RSK
Active member
It all started when I was 13 I think I saw some badass diesel on the cover on diesel power and was hooked, before that I was into turbo'd imports. I just read a lot about them and learned everything I could with one day actually owning one. well that never happened, because of my passion for diesel trucks. I had wanted a 6.0 at first. then the 6.4 since they came out in 2008 i didn't know much back then except i loved diesels and I wanted one. I was a broke college student going to Universal technical institute for auto/diesel to be certified in cummins and I was going to work at a cummins dealer. but about half way though I finally got a job in the industry, working at Mass diesel. I was only there for a week or two. I was doing oil changes, preventative maintenance, thermostats, easy jobs that were hard to screw up. I would have worked there longer, if I didn't drop out of school. Once I was back home, I continued doing landscaping like I had grown to love, and was ready to buy a truck, I wanted a ford 6.0 but ended up with a 97 cummins 5.9 probably better it worked out that way anyways. to make a long story short I built that cummins and few others I had a little, I dynoed it 5 or 6 times. throughout different stages, Installed head studs, changed the injectors, delivery valves, got the transmission built. It started out at 253whp/563ft lbs of torque with a 0 plate which cost me nothing, and I was on the stock transmission which was slipping, and stock these trucks put down around 149-150 rwhp hp not sure on torque. probably mid 300's
anyways after Installed head studs and a set of nasty injectors from Industrial injection that were very dirty. the truck put down 458/1053 uncorrected on the stock turbo with a built transmission a 8 months later I installed a rather large single on the truck, but due to my poor tuning it didn't spool that great, I had way too much fuel down low. I dynoed it with this setup it made 461whp/1363 ft lbs of torque because it didn't spool until almost 2000rpm or even higher but when it did light it was getting hit from a freight train at 60. It pulled pretty decent, audi s4's m3's mustangs were all no problem. fast forward to a few years ago and I bought my first ford in 2011 it was my 97 7.3. my buddies always picked on me for driving my unreliable dodge, they were rentless...and one of them who is very successful said if you wanna make money buy a ford. not knowing a whole lot about fords, and having parted out my built dodge from making friends with a telephone one labor day weekend I said *** it why not. And bought my 7.3 in the spring and worked the ever living piss out of it, and it has been quite reliable. No doubt's about it for the 3500 I paid for it with 238k I was very shocked at how much abuse it took and keeps taking, but it is and always has been maintained with an open check book. anyways. after making me over 350,000 since I owned it. and allowing me to upgrade all my equipment in business and buy everything a growing landscape company could want. I finally decided it was time and I was financially ready for newer truck, not too mention my 7.3 is a little tight on space and I'm 6'2. So i had my buddy who knows a lot of people start looking for my truck and found it, bought it, and now i'm here. the plans were to not work the truck, but I think i'm gonna have a hard time switching back to the 7.3.
anyways here's the goals for the truck, being to be a "back up" for my 7.3 if it ever is down. so it has to be able to tow/plow snow, and to hit 600whp with that being said here's the list:
dpf/cat delete-done
sct programmer with gear head tuning-done
no limit egr delete and cac pipe
no limit or afe cold air intake
hd push rods
hd valve springs
zmax jr intake manifold
arp head studs
hd up pipes
4 link the front end
2.5" springs up front
hell wig sway bars
5.5" block in the back so it keeps the factory rake
22" bmf's
37x12.50 toyo mt's
traction bars, not who's yet.....
fox 2.0's with resi's
wilwood 6 piston calipers and big brake kit up front
steel braided brake lines, so it stops good with the 37's on it.
76mm Atmosphere turbo-unsure of which turbo i'll actually run yet, but I have time to decide either the
Jr. High Power or the
Tow Power X
that about sums stage 1 of my build. I know it's most likely way over built for 600whp but I like to overboard and over build or over buy... "I may have too much power"
- said no one ever.
Stage 2 includes:
built transmission, billet flex plate, dpc triple disk converter, billet input, intermediate, and all the little hard parts inside that usually get replaced with more HD ones.
single 30% over hpfp, hopefully there is a reliable kit out in a year.
