(hard rock music)
- Hello, and welcome to 2017 Diesel Power Challenge
presented by XTP.
Once again, we're joined by some of the toughest trucks
in America as voted by you,
the readers of Diesel Power Magazine.
The competition begins as it always does,
with our competitors converging outside of Denver, Colorado
at the hotel.
They go through registration, they get the swag bag,
and they get their numbers assigned.
This year returning champion six liter
Charlie Keeter's wearing that all important
number one on the window.
Day Two we head to Red Rocks,
that gorgeous area outside of Denver
where the magazine editors shoot their features
and get the beauty shots of the trucks.
Then they get on the dyno
and they actually perform a fuel economy test.
Very interesting test of man and machine
to prove they're in fact street trucks.
Then finally we get to Day Three,
and the thrash really begins.
Right up to the last second
they're wrenching in the parking lot
as we get ready to pull these trucks
and their chassis dyno at ATS Diesel Performance
and test their mettle.
We're going to find out how much horsepower they make,
how much torque they make,
and who stays together and who doesn't.
It's going to be a great day,
and the competition begins now.
Shaun Doran of Wisconsin in a 2012 Ford F-250
powered by a compound turbocharged 6.7 liter Powerstroke.
Alright, Shaun Doran,
one of the members of the Wisconsin army
out here this week,
you're the first guy on the rollers.
You guys were thrashing in the parking lot.
What was going on out there?
- [Shaun] Got a little bit of a oil leak going on.
Did some last minute repairs.
It's still seeping a little bit,
but I think I got it handled.
- So, obviously at sea level
the truck makes 1,400 at the wheel,
somewhere around there.
Have you done any sort of altitude testing
or trying to figure out any way to correct it?
- Have not, have not, so just kind of learning.
See how it goes, you know, hoping it does well.
- [Brian] The dyno rules are very simple.
Each competitor can make up to three pulls
inside a window of 30 minutes
to make the most horsepower and torque possible.
Biggest numbers win.
(engine revs)
(cheering)
Alright, Shaun Doran, three good pulls.
No oil coming out of it, that's the first thing.
The second thing, you go 760 horse, 780,
and then you jump it all the way to 876,
so what's changed in there?
- I fattened it up a little bit,
gave her a little bit more fuel.
I was trying to keep it down as much as possible.
I could have put bigger jets in it.
Decent pulls, so that's all I can ask for.
- [Brian] Kevin Jacob from Wisconsin
driving a 2005 Ram 2500
with a compound turbocharged 5.9 liter Cummins engine.
(dramatic music)
So, Wisconsin's Kevin Jacob
has pulled onto the dyno rollers now.
- Uncorrected up here.
I'm hoping for minimum 750.
I'd like to see eight, but might not happen up here.
So, 750's kind of what I'm going for.
- [Brian] Biggest thing just keeping the rods in it, right?
- [Kevin] Yes, sir.
(engine revs)
- Slowly getting some wobble.
Little more, little more.
Little more and roll into it.
All the way to the floor.
- [Brian] Alright, Kevin Jacob, three successful pulls.
Truck's all in one piece.
Talk to me about strategy between the three pulls.
Did you make any tuning changes,
or just the way you were trying to load the dyno?
- [Kevin] No tuning, just a little bit
harder loaded, I think, and made good numbers.
(cheering)
- Returning Diesel Power Challenge champion
Charlie Keeter in a 2004 Ford F-250,
powered by a triple compound turbocharged
six liter Powerstroke.
You came out of this contest top three last year
when we left the dyno area.
Are you trying to do better than that this year?
You want to be on top of the heap?
- I'd be happy with a top three here today.
(engine revs)
- 1099.
- We can live with that.
- [Brian] Charlie Keeter made two pulls.
The first pull we watched,
I think it was really kind of straining against the straps
and bouncing around.
- Yeah, I wish we'd have had a smooth pull
with the first pull, but it is what it is.
I mean, we had a good pull with the second pull,
I'm happy with it.
(cheering)
- [Brian] McCoy Black in from North Carolina
in his 1995 Dodge 2500
sporting a p-pump equipped compound turbocharged
5.9 liter Cummins.
Only guy with a p-pump motor in the competition.
That's certainly not going to hold you back.
This thing has the potential to set the big numbers
here on the dyno.
- Yes sir, definitely hoping for somewhere around,
without the correction factor,
somewhere around 1,200, we'd be happy.
So, 12 valves don't chassis dyno very good,
so we're at a disadvantage there,
but we brought a disadvantage and we knew it,
so it is what it is.
- [Brian] How long before the competition
was the truck finished?
- Pulled out Friday morning,
and we were still tinkering on it Friday.
We showed up Saturday, and we're still finishing stuff.
- [Brian] Good luck, man, a lot of people out there
pulling for this truck.
They love this thing, and we'll see what you can do.
