Ram 1500 diesel review

OK, Updated the spreadsheet. I was actually very surprised to find that given the monster amount of power the Diesels make now a days that it stays ahead of the 6.2L. Note though, that this is the inferior tune that the Ford 6.7 had versus the F-150 tune of the 6.2 that just makes more power all over the place compared to the super duty tune. I selected the 3.73 rear axle on the gasser and 3.31 axle on the super duty since these are the most commonly sold rear axles out there. I also threw in a hypothetical if we had an ecoboost mated to the same setup as the 6.2L motor. Hopefully the formatted table below shows the same as the spreadsheet. Attached is the torque put down at the wheels after gear multiplication and such. The Diesel stays ahead for the most part but after 35mph, they're well close to each other. The ecoboost was an interesting one to put in there as well. Here's the full spreadsheet to compare with: Spreadsheet

Torque
MPH/Ford 6.7/Ford 6.2/Ecoboost 3.5
10- 9,658| 4,146| 5,553
15- 9,658| 4,442| 6,219
20- 9,658| 5,035| 6,219
25- 7,227| 5,405| 6,219
30- 5,644| 6,219| 6,071
35- 5,644| 5,627| 5,200
40- 4,991| 4,294| 3,635
45- 3,698| 3,375| 3,635
50- 3,698| 3,548| 3,635
55- 3,698| 3,790| 3,461
60- 3,270| 3,288| 3,100
65- 2,767| 3,115| 2,381
70- 2,798| 2,510| 2,381
75- 2,700| 2,325| 2,381
80- 2,474| 2,381| 2,325

And here's the same table using Horsepower. Horsepower is constant because gearing is taken into account that manipulates RPM, so those big torque numbers still equate out in horsepower:
Horsepower
MPH/Ford 6.7/Ford 6.2/Ecoboost 3.5
10- 245| 93| 125
15- 315| 129| 180
20- 385| 194| 240
25- 340| 261| 300
30- 315| 360| 340
35- 385| 380| 350
40- 371| 331| 246
45- 350| 297| 310
50- 350| 332| 340
55- 385| 396| 362
60- 371| 380| 350
65- 350| 377| 288
70- 385| 331| 320
75- 380| 331| 330
80- 371| 360| 351

I think the fact that diesels now make just about the same horsepower as the gassers is playing into why the diesel is now maintaining so much of an advantage through the gearing. This is crazy! It used to be that diesels were down about 50HP or so against the gassers.

Now in the case of the Diesel RAM half ton versus the HEMI half ton, the HEMI has quite a horsepower advantage which would play out and I think we would see an advantage for the gasser in hauling in that case. Where as in the practice case above, the ford diesel was within 30hp of the gasser. Torque curve and horsepower curve played a large part in this as well. Notice how nicely the ecoboost surpasses the 6.2L in a few areas.

Doing this excercise was a real eye opener for me! Also, here's how the gearing worked out for these vehicles at the calculated torque and horsepower values:
Gearing
MPH/Ford 6.7/Ford 6.2/Ecoboost 3.5
10- 1| 1| 1|
15- 1| 1| 1|
20- 1| 1| 1|
25- 1| 1| 1|
30- 2| 1| 1|
35- 2| 1| 1|
40- 2| 1| 2|
45- 3| 2| 2|
50- 3| 2| 2|
55- 3| 2| 2|
60- 3| 2| 2|
65- 3| 2| 3|
70- 4| 2| 3|
75- 4| 3| 3|
80- 4| 3| 3|

If anybody has better numbers for the new 6.7 and 6.2 with the most current torque curves, I can improve the accuracy of this analysis to some degree. Still interesting to look at!

Also, another interesting thing is that the gasser is holding 2nd gear at 70mph. However, due to the limitations of Google docs, I can't work up a higher redline RPM than 6,000rpm and I had to start at 1,750rpm on this analysis. If I had more cells to work with, I could build a more complete model. But this has been really fun to compare. Now if only I could get data on a horsepower curve of the 5.7 HEMI and the upcoming 3.0 Ecodiesel. Then I can just copy and paste all my stuff and build a nice comparison. Would also need ratios for gears and axle for both trucks. Too bad most manufacturers don't post horsepower charts anymore.