This Pickup Left The Factory With The Biggest Displacement Engine Offered In A New Truck

Gearheads have always adored massive engines, regardless of what kind of body style they sit in. While we are accustomed to outrageously powerful V8 pickups, like the 2021 Ram TRX that's awesome off-road and scary-quick 2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R, they aren't necessarily the maddest, shall we say.

Given that we're talking about factory pickups with crazy-big engines, you may assume the TRX and its 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi would make the cut. However, while it's a unit in itself, it's not the biggest. That honor goes to the TRX's now old and perhaps forgotten cousin, the Dodge Ram SRT-10 — specifically, its 8.3-liter naturally aspirated V10 engine (that's 505 cubic inches, for those wondering). Folks at Dodge were crazy enough to plonk the Viper's V10 into a Ram 1500 chassis that, of all things, featured leaf springs at the back.

Produced from 2004 to 2006, this wild sports hauler, in addition to being the record holder for the world's fastest pickup, takes the crown for the largest-displacement engine ever fitted to a production pickup truck. Honorable mentions, however, include GM's 8.1-liter Vortec V8, Dodge's 8.0-liter Magnum V10, and Ford's 7.3-liter Power Stroke diesel V8.

Unsurprisingly, shoehorning the Viper's 8.3-liter V10 into a truck chassis is far from a Friday afternoon job, especially when the engine in question churns out 500 horsepower and 525 pound-feet of torque. Being two different body styles meant it wasn't a direct swap either. While most of the V10 is straight from the Viper, the SRT-10 pickup featured a few bespoke add-ons, including a new oil pan, throttle linkage, high-flow manifolds, and new transmission mounts. Engineers also installed a custom dual-exhaust system and a heavy-duty radiator to handle the additional cooling needs.

It's worth pointing out that this 8.3-liter item is significantly superior to the 8.0-liter Magnum V10 found in old Ram 2500 and 3500 pickups from the '90s. Mind you, these two are entirely different engines. The sports truck's V10 has a cast-aluminum cylinder block, as opposed to the Magnum's iron-block architecture. The 8.3's cylinder block has interference-fit cast-iron liners and cross-bolted main caps. Plus, it featured lighter pistons, along with a six-main-bearing crankshaft and connecting rods that were of a lighter and stronger cracked-steel construction.

Other highlights of the Viper-sourced 8.3-liter V10 include a cast aluminum intake manifold and a two-barrel throttle body for sustained high RPM performance, all of which help the engine deliver 90% of its peak torque from as low as 1,500 RPM. Together with its clever chassis tweaks, the rear-wheel-drive SRT-10 hits 60 mph in a touch over 5 seconds and can clock a top speed of over 150 mph — impressive figures for a pickup truck even today, let alone the mid-2000s.