Photo: Hoovies Garage | YouTube
This guy bought the cheapest Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat on the internet sight unseen from Florida and now he's discovering its flaws. Aside from four accidents that left marks on the body, the muscle car suffers from HEMI tick disease.
Some say that HEMI ticking is nothing. Even Dodge claims that it is completely harmless. But the engine squeaks and it sounds like there is a faulty part that will eventually die and take everything with it. So, getting rid of the annoying noise, as in fixing anything that needs fixing, is the only way out. However, there is no miracle solution for that ticking. It can have many reasons or none to be found. Oh, the reputation of HEMIs…
But Tyler Hoover, the new owner of the YouTube channel Hoovies Garage and, recently, of this 2016 Challenger, has brought the car to David Long, aka Car Wizard, who will leave no stone unturned until he figures out what’s wrong with the 6.2-liter V8. And to do just that, he’s torn the engine apart.
Tyler Hoover knew what he was getting into when he paid just $26,000 for a car that would normally sell for between $44,000 and $67,000 on the used car market. However, it ran and ran well and there didn't seem to be much wrong with it. Despite all the warning signs, he still thought it was a good idea to take it home.
The seven-year-old Dodge he purchased was a one-owner car with a clean title, despite the four accidents it had been in. None were really that bad. The last one left it with a cracked bumper and front splitter. The hood was slightly bent back, and the satin black finish had started to peel off. The former owner blamed car washes for the damage.
Photo: Hoovies Garage | YouTube
However, it is nothing that cannot be fixed. But that HEMI ticking, the stigma that goes with the engine, is unnerving for him. So, he just has to get rid of it and he has to do it fast. The Car Wizard must have a solution for this.
Furthermore, that Challenger owner seriously neglected the car, ignoring the maintenance schedule for all those years he drove it and throwing caution to the wind, mocking the demands of the 707 horsepower (717 metric horsepower) under the hood.
What started as a lifter problem has turned into pulling the entire V8 out of the engine bay. David Long has discovered that a lifter roller is rock solid and won't spin as it should. And wait! There's more where that came from! The cams are showing serious wear and the rod bearings are wasted, despite the fact that the car has only covered 70,000 miles (112,654 kilometers) so far.
The clutch isn't right either, despite having been replaced at some point. When Tyler hears the quote for a new clutch, he decides to put the old one back in the car. The original quote was $3,000-$4,000. But that's why it's called “original.” Because it has nothing to do with the final quote. Now, the Car Wizard believes he can fix everything, both visually and mechanically, for $10,000.
Tyler was pretty excited the week before when he got his hands on the 2016 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. Things went south pretty quickly when he started finding fault with it. Now, the $26,000, one-owner, four-accident, almost-zero HEMI-powered Hellcat doesn’t seem like a good idea anymore.
