Who has owned a Pentastar and a Hemi Ram 1500?

For those who have owned both with 8spds, I'm curious to see what your take is on them in terms of differences and similarities?

I owned a 2017 Ram 1500 express QC 4x4, pentastar for just under 3yrs and ~57K miles and recently replaced it with a 2019 Ram 1500 classic SLT CC 4x4 Hemi w/ ~14K miles on it. Both had 3.21 gears.

Right out of the gate I noticed the seemingly constant busyness of the powertrain on the hemi Ram. The programming of the ZF8 seems to be to get it into 8th as soon as possible. Couple that with MDS kicking in/out to varying degrees and it seems like something is ALWAYS happening there. Being a car enthusiast and noticing every noise, movement, feel, etc. It's a lot to get used to. I've only driven it 400-500 miles at this point, so maybe the adaptive shifting will change? I dunno. It's nothing I can't adjust to and I know how to disable MDS by toggling into manual shift mode. Just tap the - on the -/+ so the dash reads "8".

By contrast, my pentastar powered Ram wasn't nearly as busy. I would mostly drive it in tow/haul mode to lock out 8th, but for the most part, it would stay in 7th unless you were on flat ground and super steady on the go pedal, then it would advance to 8th. I guess my point is, I believe there's less herky-jerkiness and vibrations with the Ram 1500 Pentastar given no MDS and different 8spd programming.

With the Hemi, even with Tow/Haul mode on, it will go into 8th as soon as it can. The only difference between tow/haul on/off I can feel with the hemi is you will feel the downshifting with tow/haul on. Other than that, upshifting and gear changes in general feel the same.

The acceleration and sound of the hemi is really something. I'll be 50 in a matter of weeks and this is my first V8. It really is awesome. The pentastar isn't a bad sounding engine, but it's more of an appliance sound than a powerhouse sound. The pentastar IMO has remarkable pin you into the seat acceleration as well, but not quite as much as the hemi as you'd expect.

Here's a similarity that I did NOT expect. Granted I might be a bit early on it, but I'm nearly done with my first (whole) tank of fuel on the Hemi and the dash seems to level out at 22.8mpg average with my usage. My pentastar would be at about 24mpg this time of year. That is remarkable V8 fuel economy IMO.

Sorry for the long winded-ness. Hoping to hear of other's experiences as well and I'll add more to this thread as they come up.

Thanks!

Given I just ran through my first entire tank of gas with my 2019 Ram 1500 hemi, I thought I'd share average MPG figures between when my 2017 pentastar was relatively new, vs my relatively new 2019 hemi.

This is my new 2019 Ram hemi. I got 484.6 miles out of 23.0 gal of fuel = 21mpg. The dash indicates about 1mpg higher. This was with mixed driving and me getting on it a time or two per use. LOL



This was my 2017 Ram pentastar and again, when you calculated it by hand, the hand calc was about 1mpg lower. Mixed summer time driving.

I would do a full PCM/TCM relearn. The previous owner/dealership may have been putzing around.

Disconnect the battery for a short time and then reconnect to let her run wild. There are either 32 to 40 OEM shift maps with the ZF8.

i took a 2020 rcsb v6 with 3:55 diff for a test ride yesterday .. dealer let me go by myself cause.c19...very impressed with it ....they offered me only 21.500 for my 19 rcsb hemi 3;92 ...no deal ..if they offered me 24.000 ..i would of traded

Tim Garceau said:

I would do a full PCM/TCM relearn. The previous owner/dealership may have been putzing around.

Disconnect the battery for a short time and then reconnect to let her run wild. There are either 32 to 40 OEM shift maps with the ZF8.

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I've put about ~600 miles total on it since I bought it and like the current shift mapping. When I picked the truck up, Enterprise car sales didn't fill the tank. It had about a 1/3 of a tank. I filled the tank when it got to about "70 miles" till empty, reset the average fuel economy and reset the trip ODOs. The above numbers are based on that full tank.

PoMansRam said:

I've put about ~600 miles total on it since I bought it and like the current shift mapping. When I picked the truck up, Enterprise car sales didn't fill the tank. It had about a 1/3 of a tank. I filled the tank when it got to about "70 miles" till empty, reset the average fuel economy and reset the trip ODOs. The above numbers are based on that full tank.

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Hey, Po Man, congrats on the new to you Hemi. I will be looking forward to your reports on the mpg and other things about the Hemi as compared to the 3.6.

Second full tank of gas got me 492.4 miles. 492.4mi / 24.5gal fillup = 20.1 mpg average over a tank of fuel. My 80 mile round trip work commute has been consistently leveling out at ~23mpg.

The dash avg fuel economy indicated 21.6 mpg.

About 300 of those miles was around town with many ~15-25 mile round trips.

Plenty of turning MDS off and hammer down time too. LOL

Still very impressed with hemi fuel economy!

PoMansRam said:

Second full tank of gas got me 492.4 miles. 492.4mi / 24.5gal fillup = 20.1 mpg average over a tank of fuel. My 80 mile round trip work commute has been consistently leveling out at ~23mpg.

The dash avg fuel economy indicated 21.6 mpg.

About 300 of those miles was around town with many ~15-25 mile round trips.

Plenty of turning MDS off and hammer down time too. LOL

Still very impressed with hemi fuel economy!