(engine revs)
McCoy Black with one pull
vaults all the way to the top of the sheet.
You're well over 1,200 horsepower, over 2,000 foot-pounds.
Tell me that's what you were looking for.
- Yeah, I mean, I honestly,
first pull, you know, we stayed down on jet size.
It's only like a 99 full throttle jet.
So we were expecting nowhere near that, honestly.
Knowing that, we're almost scared
to put a bigger jet to it now.
So, we get some water-meth on it tonight,
help cool it down for a drag strip.
1/4 mile's a long ways.
We're more than happy with that number.
- [Brian] I'll tell you, you had
a good flair for the dramatic, too, between the smoke,
but then they had a nice little cone of flame
coming out of the exhaust stack.
- Yeah, she gets warm, not intercooled,
and spraying nitrous.
She gets warm, but coolant temperature's running great,
oil pressure's running great, everything's fine.
Couldn't expect anything different.
- [Brian] McCoy Black leading the dyno charge.
I dunno if anybody's going to catch him.
We're all smiling dude, because that was awesome.
McCoy throws down 1,255 horsepower,
2,131 on the torque side, and that is a beast.
- Before McCoy got on the dyno
I was walking around back here with the competitors,
and I said, "You know something?
"You're about to see something epic."
Those were my exact words.
Now, epic can go either way, as we both know.
But I had confidence in this guy.
He had troubles last night.
We understand where his truck places
in the street car category,
but Diesel Power Challenge is about
bringing that kind of technology,
and that's old-school technology, but making it work.
One of the things that people were commenting about
when they saw McCoy enter
was that, "Well, it's a mechanical pump truck."
Bottom line is, it's old-school.
That proves that old-school is still a good school
in this space, for sure.
He just really made a big statement
for the mechanical trucks.
- [Brian] Yeah, I mean, all these trucks are brutal
in their own way,
but when you look at this thing, mechanical pump,
non-intercooled, he's shooting nitrous through it.
- It just shouldn't work.
That's the basics of it, it shouldn't work,
but he just brought it real time.
So, looking out for him for this rest of this deal.
- Yeah, that motor may not be here for a long time,
but it sure is here for a good time.
(laughs)
So, this is Wisconsin's Mike Bunkelman
is a 5.9 Cummins, a single turbo 5.9 Cummins out here,
one of the few trucks we have in the competition this year
with a big single on it.
Typically in this altitude,
the single trucks tend to struggle,
but we'll find out what Mike's got for a tuneup
and what he's expecting to get out of the dyno.
- I dunno, my old setup,
I put down 780 on a sea level dyno,
so if I can get close to that
with a bigger charger and a different head on it,
I'll guess you'll be happy with that.
It's going to be hard to compete with--
- [Brian] What is on it for a turbo?
- 369SX-E billet wheel.
Got a Stage 2 DNJ head on it.
102 industrial injecting boost,
and a golden nugget behind it.
(engine revs)
- [Brian] Mike Bunkelman, you're done with your pulls.
Talk to me about the third pull you made,
the truck made an upshift.
And in our rules, we talked about it,
you get to have a correction pull, if you will.
What caused the truck to upshift?
- I kind of think the torque converter
was a little lazy on the lock up.
I got a lock up switch in it,
but when I was going up in RPMs,
I usually like to lock it in about 1,700.
And I couldn't tell if it was shifting or not,
so once I got it up to 2,200, 2,300,
I think it got lazy on me,
and then I didn't know if it upshifted to overdrive or what.
So, that's why I just let out.
(cheering)
I'd try to honk the horn, but it don't work.
- [Brian] Wisconsin's Tim Jahn.
It's a 2008 F-250.
Has a 6.4 liter engine that is compound turbocharged.
You were here last year,
but you were not sitting in that seat.
How much different does this feel
than it was with your buddies last year?
- 100% different, 100% different.
- [Brian] What numbers would make you happy?
Give me some round numbers, give me a window.
- Thousand horse.
(engine revs)
(cheering)
- [Brian] Well, Tim Jahn just dropped a bomb on this place.
1,315 horsepower and I'm talking
just a tick under 2000 foot-pounds of torque.
It is fantastic, you're going to enter the drag strip tomorrow
at a very good position
no matter what happens behind you.
Now, you are going to leave it at that one pull, right?
- Yeah.
- [Brian] Smart man, congratulations.
- Yeah, thank you.
- [Brian] Rich Strube from New York
driving a 2005 GMC Sierra 3500HD
with a single turbocharged Duramax V8.
Here with Rich Strube, towed some 30 hours
from New York state to get out here to Denver.
You have what is probably the biggest truck
in competition, certainly the heaviest.
Give me the rundown on what I'm looking at, here.
- She's an '05, she's got 135,000 miles on it.
It's got the original LLY block in it.
It's on its second set of heads.
This is the third version of this motor.
- [Brian] One last question.
You got to hold the flag for the GM faithful, don't you?
