V-10's...

So what's the lowdown on the Mopar and Ford V-10's?  Generally reliable?  Cost-effective?  Worth the trouble compared to the alternative V8's?

V10 Dodge

Or V10 Dodge?

I had the latter in mind...

Fuel mileage is dismal. A big block Chevy looks good in comparison.

v10 sound...

I loved the V10 I had in my Excursion until it was time to swing by Costco and put another 45 gallons of fuel in.  Around town it would get about 9mpg and on the highway I could stretch it to 13-14 unladen if I could keep it at about 70-75mph.  It would do 1 or 2 mpgs fewer at 65 oddly enough.  Keep a new coil and a 7mm socket and ratchet in the glovebox because one will die on you.  And to prevent plug blow out, overtorque the plugs to about 23-35 ft lbs.  Then just shovel fuel in like a madman and you can tow the whole damned world behind you.  Or if not that, at least an auxillary fuel tank.

The ones in the Huracans sound really good!

wae said:

I loved the V10 I had in my Excursion until it was time to swing by Costco and put another 45 gallons of fuel in.  Around town it would get about 9mpg and on the highway I could stretch it to 13-14 unladen if I could keep it at about 70-75mph.  It would do 1 or 2 mpgs fewer at 65 oddly enough.  Keep a new coil and a 7mm socket and ratchet in the glovebox because one will die on you.  And to prevent plug blow out, overtorque the plugs to about 23-35 ft lbs.  Then just shovel fuel in like a madman and you can tow the whole damned world behind you.  Or if not that, at least an auxillary fuel tank.

It's like getting the benefits of driving a motor home without the really wide turning radius and difficulty parking.

So V10s...

The Ford ones are pretty good.  They make just about as much power as the diesel, stock-for-stock, little less torque, but a whole lot lower running costs other than fuel.  Simple to work on too.  We have had two V10s in box trucks for local routes and they are unkillable and way way cheaper to buy and run than a diesel. They do just fine for around town.

The V10 Dodge I don't know a ton on.  The truck motors are pretty wheezy from the few I have driven, and no they are not "viper motors" (not even the SRT10 truck is a true "viper motor" short of the valve covers in that they don't swap over, please don't call it a "viper truck")

The buy-in is cheap since they consume fuel like its their job.  Most have lower miles because of that issue.  If you can get past the sting at the pump they are good options when you can't afford a diesel. 

Personal preference I feel the diesels drive a lot nicer because they make their power lower in the RPM range and rarely if ever come out of lockup on the freeway, so a nice steady cruising speed.  They also have the sweet diesel rattle which the V10s do not make.

That all being said you will get 15 MPG in a 7.3 or 6.0 Powerstroke and 9 MPG in a V10.  Pick your spend.

In reply to 93gsxturbo :

That was helpful.  Thank you.

I briefly thought about one of the V10s for a muscle car engine as something unique, but I kind of sidelined the idea- the Dodge V10 truck engines aren't Viper motors and have a really unusual layout, essentially a V6 mated to half a V8 in terms of cylinder angle- you need to know that, because Viper engines ARENT that layout and thus, they can't share cams. They're also over 700lbs each, and your limited by transmission.

It's really frustrating to see GM do great with making LS parts rather interchangable and play with potential of the engine, and for Ford and Chrysler to have V10s and ...not.

We have a F350 with a 6.8l V10. Works great for towing our gooseneck horse trailer, pulling the car trailer, doing dump runs or picking up lumber. Other than that it sits. I get asked what I get for mileage and I generally respond that I don't.

Lower specific power output than many economy sedans and the fuel economy of an ocean liner but I guess if you really have to have a big engine....

The Fords I have had experience with have been good other than mileage.  They were in small church buses though, so for the relatively little use they got the cost savings over a diesel made them worthwhile. 

Apparently, the Dodge V10 and Cummins trucks shared a frame, so to swap from the V10 to a Cummins is somewhat easy.  At least that is what I found out after buying my "frankenstein" Cummins back in 2007 and discovered the VIN on the body was from a V10 and the VIN on the dash was from a Cummins. In PA, only the dash VIN matters, which is how they got away with it. 

My 6.8L F-250 got 10.5 - 11.5 mpg no matter what.  Empty, loaded, big trailer, city, highway, 65 mph, 75 mph... didn't matter.  Fuel economy was always the same.  I added a 50 gallon gravity feed tank in the bed to boost range to 750-ish miles per tank.  My job covered fuel costs, so it wasn't a huge concern for me.

The engine was pretty drama-free.  It spit a spark plug at one point, but that's an easy fix.  The auto transmission crapped the bed.  Overall, Ford's build quality was better than Dodge at the time.  Exhaust manifolds were an absolute E36 M3show, but totally worth the effort/cost to fix.

It was a big step up versus the 5.4L V8 I had before it.  Lots more power with a small fuel economy penalty.

I got rid of it and now own a modified 5.9 CR Cummins.  They aren't in the same universe, even with the tuning turned down on the diesel.  The diesel power is so effortless, and fuel economy is still more than 50% better.

bigeyedfish said:

 got rid of it and now own a modified 5.9 CR Cummins.  They aren't in the same universe, even with the tuning turned down on the diesel.  The diesel power is so effortless, and fuel economy is still more than 50% better.

Thats a great way of explaining it.  The Ford Superdutys with the 6.2 I have driven seem to get around OK and do 80-85 all day on the highway, but you are working them to do it especially loaded down.  Sure they are engineered to do it and WILL do it, but its not a particularly enjoyable experience.  The 6.7 diesels just go, feels like there is no bottom to the gas pedal.  

93gsxturbo said:

The V10 Dodge I don't know a ton on.  The truck motors are pretty wheezy from the few I have driven, and no they are not "viper motors" (not even the SRT10 truck is a true "viper motor" short of the valve covers in that they don't swap over, please don't call it a "viper truck")

Everything Ive seen and been told is the Ram SRT10 was essentially the exact same engine, minus things oil pan and accessories.

I read a while back the Magnum V10 had some conceptual similarities to the viper engine, but they ended up sharing very little once lamborghini got involved. They are supposed to both be LA "based."

wspohn said:

Lower specific power output than many economy sedans and the fuel economy of an ocean line but I guess if you really have to have a big engine....

Truck engines always have low specific output.  Specific output can be boiled down to "how high does the engine rev", not really a truck engine property.

It's all about duty cycle.  When the Prelude SI was a new car, contemporary tractor-trailers made about the same horsepower.  But they would last a lot longer than an H22 engine screaming 7k down the highway under full load.