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Before covid I would regularly get over 600 to a tank on my Pentastar without even trying. Consistently. I think my best while actively trying to see how much I could push it averaged out to about 28mpg. Coasting hills, drafting trucks etc. My only mod is the RIPP coilpacks.

My neighbor has the same truck with the hemi. At about 30k miles he noticed a sharp drop off in MPG.

Driving habits themselves change when people have “more efficient motors” so it’s not really an apples to apples comparison. Looking at you Prius owners.


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I could get upwards of 26-27mpg on certain trips with my 2017 with the pentastar, but never as the average over a whole tank of gas.

To me, the only number that matters is the average MPG.

Your 600mi out of a tank is I'm assuming about a 25gal fill-up? So that was 24mpg over the whole tank. Not too shabby.

PoMansRam said:

I could get upwards of 26-27mpg on certain trips with my 2017 with the pentastar, but never as the average over a whole tank of gas.

To me, the only number that matters is the average MPG.

Your 600mi out of a tank is I'm assuming about a 25gal fill-up? So that was 24mpg over the whole tank. Not too shabby.

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When I mean easily over 600, I’m talking like 675, 650, etc. I could average about 26-27 on a tank no problems if I really wanted.

90% of it is driving. I saw the same themes on the Challenger forums.

I had a hemi and all the hemi guys would talk about how incredible their mpg was for such a beast and the v6 crowd couldn’t understand why there wasn’t further separation.

Just basic psychology if you think about it. People assume the economical motor will fix ****** driving habits. I loved my Challenger but I had to reaaally try to get that 22highway.


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Autonomous vehicles will be a hit if you guys are putzing around for miles per gallon. Exhilarating commutes I imagine.

Tim Garceau said:

Autonomous vehicles will be a hit if you guys are putzing around for miles per gallon. Exhilarating commutes I imagine.

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I don’t think most are, but there’s really no reason to drive like you’re on a drag strip either.

And I have 0 commute, unless you call walking to my office in pajamas after I grab my coffee commuting.


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Haha, yeah programming the logic can be done from home as long as you have a disgusting amount of math background and solid c++ skills

<- AI engineer for a big social media company


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Everyone's driving conditions and style of driving is different of course, but I don't think I've ever putzed around. LOL. I live in super hilly, skiing country and my work commute is far from level and straight.

I put about 50k miles on my pentastar powered 2017 Ram 1500 and consistently averaged ~20-22mpg tank to tank in those miles. in the years I followed folks chatting about this power train and any "data" I've seen online supports that as the norm.

Do I think 26-28mpg average tank to tank can be done? Who am I to say! Never saw/heard it is all.

So far my hemi seems like it will fall about 10% less than my pentastar in terms of mpg.

PoMansRam said:

Everyone's driving conditions and style of driving is different of course, but I don't think I've ever putzed around. LOL. I live in super hilly, skiing country and my work commute is far from level and straight.

I put about 50k miles on my pentastar powered 2017 Ram 1500 and consistently averaged ~20-22mpg tank to tank in those miles. in the years I followed folks chatting about this power train and any "data" I've seen online supports that as the norm.

Do I think 26-28mpg average tank to tank can be done? Who am I to say! Never saw/heard it is all.

So far my hemi seems like it will fall about 10% less than my pentastar in terms of mpg.

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My commute was atypical. All highway, flat, etc.

What’s weird is that you’re more or less implying skepticism of my mpg numbers while claiming numbers not reported in 2million miles from users on Fuelly. The average reported hemi mpg is 15 combined yet you’re claiming claiming north of 23.

What’s more likely, a 17% reported variance or a 42% reported variance? [emoji2369]


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I figure I'm gaining a few of your 28mpg.

PoMansRam said:

I figure I'm gaining a few of your 28mpg.

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Confused. If you were able to get 27 on a trip in your Pentastar why couldn’t you get that for the entire tank if it was always the same trip?

Never aimed to average 28 btw, I claimed the best I ever got while trying was 28.


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I suppose its possible. It's all good man.

It was not my intent to turn this into a fuel economy battle of the best. I was just curious of people's experiences in owning both power trains.

PoMansRam said:

Everyone's driving conditions and style of driving is different of course, but I don't think I've ever putzed around. LOL. I live in super hilly, skiing country and my work commute is far from level and straight.

I put about 50k miles on my pentastar powered 2017 Ram 1500 and consistently averaged ~20-22mpg tank to tank in those miles. in the years I followed folks chatting about this power train and any "data" I've seen online supports that as the norm.

Do I think 26-28mpg average tank to tank can be done? Who am I to say! Never saw/heard it is all.

So far my hemi seems like it will fall about 10% less than my pentastar in terms of mpg.

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If my memory is right the sticker mpg difference between 3.6/5.7 is about 10%. You get good mpg with both motors so 10% seems logical. The Fuelly site shows about a 15% gap. My guess is the 5.7 drivers like to floor board it more than the 3.6 drivers.

KWG88ss said:

Before covid I would regularly get over 600 to a tank on my Pentastar without even trying. Consistently. I think my best while actively trying to see how much I could push it averaged out to about 28mpg. Coasting hills, drafting trucks etc. My only mod is the RIPP coilpacks.

My neighbor has the same truck with the hemi. At about 30k miles he noticed a sharp drop off in MPG.

Driving habits themselves change when people have “more efficient motors” so it’s not really an apples to apples comparison. Looking at you Prius owners.


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Click to expand...

So are the coil packs worth it?

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