Abandoned Shop Truck Turned Diesel Dragster

Brett Williams is one of the VPs of Industrial Injection at Salt Lake City, Utah. If you haven’t heard of the crew at Industrial Injection, they’re one of the leading diesel performance experts in the industry today, and this story is about their VP’s diesel, a Duramax drag truck. While it’s not the first diesel he’s ever driven, it’s the first Duramax he’s owned.

Back Up

The story behind this truck is that the previous owner brought it into the shop for repair work. That owner then abandoned the rig, as the needed repairs were more than he wanted to spend. An offer was made, and a project was born.

Originally this 2001 was slated to be a shop truck, but on tear down it was discovered that the trouble went deeper than just a new set of injectors. A broken head bolt made it clear that the engine needed to get pulled. One thing lead to another and this former daily driver was on it its path of transformation.

Metamorphosis

The first order of business was performing a full race build on the engine. This included a Winburg billet crank, Carrilo Rods, forged pistons and some Industrial Injection ported heads and their alternate firing order camshaft.  The engine was mated to a 48RE automatic conversion, and a Sun Coast torque converter with a 3,000 rpm stall speed was utilized; a Precision air shifter was added to control the gear selection.

The story behind this truck is that the previous owner brought it into the shop for repair work. That owner then abandoned the rig, as the needed repairs were more than he wanted to spend. An offer was made to buy the truck, and a project was born.

On the body side, the original 2001 extended cab was retained, but it was stripped of everything but the dash. A cage from Rollover Motorsports was installed, as well as a set of Corbeau seats with 5-point belts. The bed was also removed, but the truck retained its original look, with a set of fiberglass bed sides.  Other weight-saving measures include the use of a fiberglass hood and front fenders.

Other upgrades to the suspension and driveline include Rancho 9000 shocks, Stainless Steel Brakes Tri-Power brake setup, Yukon Grizzly rear locker, Cal Trac traction bars, PPE Center Link, Cognito front A-arms, Flex-a-Lite cooling fans and Twin FASS 260 GPM lift pumps. On the fuel side, the team also installed triple Dragon Fire injection pumps, Cobre 1100 cc injectors, and a Nitros Express system NO2 system. The tuning is handled with an Edge CST with ESA data logger and EFI live, and a custom tune was made by Starlite Diesel. On the exhaust side, we find PPE exhaust manifolds and up-pipes, with custom piping into the 5-inch MBPR hood stack.

How Does it Stack Up?

This truck pumps out an estimated 2,000 hp and 3.000 lb-ft at 5,000 rpm. (These figures are an estimation based on the diesel routinely maxing out the in-house dyno at Industrial Injection, these numbers being the highest they can accurately record.)

It took a little over three years to build, but it was worth the effort. Many helped Brett with the build: Dallas Hunt, Chavis Fryer and many of the Industrial Injection employees. Now the team can proudly kick back as the truck roars down the track, often racing competitively and stealing the win. With 158 mph as the top speed, ¼ mile ETs at a consistent 9.63 seconds, this truck is a winner. DW