Hello from Utah

[Boostjunky]

Hey guys, just wanted to introduce myself. I am the proud owner of a 2005 Dodge Ram QCSB CTD. I've owned this truck since mid 2007 and have thoroughly enjoyed it throughout the years. Of course, we've had our ups and downs, but it's led me to having a truck I would have never dreamed of having 5 years ago.

I will give a rundown of the trucks and my history, but for those who don't want to do a bunch of reading, here's a short list of how the truck is currently set up:

Engine mods:

Bored .020 over

Shaved and coated pistons

Brazilian 12v shot-peened/polished rods w/ARP fasteners

Balanced rotating assembly

14mm main studs w/gorilla girdle

DP1 Camshaft

110# DP valve springs

DP billet pushrods

Transmission:

Built transmission by RKL Diesel (Ryan Landfeld)

-TCS Billet input shaft

-ATS Billet flexplate

-TCS Torque Converter

-ATS Co-Pilot

Fuel system:

Vulcan Draw Straw V

Baldwin BF1212 fuel/water separator

Raptor 150 pump

CAT 1R-0750 2-micron fuel filter

-8 AN stainless braided fuel line from tank to engine bay (terminating at CAT fuel filter)

-6 AN stainless braided fuel line from CAT filter to CP3.

Industrial Injection "DragonFire" 85% over CP3

Industrial Injection 32 LPM "120 hp injectors"

Turbo Setup:

Industrial Injection twin kit (big turbo up top, rather than below)

62/65/14 "Phatshaft" high pressure turbo

BW S478 low pressure (atmospheric) turbo

65 psi boost peak

Best 1/4 mile run: 12.27 @ 111.7 MPH - RMR SLC, UT

- - - Updated - - -

To give a history on the truck and myself, I purchased the truck in mid 2007, at which time the only modifications it had were an Edge Juice w/Attitude (with HOT unlock), and a 64/65/12 turbo from Gillette Diesel. Otherwise, the rest was stock, including the poor transmission, which I knew would have to be replaced at some point in time of owning the truck.

I drove the truck this way for about 8 months when it happened. The transmission finally gave up the ghost, and I don’t blame it one bit. I was a bit harsh on it at times. At this time, I contacted a friend who had connections with both ATS and Suncoast. He persuaded me to go with ATS due to having “better warranty service” than Suncoast had. So, we ordered up an ATS Stage IV package, which included a billet flex plate, billet torque converter, ATS co-pilot, a billet input shaft, and the other typical odds and ends of a built transmission.

After getting the transmission installed and taking it for a spin, I was floored at how much bettter the truck felt with a built transmission behind it. It just got up and went. No more slipping, and plenty of power getting to the ground.

After a short while of having the new transmission installed, I decided I wanted a bit more power out of the truck. My frined had an Edge EZ module kicking around that he decided he didn’t want to use on his truck, so I picked it up from him for a steal! Slapped it on the truck, and felt a small increase in power. Nothing to write home about, but I decided to leave it on there, anyway.

Not long after that, I decided it was finally time to try out the Smarty, which had rave reviews from all those who had ever tried it. I ordered up the POD version (thinking I’d use the Power on Demand feature frequenely - silly me…), and started playing the moment it arrived. I tried out all the Smarty REVO software and settings, and felt I could just never get it to put down the same power it had with the Edge Juice on HOT. So, off I went to download the TNT tunes. After loading up TNT SW7, I finally had found something that felt as good, and better, than the Edge Juice on HOT felt. I was living high on the hog!

After some time with this setup, about mid 2009 during a camping trip, I was showing off to some friends (as we young, dumb guys tend to do) just how fast this bad boy was. When before I knew it, I had a miss that suddenly reared its ugly head. Thinking about what was done to the truck, my mind immediately jumped to the conclusion that the Edge EZ had probably pushed the pressure too high, and cracked one of my injectors.

At the time, I didn't know how serious an issue like this could be, so I drove the truck home. After getting it home, I called one of my Diesel buddies who was fairly knowledgeable on these trucks to get some pointers for diagnostics. He asked me to check my oil to see if the level was higher than normal, which I found it wasn't. He said I might have internal damage to the engine, so I sourced a compression tester to check if one of the cylinders had low compression. Sure enough, Cylinder 1 was very weak. Time to pop the head off and check out what's going on.

