Some good news from Mopar…                 

MrTruck was once again on the road… this week he was up North at the Detroit Auto Show... had his hands on the new Challenger (until security told him to step away from the vehicle).  MrTruck spent some time at the Mopar booth, and quickly called me to inform me that I should talk to a Mr. Jon Clark, who was at the Mopar booth at the Auto Show.  Of course I immediately got on the cell and had a great conversation with him.

Within 30 seconds of the conversation, I started saying to myself “Mopar has finally started to listen to us!”

So here’s the scoop – Mopar is very close to coming out with performance upgrades for the 5.7 Hemi.  Yes, that’s right Hemi fans - not just a CAI or a cat-back, but REAL upgrades.  I’m talking ported heads, cams, intake manifolds, springs, headers, valves, and most importantly – a PCM and TCM to go with these upgrades!!  Details are still sketchy, but it looks like the 5.7 Hemi truck owners will be able to buy anything from one item (say a performance cam), the complete performance package, or any number of items in between.  According to Mr. Clark, Mopar is working on PCM software as well… so if you buy just a cam, the PCM upgrade will carry that new cam info.  If you buy three items or the complete kit, the PCM upgrade will have all the updated info/programming to cover those items as well.

Mopar will also be offering a TCM upgrade to adjust the shift points.  It’ll be more than just removing the torque management – it’ll be fairly close to having a shift kit installed.

Prices haven’t been set as of yet – I’m hoping for a price list within a month or two.  Oh, and one more thing – these upgrades are 5.7 Hemi specific… not 6.1 stuff pulled off the shelf.  All these upgrades will work perfectly on the 5.7 Hemi – no “tweaking” will be required.

Nothing was mentioned about the drivetrain warranty when these performance parts are installed, but since they’ll all have the Mopar name, I don’t see why they wouldn’t hold up to the warranty.  Mopar is covering the warranty with their headers and cat-backs, so I don’t see why they wouldn’t with these other upgrades as well.  Rest assured - this is something I will continue to investigate!

My final question to Mr. Clark was when could we expect to see these performance upgrades… his response was “no later than May of this year”.