30% nozzles
after market lpfp
upgraded hp turbo- no idea which one i'm gonna go with yet, this is over a year down there road....
rods
ported heads
dual k16's
should run good once its all done.
any thoughts, comments, additions, suggestions are welcome.
here it is now, not much different, but front windows are tinted to match or close anyways.
recon smoked cab lights, I did the led mirror lights but not in this picture.
the head lights get baked in the oven and smoked, the grille will be getting changed, tail lights will be smoked, fender badges painted, and bumpers will be ptm. It should look pretty sick sitting 6" higher with the leveling kit and 37's on it. might do a 1 piece drive shaft as well.
anyways after Installed head studs and a set of nasty injectors from Industrial injection that were very dirty. the truck put down 458/1053 uncorrected on the stock turbo with a built transmission a 8 months later I installed a rather large single on the truck, but due to my poor tuning it didn't spool that great, I had way too much fuel down low. I dynoed it with this setup it made 461whp/1363 ft lbs of torque because it didn't spool until almost 2000rpm or even higher but when it did light it was getting hit from a freight train at 60. It pulled pretty decent, audi s4's m3's mustangs were all no problem. fast forward to a few years ago and I bought my first ford in 2011 it was my 97 7.3. my buddies always picked on me for driving my unreliable dodge, they were rentless...and one of them who is very successful said if you wanna make money buy a ford. not knowing a whole lot about fords, and having parted out my built dodge from making friends with a telephone one labor day weekend I said *** it why not. And bought my 7.3 in the spring and worked the ever living piss out of it, and it has been quite reliable. No doubt's about it for the 3500 I paid for it with 238k I was very shocked at how much abuse it took and keeps taking, but it is and always has been maintained with an open check book. anyways. after making me over 350,000 since I owned it. and allowing me to upgrade all my equipment in business and buy everything a growing landscape company could want. I finally decided it was time and I was financially ready for newer truck, not too mention my 7.3 is a little tight on space and I'm 6'2. So i had my buddy who knows a lot of people start looking for my truck and found it, bought it, and now i'm here. the plans were to not work the truck, but I think i'm gonna have a hard time switching back to the 7.3.
anyways here's the goals for the truck, being to be a "back up" for my 7.3 if it ever is down. so it has to be able to tow/plow snow, and to hit 600whp with that being said here's the list:
dpf/cat delete-done
sct programmer with gear head tuning-done
no limit egr delete and cac pipe
no limit or afe cold air intake
hd push rods
hd valve springs
zmax jr intake manifold
arp head studs
hd up pipes
4 link the front end
2.5" springs up front
hell wig sway bars
5.5" block in the back so it keeps the factory rake
22" bmf's
37x12.50 toyo mt's
traction bars, not who's yet.....
fox 2.0's with resi's
wilwood 6 piston calipers and big brake kit up front
steel braided brake lines, so it stops good with the 37's on it.
76mm Atmosphere turbo-unsure of which turbo i'll actually run yet, but I have time to decide either the
Jr. High Power or the
Tow Power X
that about sums stage 1 of my build. I know it's most likely way over built for 600whp but I like to overboard and over build or over buy... "I may have too much power"
- said no one ever.
Stage 2 includes:
built transmission, billet flex plate, dpc triple disk converter, billet input, intermediate, and all the little hard parts inside that usually get replaced with more HD ones.
single 30% over hpfp, hopefully there is a reliable kit out in a year.
30% nozzles
after market lpfp
upgraded hp turbo- no idea which one i'm gonna go with yet, this is over a year down there road....
rods
ported heads
dual k16's
should run good once its all done.
any thoughts, comments, additions, suggestions are welcome.
here it is now, not much different, but front windows are tinted to match or close anyways.
recon smoked cab lights, I did the led mirror lights but not in this picture.
the head lights get baked in the oven and smoked, the grille will be getting changed, tail lights will be smoked, fender badges painted, and bumpers will be ptm. It should look pretty sick sitting 6" higher with the leveling kit and 37's on it. might do a 1 piece drive shaft as well.
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