The second-generation Dodge Dakota was arguably one of the top sport trucks of its time and 25 years later, the compact, curvy form still looks great on the street and on the track. As a result, the second-gen Dakota has become a popular vehicle to outfit with a modern HEMI® engine or, in the case of Allison Kovalik, the new twin turbocharged Hurricane inline-six. However, while scrolling through the Mopar® Engines Group on Facebook, I came across a post by Kevin Feddersohn. His 1999 Dodge Dakota R/T packs over 800 wheel horsepower, and he is making that power with a modified version of the original 5.9-liter Magnum V8 – showing that you don’t have to swap to a HEMI engine to pack monster power.
Kevin Feddersohn purchased this 1999 Dodge Dakota R/T back in 2002, when he was 16 years old, and it has literally been with him throughout his entire adult life.
“I remember going to the library at lunch in high school and just reading the Delphi Dakota RT forums, seeing what the latest and greatest mods were and what results people were getting at the track. I have taken this truck to high school prom, first day of college, last day of college, every job, lots of memories and it’s always been right there.”
In his early years of owning and driving this ‘99 Dakota R/T, Feddersohn stuck to mostly cosmetic changes and suspension upgrades, but once he got out of college and started making better money, he began pumping power into his Dodge sport truck. After running in the high-13s in the quarter-mile throughout the early years, the first step in adding more power was a top end build, which included Edelbrock heads, a custom camshaft and a four-barrel intake manifold, but after a few years with that setup, he decided to add boost.
“It ran great on the heads/cam/turbo making 460 wheel horsepower / 540 wheel torque on 91. It eventually developed a rod knock and was pulled to build the setup it has now. This included the ultra-rare 3.79 K1 crank (I think they made 10 of them) that I had in the garage for over a decade waiting for the eventual build up. At the same time as the motor was being built, I swapped in the T56 for the new motor. I eventually got it running great on the factory JTEC making 600-wheel horsepower on E85. I developed a map sensor issue with the factory system I could not solve and decided to upgrade once and for all to the Holley HP. With nothing but a re-tune on the Holley, it picked up 130 wheel horsepower. After some minor intake modifications to cure a turbulence issue, we could see on the VE tables we bumped the boost from 9 to 12 psi where it made the final 840/880.”
Kevin Feddersohn went on to explain that he drives the truck on the street at 9 pounds of boost, which yields 710 horsepower and 780 lb-ft of torque at the wheels, but he keeps the 12 psi waste gate spring handy, just in case he needs to make a quick change to make an additional 130 horsepower and 100 lb-ft of torque at the wheels. In either case, these kinds of power numbers must make this 1999 Dakota one hell of a ton of fun to drive, but due to the closure of tracks in his area, it is and always will be a street machine. We have included his complete build list at the end of this piece.
“The truck hasn’t seen a drag strip in over a decade since it was an NA truck running low 13s. Since it’s been making any kind of power, all the tracks in southern California have closed, the nearest one being about 3.5 hours away with no LA traffic. For me, the truck was always to be a badass fun street truck to run errands, get ice cream, cruise the beach, cars and coffee or whatever I’m in the mood for. Now that it’s making respectable power, I am certainly more interested in taking it to competitive events, but it will always primarily be a go-anywhere-anytime street truck.”
This 1999 Dodge Dakota R/T has seen a handful of iterations during its time with Kevin Feddersohn (shown in the progression of images here) and he isn’t done yet. In the short term, he has plans to modify the interior and improve on the suspension setup while long-term plans include more power.
“The next plan definitely includes a full custom interior as that is still original, and I will add a harness bar or street-friendly 4-point cage at the same time. Long-term plans for the rest of the truck include more suspension work with a 3 or 4 link setup, tubular front upper/lower A-arms, splined sways and a fuel cell at the same time. I will most likely run this motor into the ground beating on it before I go in search of more power. Living in southern California, I am awfully close to Nelson Racing Engines who would be my go-to builder for a twin turbo Mopar small block motor in the future, potentially with a 6xd sequential, but that’s a LONG way down the road. Now that it’s fairly well sorted, I’d like to start looking at drag and drive events, power cruises, half miles, and maybe even a silver state classic.”
Finally, Feddersohn has some key people to thank for the progression of his badass 1999 Dodge Dakota R/T.
“I’d like to thank my fabricator, Al Verschave at AVS Fabrication, my tuner Lance Loader aka Dunehoon on IG, my wife Jessica, and my best friends Ben and Giulo for always giving me a hard time as motivation.”
Drivetrain
- 385 Magnum
- JE pistons 9.4:1 compression
- Forged K1 3.79″ crank
- Scat rods 2.100 SBC journals
- Hughes main girdle w/ARP studs
- Erson hydraulic roller 242/242 113 .595” Johnson Hylift roller lifters 1.6 Lunati rockers Ferrea 2.02/1.60 SS valves
- Ported Edelbrock heads / ported M1 4bbl intake
- Copper gaskets with fire rings
- Half-filled block
- Holley 4-barrel tb
- 1,000 hp A2A intercooler
- FIC 1000 injectors
- C&R aluminum radiator / dual Spal fans
- Mantic twin disc clutch
- Quicktime bellhousing
- Viper T56
- Holley HP EFI 550-604n
- Aeromotive dual phantom 340lph PTFE lines
- E85 / flex fuel
- Turbonetics 7875
Suspension
- Energy suspension poly bushings
- Hotchkis sway bars
- Viking shocks
- SRT®10 Viper rotors
- WK1 GC SRT8 calipers
- CCW classics 18×10 18×12 black chromed
- Nitto NT05R
Exterior
- Stillen bumper cover
- Reflexxion hood
- Tinted head / taillights
- Street scene speed grilles
- Innovations bed cover
- Cuda roll pan
- Shaved tailgate
- Street scene mirrors
- LED lighting
- Original paint, wet sanded, corrected and ceramic coated
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