Recently, we rolled out an immense improvement to our life, one we had been tingling to accomplish for a long time: We moved out of southern California, where we were brought up, to northern Idaho.

 

All the things we were anxious about quickly wound up fun difficulties.  All these things have become SOP with just a month under our belt, and so far we love it. 

 

As far as diesel is concerned, one of the most illuminating things we've gotten to appreciate is the structure of diesel race trucks. For UCC, we've had the option to stick around as a vehicle was rebuilt and tested

 

UCC is Diesel's Super Bowl. While we have to keep mystery which truck we got the opportunity to be hands-on with until after UCC, it finished in the best five at UCC a year ago.

 

It's not easy to get to that point of competition, to be able to say you're one of North America's best five diesel production trucks. It's something that takes a little fortune to drag off, and you don't need to spend cash once — to remain focused. You would like to keep improving and eventually keep investing, every year and all through the season as well.

 

For those of us who would like to bring our 300-strong rear-wheel-horsepower trucks to 600, 800 or even 1,000 hp, it could be costly. Taking a vehicle (truck) from 2,000 to 2,400 hp is more difficult and expensive. So, you have a means that does 10s in the quarter-mile; great! You have one of just a bunch of rigs out there fit for this.

 

It's a unique game to get into the low 9s, 8s, or even 7s. Once at that 2,000 hp level, it is a daunting task to add just 75 hp. Such engines operate at 2,000 hp on the ragged edge of what they can do. They will break frequently; it's a given.

 

It's great to get a few seasons off a $50k+ bottom end. Many are not going to get close to it.  And that's the bottom of it. There are turbos, pumps for injection, rear ends, tires, intercoolers that probably haven't happened in the previous season. What's more, these turbos aren't at $800 a pop for your standard BW-S366. Nope, it's variations of $6k, and there's always more than one. There are often three today.

 

Observing this truck during testing has been a genuine eye-opener. Most of the first few hits on the dyno were with the system of last year but checking a new setup wastegate. We only went for 2,000 hp of petrol. After several dyno hits and separate live tuning sessions, the system did not function properly and generated so much drive pressure that it overshadowed everything added to the engine's output by a boosted air charge. Once that setup had been changed to the best it could be, we had an eighth-hour week gone.

 

Things looked better after another week of work getting the chargers plumbed in and prepared for a dyno pull. Instead, after a few test hits and modifications, the sections used for testing alone — mainly the load pipes — were unable to withstand the 150 psi of boost they received. It is not easy to build tubing that handles this type of pressure and requires very costly stainless-steel tubing. The Street Truck's mild grade will not come indeed near to cutting it. At this level, the tooling, alongside individuals with the abilities to draw off this work, are rare.

 

Now, over the turbo issues, we'd seen CP3 pullies turning on the pole, causing low fuel pressure; pass up frameworks giving us falsehood; tires turning on the dyno giving us more deception; thus substantially more. And when playing in the big leagues, that's usual.

 

It's done with thousands of small tweaks and even more hiccups to win races at this stage. It's a real love job, and it's got to be — or else you'd lose your mind.

 

Our level of respect has never been higher for these guys. All we've told you about here isn't even going to give you the smallest glimpse of what it takes to compete at the top of the game. We wish you could all spend a month seeing what it takes. You'd be fascinated, we tell you. These guys are on a level that 99 percent of us will never be able to even comprehend, and it's incredible to watch.

 

We're going to see you this season on the road!

 

You'll get more interesting articles on this issue like Tow all the things, Greatest showman -Diesel Performance Industry's 2018 F350 build, Josh Matthew's journey into the diesel truck world and on and on!

 

To know more, order Diesel World July 2019 issue on Engaged Media site!