Insane 1982 Dodge Ram Hides Twin-Turbo Under the Hood, Does Massive Burnout
The third-gen D series is known for a series of special-edition trucks that arrived in the late 1970s, most notably the Li’l Red Express and the Warlock. It’s also the first Dodge truck that became available with a diesel engine.
Come 2022 and many of these trucks have been retired in backyards or even taken to junkyards once their workhorse careers came to an end. Fortunately enough though, some soldiered on to see 2022 as restomods, hiding modern V8 engines under fully restored (and even stock appearing) shells. The 1982 example you see here is one of those trucks and it’s downright insane.
Showcased by “Greg Alberalla,” this early Ram is rather inconspicuous until you see it up close and with the engine running. It’s almost completely stock on the outside if we ignore the lower ride height and the wheel covers, but the front fenders include hints that the factory engine is no longer under the hood.
That’s because each fender has a couple of pipes sticking out just behind the front grille. Usually seen on trucks prepped for drag strip duty, these pipes enable a modern twin-turbo V8 to breathe as it spins the rear wheels to incredible speeds. Unfortunately, we don’t get too much info on what’s under the hood, but we do know that it’s an LS mill. And based on the way it sounds, it must be strapped to a pair of big turbos.
And I’m pretty sure this thing moves to the tune of more than 800 horsepower and would cover the quarter-mile in less than 10 seconds. Sadly, we don’t get to see it running wild at the drag strip, but the guys at the shop took it out for a few burnouts. And they’re pretty massive and smokey, the kind that would make Steve McQueen proud.
But that’s not the only thing that makes this truck cool. It also sounds incredible. It’s also a two-tone short bed, which would make it a cool attraction at the local cars and coffee, even before the twin-turbo V8 starts to sing. Check it out in the video below.
If you’re not into early Dodge Ram trucks, they arrived with a 225-cubic-inch (3.7-liter) Slant-6 and a pair of LA-type V8 mills in the early 1980s. The former was replaced by a V6 in 1988, while a Cummins B-series inline-six turbodiesel was added to the lineup in 1989. The latter was rated at 160 horsepower and 400 pound-feet (540 Nm) of torque