The 1,000-horsepower Hellephant A30 426 and 354 Drag Pak are back with some upgrades.
Each of the Big Three offer up their own performance catalogs, and Dodge has been pushing its Direct Connection program over the past few years. Now, with the resurrected SRT division, there’s even greater drive to revamp and relaunch some of the most popular products, including its crate engines. To that end, Dodge debuted updated versions of both the 1,000-horsepower Hellephant supercharged Hemi V8, as well as the 354 supercharged Drag Pak that’s in the new Charger Hustle Stuff race car.
“The desire for HEMI engine power is stronger than ever,” says head of Direct Connection crate engines Chad Seymour. “Direct Connection is keeping the pedal down”.
More on the updated Hellephant 426
Both engines are making their appearance at this year’s SEMA show, but the original Hellephant first made its debut back in 2018. The updated engine still had a 426-cubic-inch displacement with a 4.125-inch bore and 4-inch stroke, though this new A30 version gets a list of noteworthy upgrades over the previous version.
Right off the bat, the a new Gen-III aluminum block uses six-bolt main metal caps as well as precision CNC torque plate-honed cylinders for better strength. The engine also gets both 4340 forged steel H-beam connecting rods with increased cross-sectional thickness as well as ARP 2000 bolts, and eight-counterweight crankshaft with gun drilled mains and lightened rod journals. There’s a new Litens high-performance billet supercharger belt tensioner, and an upgraded 3.0-liter IHI twin-screw supercharger.
The Hellephant A30 426 packs a 3.17-inch diameter supercharger pulley and a 92-millimeter throttle body, as well as Injector Dynamics 1050 fuel injectors, 356 aluminum cylinder heads, Mahle custom forged aluminum pistons, 54.3mm intake valves and 42mm exhaust valves. Like before, this updated engine still runs at a 9.5:1 compression ratio and redlines at 6,800 RPM.
If you want the Hellephant in your project build (part number P5160194AD — the old engine is ‘AC’), it’ll set you back the same $34,995 MSRP as the outgoing unit. It’s also worth mentioning, per Direct Connection’s disclosure, that this engine is designed for vehicles 1976 or older that aren’t bound by emissions regulations, or vehicles that are only used on the track. The Hellephant is not legal for road use in vehicles newer than ’76.
The Hellephant is also mostly drop-in, provided you buy the updated engine kit (part number 77072500AE), that sees a new calibration taking the new parts into account.
What about the 354 Drag Pak?
While it’s not quite up to the same 1,000 horsepower and 950 lb-ft of torque as the Hellephant, the supercharged 354 Hemi still looks to offer some serious grunt. Dodge is a little cagey on power with the Charger Drag Pak, but it says that car is capable of a sub-8-second quarter-mile.
Like the Hellephant, the 354 also gets the Gen-III block and six-bolt metal caps, as well as the forged steel connecting rods (though this time with ARP L19 fasteners). The eight-counterweight billet crankshaft is machined from 4330V Timken steel with gun drilled mains and a custom machined counterweight for reduced windage. The Litens lightweight supercharger belt tensioner also makes an appearance here.
The 354 Drag Pak engine gets a 3.0-liter Whipple supercharger with a 3.5-inch pulley, as well as Diamond forged aluminum pistons, a Mopar-spec camshaft with 0.675-inch lift, billet timing gears, a Jesel valvetrain and PAC Racing dual valve springs. The engine also uses billet timing gears with a SFI-approved ATI damper, a 109mm billet aluminum throttle body, American Racing 304 stainless steel headers and a Moroso billet aluminum oil pan with a fabricated aluminum sump.
Be warned, though: This crate engine isn’t coming cheap. The part (number P5160354AD) will, in fact, set you back $63,995. If you want an ECU kit (part number P5160240AA) and a Drag Pak Electrical/Fuel Kit (part number P5160239AC), you’ll also have to budget and purchase those separately to make the installation plug-and-play.
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