can be achieved without it, that's a plus in my book.

It's on par with the Ford 3.5/3.7, and the GM counterparts without DI as well as the Asian engines in the power department. It's an average engine for the class - not this super machine some think. I think the reason it got as much love as it did is because it's the first modern Chrysler engine in decades.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted by itguy08
Originally Posted by KrisZ
Pentastar is an impressive engine. It makes similar numbers as the DI counterparts without being DI itself. Sure, DI is not that big of a deal, but if similar performance and fuel economy can be achieved without it, that's a plus in my book.

It's on par with the Ford 3.5/3.7, and the GM counterparts without DI as well as the Asian engines in the power department. It's an average engine for the class - not this super machine some think. I think the reason it got as much love as it did is because it's the first modern Chrysler engine in decades.


I think what makes it great in the Ram 1500, Grand Cherokee and Durango is the 8spd. Fewer gears and bigger ratios between them would take away from it for sure. The 8spd is probably why it can get the fuel economy it does without DI or cylinder deactivation like the GM truck V6, etc.

 

[HM12460]

1/2 ton pick up trucks have come an incredibly long ways from 20 years ago. Makes me wonder where they will be 20 years into the future. I hope the Ram is right there with the rest.