It's in the nature of the diesel enthusiast world for truck owners to try their hand in everything these days. Chad Remakel of Empire Diesel Performance epitomizes today's model diesel exhibitionist. He knows all too well that anyone who buys a diesel pickup, and is willing to put a little work into it, can have a 300-foot sled puller or a 12-second screamer in no time. And he will do anything to be competitive in the sports that have spawned out of the new-age diesel culture.
His truck began its life as a mild-mannered sled-pulling rig with only a chip, intake, and exhaust, but Chad soon turned this Duramax into a real fire-breather. His '02 Silverado is the perfect example of a high-horsepower diesel that pulls competitively and puts down some serious E.T.'s at the dragstrip. While he originally intended to compete solely in sled pulls, he's never thought twice about the possibility of trying to make one truck do both.
The first thing we noticed about Chad's Duramax was the location of the turbo under the hood. Normally mounted in the rear of the engine valley, his Duramax features a custom-built unit with a 2.92-inch diameter inducer mounted on the passenger side of the truck, which forced the truck into the 3.0-inch inducer class at Scheid's Diesel Extravaganza. According to Chad, the reasoning behind mounting the charger in this location serves two purposes: easier accessibility for swapping out turbo housings, and the possibility of running a twin setup in the future. He said the turbo pushes between 52-55 pounds of boost while drag racing, but is designed to handle 60-65 psi. Chad fabricated the turbo pedestal, all the plumbing, and the crossover tubes to make it work.
The engine internals consist of ported heads that Chad did himself, connecting rods from TTS, cut pistons, valves, valvesprings, and a custom cam from SoCal Diesel. In addition, billet main bearing caps from SoCal Diesel help keep the rotating assembly stable and PDR Diesel Performance supplied the high-flow oil pump.
 Notice the turbo's location....  Notice the turbo's location. Can we say room for twins? Internally, this Duramax gets a helping hand from TTS and SoCal Diesel, while custom tuning from Joe Komaromi of PPE, and fine-tuning from the use of EFILive dialed-in the truck's electronics. |  The turbo was built from the...  The turbo was built from the ground up by Extreme Machine of New York, and was designed to handle boost pressures in excess of 60 psi. |  A stainless steel fuel cell...  A stainless steel fuel cell in the bed holds 10 gallons of fuel. When we questioned Chad about the Power Stroke Nation sticker in the rear window (bottom left) he told us that Empire specializes in Power Strokes as well. |