"I'm rather humble, for the most part, and don't like to be blowing my own horn too much," 55-year-old Scheid said recently. "I've been knocked down too many times to toot my own horn too much. the reality checks come back to haunt you too many times."
Those who work with Dan Scheid and run his engines are less reserved "Without Scheid involved, you're probably five years behind times," said Jimmy Smith, who runs a Scheid engine in his diesel drag truck in the Diesel Hot Rod Association.
LONG BEFORE THE CUMMINS-POWERED DODGE RAM
The year was 1970. Scheid, a recent high school graduate, started out at what he called a "small shop" in Evansville, Indiana, with a company that was doing high-performance work in tractor-pulling with water-injection and fuel-injection systems.
Scheid worked in Evansville until his father's death in 1977. He took care of his father's farm in Plainville, Indiana, for two years until 1979 when he opened the first Scheid Diesel Injection Service in his hometown of Plainville.
"We just opened it up in an old farmhouse we had," Scheid said. "[Competition] wasn't even a thought in my mind at that time. they didn't even have the diesel pickup trucks to the extent they do now. Obviously, the General Motors 5.7Ls were out there at that particular time-the Oldsmobile engine, but that didn't amount to anything to go to this extent, anyway."