- [Rich] I've been hearing that a lot, yeah.
I been hearing it a lot.
I was like, I didn't realize it
when we were out doing the stickers.
I'm like, where are the other GMs?
And I'm like, oh my God, I'm the only one.
(engine revs)
- [Brian] Rich Strube, your second pull was the best one,
over 760 horsepower,
just shy of 1,170 foot-pounds.
The first pull, was that a short pull
just to make sure you were loading the truck up right?
- [Rich] Yeah, I effed up, honestly.
I was on my street tune and made that.
I didn't even spray it, there was nothing.
That was just fuel.
- [Brian] Well, we're glad the truck held together.
We'll see you at the drag strip tomorrow,
and now you get to relax,
and once we're done here, have a cold one with the boys.
- Hell yeah, man.
My heart's slowing down right so quickly.
Thank you.
- [Brian] Wisconsin's Patrick Whitcomb
driving a 2008 Ford F-450 dually
with a compound turbocharged 6.4 liter Powerstroke.
Patrick Whitcomb up in the catbird seat here
in his F-450.
My understanding is that you bought this thing brand new?
- [Patrick] Yes, that's correct.
- How soon after you bought it
did you start modifying it?
- As soon as they came out with something for it.
There wasn't even anything out when I got it.
I think I got a edge
right when they came out with it.
It was the first thing I did to it.
- [Brian] Talk to me about the induction setup on the truck.
What's the setup?
- I'm running a 66 millimeter VGT from Elite Diesel
and a 86 millimeter precision.
So, see what she can do.
- Last question before I let you get to work here.
What is the number that you're going to beat?
Not the crazy number, just what would you be happy with?
- I'd be happy to crack 1,000 horse uncorrected number.
(engine revs)
- [Brian] Patrick Whitcomb, you're smiling
because you exceeded your own expectations.
There's a saying the pilots have
is that you can never have too many engines
or too much fuel.
In your case, you can never have too many nitrous solenoids.
How did you jump this thing
almost 400 horse between pulls?
- In the first run, I knew that 700 horse wasn't accurate.
Kind of assumed the solenoids might not be opening up.
Jumped out, checked the bottle pressure.
Bottle pressure was full yet.
Pulled the lines off, the solenoids weren't opening.
Let some pressure out of the lines,
could only get one solenoid to open,
so I had a third solenoid set up on a momentary switch.
Switched the bigger jets over into that line,
and we made it work.
- [Brian] Wyoming's Levi Krech driving his
2006 Dodge Ram 2500,
powered by a compound turbocharged 6.4 Cummins Inline 6.
(dramatic music)
Rather than rushing into his first dyno pull,
Levi Krech and crew have decided
to go over the details, make a couple phone calls,
and make sure that this Dodge Ram is ready to roll.
Just talk to me about the truck,
how long you had it, and what's the setup?
- Honestly, we got this truck a year and a half ago
from Curtis Holmes.
He had some issues with it.
We took over the build.
Back in 2008, this was Corey Newliss's truck.
It was one, actually, of the first thousand
horsepower trucks in the nation, back, well, 2011.
- So, to be competitive here,
you got to throw up some big numbers.
You ready?
- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We ain't worried one bit, man, we're ready.
We're ready to send it.
- [Brian] The smile of a competent man, you got to love it.
(engine revs)
- It's not the number we were wanting,
especially with the nitrous on it.
We know it makes way more fuel-only
at our elevation in Gillette.
But like I said, man, this is Denver.
Anything can happen, so we're still going to send it, though.
- [Brian] With all of our competitors
having taken their fair shot at the dyno,
the top three shake out like this.
McCoy Black and the mechanically injected truck
leads all comers.
Tim Jahn came in second,
and Patrick Whitcomb rounds out the top three.
(engine revs)
- We were a little iffy
on how much we were going to start with.
We didn't go with as much nitrous
and everything as we could have,
but it made the number we wanted for sure.
There are a few other people we're a little worried about.
That's one of the benefits of going last
is you get to watch everyone else make their numbers
and know what you got to do.
So, it is what it is,
and I think we drew middle of the pack,
so it could have been worse, for sure, we could have been first.
- [Brian] Well, congratulations.
You got some wrenching to do this afternoon
working on that charging system,
and we'll see you at Bandimere Speedway tomorrow.
- [McCoy] Sounds good, looking forward to it.
- [Brian] Thanks, McCoy.
- It's a good day today.
It's a good day to be in this country
enjoying all this freedom.
- So that's it, we are done here at ATS Performance.
We have completed the dyno portion
of the 2017 Diesel Power Challenge presented by XDP.
We move onto Bandimere Speedway
and a whole new set of issues
for all of our competitors tomorrow.
It's all about the trucks, the drivers,
and brute force punishment on the 1/4 mile drag strip
at Bandimere Speedway.
(dramatic rock music)