I removed the cylinder head and found a scored cylinder wall. A broken compression ring (the top ring) was the cause. That started making some sense to me, as I had noticed that during a cold winter startup, there was a slight miss for a few seconds, after which it would clear up. Again, at the time, I had thought maybe it was just a bum injector, but it stands to reason that it was a cracked ring that would “seal up” after heat expansion settled in. Well, time for a rebuild. But, with this automotive curse of mine, I couldn't just leave it to a simple rebuild. No, no, no. I had to make sure this thing was going to hold together for a long time. So, I started talking with Industrial Injection.

We went over my power goals and opted for a fresh set of oversized pistons that would be shaved for added clearance, then coated on the crown and skirts for thermal and friction improvements. The rods were to be the Brazilian 12v rods, shot peened and polished with upgraded fasteners. The block was to be strengthened with 14mm main studs and a Gorilla Girdle. We decided an aftermarket camshaft was in order as well, and went with a moderate stage 1 Diesel Pros grind that wouldn't require flycutting the pistons. To support the extra lift/duration of the cam, and the potential of turning 4000RPM, a set of 110# valve springs were purchased as well as Diesel Pros billet pushrods.

After getting the bottom end all figured out, it was time to upgrade the fuel system, as it had been absolutely stock up to this point. For injectors, we decided on some 120 hp tips on Industrial's remanufactured bodies (more on that decision later). For the injection pump, we opted for the "Dragonfire" 85% over CP3. For the lift pump system, I purchased all the stainless braided hoses and -AN fittings from Summit Racing, and built it from scratch in my driveway. It utilizes a CAT 1R-0750 2-micron absolute filter, and a Baldwin BF1212 water/fuel seperator which has a rating of around 98% free water separation, and about 93% emulsified water seperation. A Raptor 150 returnless pump is used to pump the fuel, and fuel is drawn through a Vulcan Draw Straw version V. The supply line is -8 from the tank to the fuel/water separator, -8 from there to the pump, -8 from the pump to the CAT filter which takes the place of the factory fuel filter under the hood, then -6 from that filter to the CP3.

After getting the engine back from Industrial Injection, it was time to install the ARP 625+ studs, slap the head on, and torque it all down. After that, and after installing all the fuel system components onto the motor, time to stab her in. It was a pretty daunting task, both pulling the motor and reinstalling it, as I had recently suffered from a dirt bike accident where I had broken my right elbow, and it was currently in a brace on its way to recovery, but we got it all done anyway.

Before putting the turbo on the truck, I decided it would be beneficial while I was in there to replace the stock exhaust manifold with an upgraded unit, so in went a BD 3rd gen style manifold to keep things simple.

After getting the engine installed, and the truck back on the road, I broke it in with moderate load before giving it full kill mode. After a few short runs on full kill, I went to check the health of the turbo, and noticed that the 64/65/12 had a bit more shaft play than I would have liked. The poor thing, it was being murdered slowly with all the fuel I was throwing at it. So, time for a new turbo. I opted for the Industrial Injection Silver Bullet (66/74/14). I slapped that bad boy on there, and it was time to boogie! The turbo ended up being quite a bit slower to light, but when she lit, hold on, buddy! Thing flat out moved!

We threw the truck on the dyno at Industrial to see where we were at, and put down 724 whp and over 1500 lbs/ft of torque. These were corrected numbers using the SAE correction, which at our elevation and given our air quality, was around a 1.15 correction factor. So, taking away the correction, that put the truck around 630 whp and around 1350 wtq. With the new found power, I took off to the local drag strip, and laid down a best of 12.4 @ 108 MPH. Not bad for a heavy, moving billboard.

But now, there was a new problem. EGTs were off the charts HOT!!! Going down the strip would net in a pegged EGT gauge at over 1700°. This just wouldn’t do. I dealt with it for quite some time, as funds were just too tight to jump ship to a twin setup, and I was dating my soon to become wife. So, finances were not going to be getting much better any time soon.

We married in April of 2010, and not long after (about 3 months), it was time to order up the twin turbos I had been dreaming about. I traded my Silver Bullet 66/74/14 in for a 62/74/14 (I was wanting to downsize the turbine to improve spool up, but the guys at II were insistant that the Silver 62 would spool just fine… let’s just be clear, everybody has a different definition of “just fine”…), and had an S478 spec’d for the low pressure charger.

