I was reading on twitter that having a goal, even an unrealistic unobtainable goal, that gives you reason to get out of bed in the morning can save your life. So, I’m doing more research on the Sprint-T and the Pentastar engine and all the transmissions that can bolt to it. Right now it looks like my best option is the 845re 8 speed automatic, not because it has 8 gears with 2 overdriven, but because it’s 20-50 pounds lighter than the other two autoboxes that bolt up. The transmission used at introduction was the same 5 speed slushbox as Chrysler bolted to the Hemi for the same year.
Because new people read my blog every day a review. The Pentastar V6 is a very lightweight engine that matches the baseline hotrod engine (Small Block Chevrolet or sbc) for horsepower on 87 octane while getting much better fuel consumption figures (bsfc for you technical folk out there) and weighing more than 200 pounds less. The sbc weighs 545 pounds fully dressed while the Pentastar scales 330 pounds (326 for 2016 and later engines) with all the junk bolted on. The 845re transmission comes in at 198 pounds less fluids plus converter, meaning a stripped-down Pentastar weighs about the same with transmission and fluids as the sbc without. I’m pretty sure a car with no roof or windows can do without the AC compressor, so that’s another few pounds off compared to the sbc.
Getting back to those power figures the version of the sbc that has the highest HP on regular gas is only rated at 308HP, compared to the versions rated over 400 on premium fuel and others rated over 600 on race gas. There are 2 versions of the Pentastar rated at 305 HP, but substantially lower torque at much higher RPM than the 347 lb-ft at 3900 RPM of the 5.7 liter sbc. But with the transmission and the higher RPM it allows combined with the weight savings over the sbc I’m looking at a higher power to weight ratio on regular gas, to go with much lower fuel consumption with the 4 valve DOHC combustion chamber at 10.2:1 compression compared to the 2 valve pushrod bathtub combustion chamber at 8.0:1 on the sbc for regular gas. Now the other drawback of the Pentastar is I can only buy used engines, Chrysler doesn’t sell a crate engine Pentastar. Yet. And a shoutout to any FCA marketing types out there, a Pentastar mixing it up toe-to-toe with more traditional hotrod engines at Goodguys would be quite a marketing coup for selling base-engine Ram 1500s if y’all would like to drop a unit out of your emissions testing program on me. I promise not to sell it for street use. In fact I’ll probably get buried with it.
And over on the comic strip I have met my date out of makeup and in street clothes and nobody in the cast knows who she is. Literally they don’t recognize her without her “costume”. And I think I found my avatar for my Twitter profile in the first panel of today’s strip .
Witch on a Bicycle 