5.7 HEMI Cylinder Numbers & Firing Order: Everything You Need To Know
The first Chrysler HEMI engine was introduced in the early 1950s, and the third generation of this powerful V8 engine appeared in 2003. The 5.7-liter HEMI engine is used in Dodge muscle cars, Ram trucks, and Jeep SUVs. If your car, truck, or SUV has a 5.7-liter HEMI and you want to do troubleshooting and routine maintenance yourself to save some money, it is critical to know some basic information about how these V8 engines operate.
Every engine has a set firing order that determines how the distributor or coil packs send spark to each cylinder. Especially for older engines with a distributor, it is important to know the firing order when changing the distributor cap and spark plug wires. The third-generation HEMI uses a coil pack-on-plug system, which eliminates the distributor and spark plug wires altogether. However, it is still a good idea to know your engine's firing order and the correct cylinder mapping in case you get an on-board diagnostics message regarding a particular cylinder.
[Featured image by Greg Gjerdingen via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0]
The No. 1 cylinder is in front on the driver's side
The 5.7-liter HEMI's cylinders are arranged as follows and as the diagram above shows. Odd-numbered cylinders are in bank one on the driver's side and are numbered 1, 3, 5, and 7 from front to back. Even numbered cylinders are in bank two on the passenger's side and are numbered 2, 4, 6, and 8 moving from the radiator to the firewall. The firing order is controlled by the engine computer and goes in the sequence 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2.
The cylinder arrangement and firing order are the same for all third-generation HEMI engines, which include the 5.7-liter and three larger-displacement engines in different versions. The others are the 6.1-liter SRT, the supercharged 6.2-liter — which goes by Demon, Hellcat, and Redeye — and the 6.4-liter (392-cubic-inch) Apache. Notably, the Apache's output of about 500 horsepower landed it sixth on our ranking of major HEMI engines with the most horsepower, with the1,500-horsepower Direct Connection 1500 taking the top spot.