Now I was ready to take on the world!!! Hahaha! Not really. The new twin setup improved the EGTs considerably, dropping them down to peaking at around 1500° on a similar driving pattern where I would previously peg my gauge at 1700+° (who knows how hot she really got… could have been hitting 1900 for all I know). Still hot, but better, nonetheless. I took the truck to the track expectiing huge improvements, but was slightly dissappointed when I only picked up 3.5 MPH, and only dropped about 2 tenths of a second. My pass, a 12.27 @ 111.7 MPH. Still, it was fun and fast for a pickup.

I drove the truck with that configuration for a couple years, when I made another trip to the same place where I blew the engine up. On the way home, with a small 14’ aluminum boat in tow, I decided to accelerate a little bit (you know, to impress…), and the power suddenly STOPPED! The transmission let go. The symptoms were indicitave of a broken input shaft. After pulling the transmission, my suspicions were confirmed. Now, I will admit, I was quite discouraged at the point. If this ATS trans with a billet input shaft couldn’t hold up, then what’s the point!?!?

Then I met Ryan Landfeld of RKL Diesel. He assured me that, even though the ATS shaft was billet, it was among his least favorite billet shafts available on the market, and that it had, of all the offerings, the smallest overall diamter of any of them. So, I brought the transmission to him and had him do a full build on it. Nothing crazy, and a heck of a lot cheaper on the pocket book than purchasing the ATS transmission. Again, we went with a billet input shaft (This time a TCS unit), a TCS torque converter (as the ATS converter was damaged when the input shaft failed), and again, the typical odds and ends of a transmission build.

Since getting the transmission back from Ryan and installing it in the truck, it has been a great, reliable truck, although I’ll admit, I have gotten fairly gun shy about getting after it in fear of breaking something else. Still, I love the truck, and it puts a smile on my face each and every time I drive it.

I mentioned earlier that I would expand upon the Injector selection. I have my suspicions that these injectors are likely the cause of such high EGTs and excessive smoke. At this point, they are about 4 years old, and according to Industrial Injection themselves, there have been SIGNIFICANT improvements in their newer Injector offerings, as well as the injector offerings from most the aftermarket in general. So, plans are to eventually swap these injectors out for something maybe slightly larger (100% overs [approx. 200 hp] will probably be the largest I go), and by someone who has a considerably higher base of “satisfied customers” than Industrial seems to have these days.

I also have plans afoot to change up the twin setup in the near future. I would like to sell off the Industrial Injection 3^rd gen style kit, and build a traditional 2^nd gen style setup with the use of a T4 Stainless Diesel manifold, a BW FMW62 turbo that has the 68mm (exducer) turbine wheel with a non-gated .83 T4 housing, and use twin external gates to route the excess exhaust over to the primary, which I hope to make an S480 with a FI 92mm (inducer) turbine wheel (rather than the standard 96mm inducer wheel they come off the shelf with), and a 1.10 a/r T6 housing. I feel this setup should still provide adequate spool up characteristics (research on various forums shows that people are still able to achieve 10 psi by 1500 RPM with over 40 psi by 1700 – 1800 RPM with the FMW62/68/.83 T4), a broader powerband with having the primary come on a little quicker than the current S478/96/1.32 (due to the smaller turbine wheel and housing) while keeping drive pressure at a minimum – I expect it should be no higher than 1.2:1 in the upper RPMs, which is where it currently sits.

Maybe one day EFI Live will come out for the SCI (03-05) trucks, but I’m not holding my breath. I’ve been researching ways of piggybacking an 06 PCM onto an 05 truck to run the engine, while still maintaining a functional dash display by keeping the 05 PCM connected, as well.

Anyway, thanks for having me. Sorry if the read was too long/boring, but I had plenty of time on my hands while the wife is away and I’m watching the kid. HAHAHAHA! Glad to be on board!

[98whitelightnin]

Welcome bud, sounds like a fun truck! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

[JAG1]

Thanks for the truck story. I enjoyed reading it.

[dripley]

Quite a truck and story. Welcome.

[YabbaDoo]

Welcome!!! Loved the story and look forward to hearing more!!! Your Truck sounds Awesome!!

[CSM]

Welcome. Oil patch perhaps? Vernal?

[Boostjunky]

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone. It's been quite the adventure with the old girl. Glad you guys enjoyed story time.I live in Magna, UT, and work for Hexcel Corporation (formerly known as Hercules) in the Carbon Fiber Production lines. Been there nearly 10 years, now.

[CSM]

Cool. I have been to Vernal, Roosevelt, etc. quite a bit for work. I see some trucks like yours in the neighborhood.