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More horse power

10K views 25 replies 14 participants last post by  Vito 
#1 ·
Does anyone know an affordable way to get more horse power out of the 5.7 Hemi without rebuilding the engine. Suggestions would be appreciated.
 
#4 ·
An exhaust does not give you much hp, unless you do the headers back with high flow cats, and those aren't cheap. I would start with a tuner, which gives you a nice 20+ hp and give you responsiveness you can feel. It is also a requirement for future heavy mods like heads and cam.
 
#7 ·
You've got lots of options, none of which require rebuilding the engine. The more dramatic ones require some dis-assembly, but not rebuild. Prices and performance vary from opinion to opinion, build to build, and specific product choices made. These are rough numbers to give you a general idea how things work ONLY.


  • Cold Air Intake Price: $200ish. Result: Maybe a couple HP, mostly an enabler.
  • Tuner Price: $400ish. Result: About 15 HP, can improve with enabler mods.
  • Cat-back Price: $800ish. Result: Maybe 5 HP, mostly an enabler.
  • Shorty headers Price: $1,000ish. Result: Maybe 5 HP, mostly an enabler.
  • Long-tube headers Price: $1,200ish. Result: Maybe 10 HP, mostly an enabler.
  • Cam Price: $1,500ish. Result: anywhere from 50 HP to 75 HP.
  • Heads Price: $2,000ish. Result: Maybe 20 HP.
  • Supercharger Price: $8,000ish. Result: 100+ HP.

Basically, you can stack all of these to net the most performance. When I say "enabler", the idea is that for instance, if you just did a supercharger, you might get significantly less performance out of your car than if you also had the intake and exhaust upgraded. It's generally a reasonable approach to start cheap and work your way up the food-chain.

I've got everything but the supercharger and heads (and am using shorties), and while I haven't been dyno tested, my 2008 5.7 should be doing somewhere around 410 to 420 at the crank, where it was 350 stock, net improvement of maybe 60-70 HP, while staying a great daily driver. I could have gone with a more aggressive cam, for instance, but stayed fairly mild.
 
#9 ·
You've got lots of options, none of which require rebuilding the engine. The more dramatic ones require some dis-assembly, but not rebuild. Prices and performance vary from opinion to opinion, build to build, and specific product choices made. These are rough numbers to give you a general idea how things work ONLY.


  • Cold Air Intake Price: $200ish. Result: Maybe a couple HP, mostly an enabler.
  • Tuner Price: $400ish. Result: About 15 HP, can improve with enabler mods.
  • Cat-back Price: $800ish. Result: Maybe 5 HP, mostly an enabler.
  • Shorty headers Price: $1,000ish. Result: Maybe 5 HP, mostly an enabler.
  • Long-tube headers Price: $1,200ish. Result: Maybe 10 HP, mostly an enabler.
  • Cam Price: $1,500ish. Result: anywhere from 50 HP to 75 HP.
  • Heads Price: $2,000ish. Result: Maybe 20 HP.
  • Supercharger Price: $8,000ish. Result: 100+ HP.

Basically, you can stack all of these to net the most performance. When I say "enabler", the idea is that for instance, if you just did a supercharger, you might get significantly less performance out of your car than if you also had the intake and exhaust upgraded. It's generally a reasonable approach to start cheap and work your way up the food-chain.

I've got everything but the supercharger and heads (and am using shorties), and while I haven't been dyno tested, my 2008 5.7 should be doing somewhere around 410 to 420 at the crank, where it was 350 stock, net improvement of maybe 60-70 HP, while staying a great daily driver. I could have gone with a more aggressive cam, for instance, but stayed fairly mild.
When you do the cam, did u upgrade the springs too?
 
#10 · (Edited)
I believe the 5.7 block is good for almost 500 horsepower. It's all in the tune and how you take care of it. If you just want to romp it and never look back, sure, get forged internals and an upgraded block. Be aware that anything above a cam/heads and you're looking at 10's of thousands of dollars and most likely a never ending list of modifications to get even more power and upgrades to handle said power. Also know that some mods should logically be stacked, people will tell you if you're going to do A or B then you might as well do C and D while you're in the engine bay. It's called snowballing haha.
 
#13 ·
It depends on what you want to achieve with your car. I would say go with the following basic and affordable mods:

- Tuner
- CAI
- Cat-back exhaust
- Catted (or catless) mids

That's what I did on my car, with a mix of used and new parts. Cost me a bit less than $1500, including labor and dyno. Ended up bringing my car to SRT power (for my year), which is what I wanted when I planned my mods. Nice gain without breaking the bank.
 
#14 · (Edited)
One of the easiest to do is incorporate ACES IV in your gasoline. 1 oz per 6 gallons and with a 5.7, it is not uncommon to see 10 to 13 hp and about 15 ftlbs of torque. Add to it QuantumBlue Custom Blends and you could pick up another 3-5 hp anyway.

Our SRT8 picked up 19 hp and 31 ftlbs of torque with ACES IV, our QB engine oil and our QB HP Gold coolant. When we did the NAG1 5 speed and the differential we picked up a total of 25 hp and 38 ftlbs of torque. Not a bad day for pouring in lubricant and fuel materials. These also support any mechanical mods you would decide to do as well!:beerchug:

http://www.chargerforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158448

Regards,
Brian
BND Automotive LLC:driving:
440-821-9040
www.bndautomotive.com
 
#24 ·
There is no such thing as a affordable horsepower, that you will notice a difference from, other then a diablo tune. youll feel a nice difference from this.

but after that, pull out the wallet, i dont care what anyone else says, those are facts
 
#25 ·
Well actually ACES IV and our QuantumBlue does make affordable horsepower that you do notice a difference from and is augmented even more by a Diablo tune. These too are facts!;)

Regards,
Brian
BND Automotive LLC:driving:
440-821-9040
www.bndautomotive.com
 
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